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THE 


WORKS 


OF 


JOHN   ADAMS, 


SECOND  PRESIDENT   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES 


WITH 


A     LIFE      OF     THE     AUTHOR, 

NOTES   AND  ILLUSTRATIONS, 

BY 
HIS    GRANDSON  . 
CHARLES    FRANCIS    ADAMS. 

VOL.   II. 


BOSTON: 

CHARLES   C.    LITTLE   AND   JAMES   BROWN. 

1850. 


1 30*  I 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1850,  by  Charles  C.  Little  and 
James  Brown,  in  the  Clerk's  office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


CAMBRIDGE: 

STEREOTYPED     AND     PRINTED    BY 

BOLLES    A?»l>    HOUGHTON- 


PREFACE. 


A  Diary  is  the  record  in  youth  of  a  man's  sentiments,  in  mid- 
dle life,  of  his  action,  and  of  his  recollections  in  age.  To  others, 
it  can  be  interesting  only  if  it  have  impressed  upon  it  the  stamp 
of  strong  individual  character.  But  with  this  as  a  substratum, 
notices  of  striking  scenes,  of  extraordinary  events  and  noted 
contemporaries,  may  be  superadded  to  form  a  memorial  worth 
transmitting  to  posterity. 

The  fragments  now  published  can  scarcely  be  said  to  fill  up 
this  idea ;  yet,  beginning  as  they  do  with  the  writer's  entrance 
into  responsible  life,  and  extending  through  a  large  part  of  a 
great  career,  they  may  be  considered  as  in  a  measure  supersed- 
ing the  necessity  of  an  elaborate  biography.  Perhaps  the  pro- 
priety of  the  insertion  of  so  large  a  portion  of  the  early  entries 
may  be  questioned.  The  answer  is,  that  they  go  far  to  effect 
the  main  object  of  showing  character.  The  moral  and  medita- 
tive cast  of  the  author's  mind  is  thus  laid  open  at  an  age  when 
that  of  most  men  is  yet  slowly  gaining  maturity.  The  leading 
principle  of  his  life  may  thus  be  easily  traced  by  those  fond  of 
psychological  investigations,  from  his  first  theological  investiga- 
tions, through  his  legal  studies,  and  still  more  strikingly,  his 
early  practice,  into  the  mental  habits  which  formed  the  politi- 
cian and  the  statesman.  Incidental  to  this,  and  accessary  to  it, 
are  the  pictures  of  domestic  life  in  New  England  during  a 
period  which  has  been  somewhat  overshadowed  by  the  superior 
interest  attaching  to  earlier  and  to  later  times.  Puritan  Massa- 
chusetts, whilst  dropping  much  of  her  early  religious  bigotry, 


vi  PREFACE. 

was  yet  nursing  in  the  French  wars  the  stern  qualities  that 
carried  her  successfully  through  the  fiery  trial  of  the  Revolution. 
She  contained  one,  whilst  Virginia  furnished  the  other,  of  the 
two  germs  of  public  sentiment  which  have  since  spread  exten- 
sively over  this  continent,  and  which  bid  fair  yet  to  develop 
themselves  indefinitely.  To  these  two  types  of  mind  all  classes 
of  American  opinion  may  be  ultimately  reduced.  The  state  of 
society  through  which  the  first  of  these  was  evolved,  until  from 
a  religious  it  took  a  political  direction,  and  the  influences 
through  which  the  change  was  shaped,  gain  much  illustration 
from  the  following  pages. 

The  broken  and  partial  nature  of  this  Diary  is  the  circum- 
stance most  to  be  regretted  about  it.  As  the  time  advances 
towards  the  most  interesting  events  in  the  Revolution,  the  record 
becomes  less  and  less  satisfactory.  It  is  a  great  disadvantage 
attending  even  the  most  regularly  kept  of  such  works,  that  just 
in  proportion  to  the  engrossing  interest  of  the  action  in  which 
the  writer  finds  himself  engaged,  is  the  physical  inability  to 
command  the  leisure  necessary  to  describe  it.  Thus  it  hap- 
pens in  the  present  case,  that  the  sketches  sometimes  stop  just 
when  the  reader  would  have  them  begin,  and  at  other  times  no 
notice  whatever  is  taken  of  events  which  are  the  most  promi- 
nent .  in  the  life  of  the  writer.  Yet,  after  making  all  suitable 
deductions  from  the  value  of  these  papers  on  this  account,  it  is 
believed  that  much  is  left  richly  to  reward  perusal,  particularly 
since  some  of  the  most  marked  instances  of  deficiency  are 
compensated  for  by  resorting  to  the  reminiscences  of  a  later 
period.  The  passages  from  an  autobiography  are  not  indeed 
entitled  to  claim  quite  so  high  ground  on  the  score  of  au- 
thority in  matters  of  fact  as  the  contemporaneous  record,  but 
they  merit  attention  as  well  on  account  of  the  superior  anima- 
tion of  the  style  as  of  the  circumstance  that  they  do  supply 
some  of  the  details  that  are  wanting  in  the  other.  Even  on  the 
score  of  accuracy,  the  papers  of  other  persons  treating  of  the 
same  events,  which  have  since  found  their  way  to  the  light,  go 


PREFACE.  vii 

a  great  way  to  establish  the  substantial  truth  of  the  narrative 
from  memory.  A  good  degree  of  credit  may  therefore  be  con- 
fidently assigned  to  it,  even  though  we  admit  that  it  belongs 
to  a  different  class  of  evidence.  Whilst  the  editor  has  endea- 
vored, so  far  as  it  may  be  done,  to_unite  in  the  present  volume, 
the  substance  of  the  Autobiography  with  the  Diary,  he  has  care- 
fully tried  to  keep  the  two  so  distinct  as  to  furnish  to  the  criti- 
cal reader  every  opportunity  to  distinguish  the  nature  of  the 
testimony.  Twenty-five  or  thirty  years  can  pass  over  the  head 
of  no  man  without  affecting  the  exactness  of  his  recollection 
of  events.  If  we  consider  how  small  a  share  of  the  public  doc- 
uments now  at  the  command  of  every  one,  was  readily  accessi- 
ble, or  was  actually  consulted  in  the  year  when  the  Autobiogra- 
phy was  written,  the  wonder  is  rather  at  the  tenacity  than  the 
failure  of  the  writer's  memory. 

The  editor  has  sought  to  avoid  burdening  the  text  with  anno- 
tation. Yet  so  rapidly  does  time  obliterate  the  traces  of  local 
names  and  history,  and  particularly  after  periods  of  civil  convul- 
sion, that  occasional  explanation  seems  required  to  smooth  the 
way  for  the  general  reader.  In  performing  this  duty,  it  is 
always  difficult  to  reach  the  golden  mean,  and  particularly  in 
American  annals,  where  the  extent  to  which  an  acquaintance 
with  details  can  be  presumed  is  so  unsettled.  Of  late,  the 
greatly  increased  attention  paid  to  this  subject  tends  to  justify 
the  inference  that  much  may  be  taken  for  granted  as  now  well 
understood.  Yet  the  smallest  examination  of  many  of  the  pop- 
ular works  of  the  day  will  suffice  to  show  that  almost  as  much 
still  remains  to  be  elucidated.  The  omission  to  note  the 
change  wrought  by  the  revolution  in  the  classification  of  the 
social  system  has  already  done  something  to  obscure  the  history 
of  political  opinion  during  the  first  stage  of  free  government. 
Neither  is  the  relative  advance  of  the  respective  Colonies  in 
the  course  of  the  struggle,  or  the  nature  of  the  difficulties  pecu- 
liar to  each,  generally  comprehended.  To  acquire  right  notions 
on  these  matters,  it  is  necessary  to  ascend  some  distance  for  a 


viii  l'REFACE. 

starting  point.  Every  thing  that  can  illustrate  the  state  of 
opinion,  of  manners,  and  of  habits,  prior  to  the  year  1776,  is  of 
some  value  to  the  right  conception  of  what  has  happened  since. 
Guided  by  this  idea,  the  editor  has  taken  the  liberty,  either  to 
supply  such  explanatory  matter  as  he  deemed  likely  to  be  of 
use  to  the  curious,  or,  where  he  did  not,  to  indicate  as  briefly  as 
possible  jiie  sources  in  which  fuller  information  may  be  readily 
obtained. 

It  is  proper,  in  cases  of  publication  like  this,  to  define  the 
extent  to  which  it  has  been  carried.  The  editor  has  suppressed 
or  altered  nothing  in  the  Diary,  which  might  be  considered  as 
bearing  either  against  the  author  himself,  or  against  any  other 
person,  for  that  reason  alone.  Wherever  any  omission  has  been 
made,  it  has  been  from  other  motives  than  those  of  fear  or  favor. 
The  main  purpose  has  been  to  present  to  the  public  a  fair  and 
unbiased  picture  of  the  mind  and  heart  of  an  individual,  so  far 
as  this  may  be  supposed  to  command  any  interest.  To  do  this, 
it  is  as  necessary  to  retain  the  favorable  or  unfavorable  opinions 
expressed  of  men,  including  himself,  as  those  of  things  or  of 
events.  No  true,  honestly  written  Diary  can  be  regarded  as  in 
itself  a  correct  general  history.  It  is  good  always  as  biography, 
often  as  furnishing  materials  for  history,  and  that  just  in  propor- 
tion as  it  appears  on  its  face  never  to  have  been  written  or  pre- 
pared for  publication.  But  if  this  be  true,  it  is  obviously  per- 
verting its  character  to  attempt  to  make  patchwork  of  it,  by 
selecting  to  be  seen  only  such  passages  as  show  a  single  side. 
Rather  than  this,  it  were  wise  not  to  publish  at  all.  The  effect 
is  to  make  an  opinion  for  the  reader  instead  of  allowing  him  to 
form  one  for  himself,  to  control  rather  than  to  develop  his  judg- 
ment. In  the  present  instance  at  least,  the  fact  may  be  relied 
on,  that  no  experiment  of  the  kind  has  been  tried.  The  reader 
is  more  likely  to  feel  disposed  to  find  fault  with  being  supplied 
beyond  his  wants  than  with  having  less  than  he  might  get. 

This  volume  embraces  all  of  the  Diary  written  prior  to  Feb- 
ruary, 1778,  the  period  of  the  writer's  first  departure  for  Europe  ; 


PREFACE.  \K 

but  that  portion  of  the  Autobiography  covering  his  Congress- 
ional life  is  barely  commenced.  It  likewise  includes  all  the 
notes  taken  of  debates  in  the  Continental  Congress  which  the 
editor  has  been  able  to  find.  The  meagre  and  unsatisfactory 
nature  of  these  would  forbid  their  publication,  if  it  were  not  for 
the  circumstance  that  they  constitute  almost  the  sole  remaining 
memorial  of  the  kind  that  has  come  down  to  us.  Imperfect  as 
they  are,  it  is  believed  that  they  will  serve  to  throw  some  light 
upon  the  civil  history,  or  that  portion  which  is  least  understood, 
of  the  great  contest. 


For  the  purpose  of  clearly  distinguishing  the  passages  of  the  Autobiography 
from  the  Diary,  they  are,  in  all  cases,  marked  with  brackets  at  each  end  of  the 
extract ;  and,  when  so  brief  as  to  be  placed  among  the  foot  notes  under  the  text, 
they  are  indicated  by  an  asterisk,  instead  of  the  small  numerals  prefixed  to  the 
editor's  explanations. 


CONTENTS   OF   VOLUME   II, 


PAGE 

I.  Diary,  avith  Passages  from  an  Autobiography       ...      1 

II.  Notes  of  Debates  in  the  Continental  Congress,  in  1775 

and  1776 445 

HI.  Autobiography 503 


APPENDIX. 

A.  Notes   of   the   Argument  of  Counsel  in  the  Cause  of 

Writs  of  Assistance,  and  of  the  Speech  of  James 
Otis.     1761 521 

B.  Notes  of  the  Argument  in  Defence,  and  Statement  of 

Authorities  in  the  Cause,  of  Michael  Corbet  and 
Others,  charged  with  the  Murder  of  Lieutenant 
Panton.     1769 o2G 

C     Original  Draught  of  the  Declaration  of  Rights  and  of 

Grievances,  made  by  the  Congress  of  1774  .        .        .        .  535 


DIARY: 


WITH      PASSAGES     FROM     AN 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 


DIARY. 


These  are  loose  fragments  of  journal  in  the  hand-writing  of  John  Adams 
upon  scraps  of  paper  scarcely  legible,  from  18  November,  1755,  to  20  Novem- 
ber, 1761.  They  were  effusions  of  mind,  committed  from  time  to  time  to  paper, 
probably  without  the  design  of  preserving  them;  self-examinations  at  once 
severe  and  stimulative ;  reflections  upon  others,  sometimes,  not  less  severe  upon 
his  friends ;  thoughts  such  as  occur  to  all,  some  of  which  no  other  than  an  unsul- 
lied soul  would  commit  to  writing,  mingled  with  conceptions  at  once  compre- 
hensive and  profound.  J«  Q-  A- 


1755.  November  18.  We  had  a  very  severe  shock  of  an 
earthquake.  It  continued  near  four  minutes.  I  then  was  at  my 
father's  in  Braintree,  and  awoke  out  of  my  sleep  in  the  midst  of 
it.  The  house  seemed  to  rock  and  reel  and  crack,  as  if  it 
would  fall  in  ruins  about  us.  Chimneys  were  shattered  by  it 
within  one  mile  of  my  father's  house.1 


* 


1  This  is  the  first  entry,  and  is  printed  because  it  seems  to  have  originated  the 
plan  of  a  Diary.  It  refers  to  one  of  the  most  memorable  events  of  the  kind 
which  ever  took  place.  The  destruction  of  the  city  of  Lisbon  occurred  on  the 
first  day  of  this  month.  Although  less  severe  in  its  effects  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  it  is  yet  remembered  as  the  worst  ever  known  in  English  America.  "  It 
seems  to  have*  been  greater  in  Massachusetts  than  any  other  colony.  In  Boston, 
many  chimneys  and  walls  of  houses  were  much  shattered,  but  no  house  thrown 
down."     The  government  noticed  it  by  appointing  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer. 

*  [In  the  public  exercises  at  Commencement  I  was  somewhat  remarked  as  a 
respondent,  and  Mr.  Maccarty,  of  Worcester,  who  was  empowered  by  the  select- 
men of  that  town  to  procure  them  a  Latin  master  for  the  grammar  school,  engag- 
ed me  to  undertake  it.  About  three  weeks  after  Commencement  in  1755, 
when  I  was  not  yet  twenty  years  of  age,  a  horse  was  sent  me  from  Worcester, 
and  a  man  to  attend  me.  We  made  the  journey,  about  sixty  miles,  in  one  day, 
and  I  entered  on  my  office. 

For  three  months  I  boarded  with  one  Greene,  at  the  expense  of  the  town, 
and  by  the  arrangement  of  the  selectmen.  Here  I  found  Morgan's  Moral 
Philosopher,  which  I  was  informed  had  circidated  with  some  freedom  in  that 
town,  and  that  the  principles  of  Deism  had  made  considerable  progress  among 
persons  in  that  and  other  towns  in  the  county.] 


4  DIARY.  [1756. 

1756.  January  16.  Reading  Hutcheson's  Introduction  to 
Moral  Philosophy.     Dined  with  Major  Chandler.* 

18.   Sunday.     Heard  Mr.  Maccarty.1 

February  11.  I  am  constantly  forming,  but  never  executing 
good  resolutions.  I  take  great  pleasure  in  viewing  and  examining 
the  magnificent  prospects  of  Nature  that  lie  before  us  in  this 
town.  If  I  cast  my  eyes  one  way,  I  am  entertained  with  the 
savage,  unsightly  appearance  of  naked  woods,  and  leafless  for- 
ests. In  another  place  a  chain  of  broken  and  irregular  moun- 
tains throws  my  mind  into  a  pleasing  kind  of  astonishment. 
But  if  I  turn  myself  round,  I  perceive  a  wide,  extensive  tract 
before  me  made  up  of  woods  and  meadows,  wandering  streams 
and  barren  plains,  covered  in  various  places  by  herds  of  grazing 
cattle  and  terminated  by  the  distant  view  of  the  town. 2 

12.  Thursday.  Heard  Mr.  Welman  preach  the  lecture,  and 
drank  tea  with  him  at  home ;  where  he  made  this  observation, 
namely,  that  "  Dr.  Mayhew  was  a  smart  man,  but  he  embraced 
some  doctrines  not  generally  approved."  3 

13.  Friday.  Supped  at  Major  Gardiner's,  and  engaged  to 
keep  school  at  Bristol,  provided  Worcester  people  at  their  ensu- 
ing March  meeting  should  change  this  into  a  moving  school,4 
not  otherwise.  Major  Greene  this  evening  fell  into  some  con- 
versation with  me  about  the  Divinity  and  satisfaction  of  Jesus 
Christ.     All  the  argument  he  advanced  was,  "  that  a  mere  crea- 

1  The  Rev.  Thaddeus  Maccarty,  pastor  of  the  first  parish  of  Worcester  for  thir- 
ty-seven years,  and  the  person  who  engaged  the  writer  to  come  to  AYorcester. 
In  the  Autobiography  he  is  mentioned  with  respect  and  esteem.  He  had 
been  driven  from  the  town  of  Kingston  a  few  years  before  this  because  he  was 
suspected  of  liberality  to  Whitefield.     Coll.  Mass.  Hist.  Society,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  209. 

~  Worcester  at  this  time  contained  a  population  certainly  not  exceeding  1500. 

3  Rev.  Jonathan  Mayhew,  afterwards  the  well  known  pastor  of  the  West 
CI  lurch  in  Boston.  Religious  opinions  had  been  for  a  long  time  the  principal 
subject  of  difference  among  the  people  of  Worcester,  as  indeed  they  were  every- 
where in  Massachusetts.  A  few  years  before  this,  Mr.  Maccarty  and  Mr. 
Mayhew  had  been  brought  into  direct  competition  as  candidates  for  settlement 
in  the  parish,  and  the  former  carried  the  day  with  only  two  votes  dissenting. 

4  "  The  instructor  of  those  days  was  migratory,  revolving  in  his  circuit  round 
a  centre  not  then  fixed  to  a  particular  location."     Lincoln's  Worcester,  297. 

*  [The  family  of  the  Chandlers  were  well-bred  and  agreeable  people,  and  I 
as  often  visited  them  as  my  school  and  my  studies  in  the  lawyer's  office  would 
admit,  especially  Colonel  Gardner  Chandler,  with  whom  I  was  the  most  inti- 
mate.] 

The  Chandlers  exercised  great  influence  in  the  county  of  Worcester  until  they 
took  the  side  of  government  in  the  revolution,  and  lost  their  position. 


JEt.  20.]  DIARY.  ,", 

ture  or  finite  being  could  not  make  satisfaction  to  infinite  jus- 
tice for  any  crimes,"  and  that  "  these  things  are  very  mysterious." 
Thus  mystery  is  made  a  convenient  cover  for  absurdity. 

15.  Sunday.  Staid  at  home  reading  the  Independent  Whig.1 
Very  often  shepherds  that  are  lured  to  take  care  of  their  .mas- 
ters' sheep  go  about  their  own  concerns  and  leave  the  flock  to 
the  care  of  their  dog.  So  bishops,  who  are  appointed  to  oversee 
the  flock  of  Christ,  take  the  fees  themselves  but  leave  the  drudg- 
ery to  their  dogs,  that  is,  curates  and  understrappers. 

16.  Monday.  We  have  the  most  moderate  winter  that  ever 
was  known  in  this  country.  For  a  long  time  together  we  have 
had  serene  and  temperate  weather,  and  all  the  roads  perfectly 
settled  and  smooth  like  summer. 

The  Church  of  Rome  has  made  it  an  article  of  faith  that  no 
man  can  be  saved  out  of  their  church,  and  all  other  religious 
sects  approach  to  this  dreadful  opinion  in  proportion  to  then* 
ignorance,  and  the  influence  of  ignorant  or  wicked  priests. 

Still  reading  the  Independent  Whig. 

Oh !  that  I  coidd  wear  out  of  my  mind  every  mean  and  base 
affectation ;  conquer  my  natural  pride  and  self-conceit ;  expect 
no  more  deference  from  my  fellows  than  I  deserve  ;  acquire  that 
meekness  and  humility  which  are  the  sure  mark  and  characters 
of  a  great  and  generous  soul ;  subdue  every  unworthy  passion, 
and  treat  all  men  as  I  wish  to  be  treated  by  all.  How  happy 
should  I  then  be  in  the  favor  and  good  will  of  all  honest  men 
and  the  sure  prospect  of  a  happy  immortality ! 

18.  Wednesday.  Spent  an  hour  in  the  beginning  of  the  even- 
ing at  Major  Gardiner's,  where  it  was  thought  that  the  design  of 
Christianity  was  not  to  make  men  good  riddle-solvers,  or  good 
mystery-mongers,  but  good  men,  good  magistrates,  and  good 
subjects,  good  husbands  and  good  wives,  good  parents  and  good 
children,  good  masters  and  good  servants.  The  following  ques- 
tions may  be  answered  some  time  or  other,  namely,  —  Where  do 
we  find  a  precept  in  the  Gospel  requiring  Ecclesiastical  Synods? 
Convocations  ?     Councils  ?    Decrees  ?     Creeds  ?     Confessions  ? 


1  By  Thomas  Gordon,  the  Translator  of  Tacitus  and  author  of  Cato's  Let- 
ters. His  works  have  passed  into  oblivion,  but  at  this  period  they  were  much 
read  on  account  of  their  free  and  independent  spirit.  The  Tacitus  and  Cato's 
Letters  are  placed  by  the  side  of  Sidney  and  Locke  and  Bacon,  in  a  special  be- 
quest of  Josiah  Quincy,  Jun.,  to  his  son  in  his  last  will.     " Memoir"  &c,  p.  350. 

1* 


6  DIARY.  [1756. 

Oaths?  Subscriptions?  and  whole  cart-loads  of  other  trumpery 
that  we  find  religion  encumbered  with  in  these  days? 

19.  Thursday.  No  man  is  entirely  free  from  weakness  and 
imperfection  in  this  life.  Men  of  the  most  exalted  genius  and 
active  minds  are  generally  most  perfect  slaves  to  the  love  of 
fame.  They  sometimes  descend  to  as  mean  tricks  and  artifices 
in  pursuit  of  honor  or  reputation  as  the  miser  descends  to  in 
pursuit  of  gold.  The  greatest  men  have  been  the  most  envious, 
malicious,  and  revengeful.  The  miser  toils  by  night  and  day, 
fasts  and  watches,  till  he  emaciates  his  body  to  fatten  his  purse 
and  increase  his  coffers.  The  ambitious  man  rolls  and  tumbles 
in  his  bed,  a  stranger  to  refreshing  sleep  and  repose,  through 
anxiety  about  a  preferment  he  has  in  view.  The  philosopher 
sweats  and  labors  at  his  book,  and  ruminates  in  his  closet,  till 
his  bearded  and  grim  countenance  exhibits  the  effigies  of  pale 
want  and  care  and  death,  in  quest  of  hard  words,  solemn  non- 
sense, and  ridiculous  grimace.  The  gay  gentleman  rambles 
over  half  the  globe,  buys  one  thing  and  steals  another,  murders 
one  man  and  disables  another,  and  gets  his  own  limbs  and  head 
broke  for  a  few  transitory  flashes  of  happiness.  Is  this  perfec- 
tion, or  downright  madness  and  distraction  ? 

20.  Friday.     Symptoms  of  snow.     Writing  Tillotsou.1 

21.  Saturday.  Snow  about  ankle  deep.  I  find,  by  repeated 
experiment  and  observation  in  my  school,  that  human  nature 
is  more  easily  wrought  upon  and  governed  by  promises,  and 
encouragement,  and  praise,  than  by  punishment,  and  threaten- 
ing, and  blame.  But  we  must  be  cautious  and  sparing  of  our 
praise,  lest  it  become  too  familiar  and  cheap,  and  so,  contempti- 
ble; corporal  as  well  as  disgraceful  punishments  depress  the 
spirits,  but  commendation  enlivens  and  stimulates  them  to  a 
noble  ardor  and  emulation. 

22.  Sunday.  Suppose  a  nation  in  some  distant  region  should 
take  the  Bible  for  their  only  law-book,  and  every  member  should 
regulate  his  conduct  by  the  precepts  there  exhibited !  Every 
member  would  be  obliged,  in  conscience,  to  temperance  and 
frugality  and  industry ;    to  justice  and  kindness   and  charity 

1  This  means  that  the  writer,  who  was  at  this  time  inclining  to  the  ministry, 
was  engaged  in  copying  large  extracts  from  the  works  of  Tillotson.  A  volume 
still  remains,  written  in  a  very  minute  hand,  and  filled  with  passages  from  the 
works  of  various  authors. 


.-Ex.  20.]  DIARY.  7 

towards  his  fellow  men ;  and  to  piety,  love,  and  reverence, 
towards  Almighty  God.  In  this  commonwealth,  no  man  would 
impair  his  health  by  gluttony,  drunkenness,  or  lust ;  no  man 
would  sacrifice  his  most  precious  time  to  cards  or  any  other 
trifling  and  mean  amusement ;  no  man  would  steal,  or  lie,  or  in 
any  way  defraud  his  neighbor,  but  would  live  in  peace  and  good 
will  with  all  men ;  no  man  would  blaspheme  his  Maker  or  pro- 
fane his  worship ;  but  a  rational  and  manly,  a  sincere  and  unaf- 
fected piety  and  devotion  would  reign  in  all  hearts.  What  a 
Utopia;  what  a  Paradise  would  this  region  be!  Heard  Thayer 
all  day.  He  preached  well.  Spent  the  evening  at  Colonel 
Chandler's,  with  Putnam,  Gardiner,  Thayer,  the  Doctor1  and  his 
lady,  in  conversation  upon  the  present  situation  of  public  affairs, 
with  a  few  observations  concerning  heroes  and  great  com- 
manders, —  Alexander,  Charles  XII.,  Cromwell. 

24.  Tuesday.  We  are  told  that  Demosthenes  transcribed  the 
history  of  Thucydides  eight  times,  in  order  to  imbibe  and  famil- 
iarize himself  with  the  elegance  and  strength  of  his  style.  Will 
it  not  be  worth  while  for  a  candidate  for  the  ministry  to  trans- 
cribe Dr.  Tillotson's  works  ? 

27.  Friday.  All  day  in  high  health  and  spirits.  Writing 
Tillotson.  That  comet  which  appeared  in  1682  is  expected 
again  this  year ;  and  we  have  intelligence  that  it  has  been  seen 
about  ten  days  since,  near  midnight,  in  the  east.  I  find  myself 
very  much  inclined  to  an  unreasonable  absence  of  mind,  and  to 
a  morose  and  unsociable  disposition ;  let  it  therefore  be  my  con- 
stant endeavor  to  reform  these  great  faults. 

28.  Saturday.  Attended  Mrs.  Brown's  funeral.  Let  this  and 
every  other  instance  of  human  frailty  and  mortality  prompt  me  to 
endeavor  after  a  temper  of  mind  fit  to  undergo  this  great  change. 

1756.  March  1.  Monday.  Wrote  out  Bolingbroke's  Reflec- 
tions on  Exile. 

2.  Tuesday.  Began  this  afternoon  my  third  quarter.*  The 
great  and  Almighty  author  of  nature,  who  at  first  established 

1  Probably  Dr.  Willard,  with  whom  he  soon  afterwards  took  up  his  abode. 

*  [Three  months  after  this,  (during  the  second  quarter,)  the  Selectmen  pro- 
cured lodgings  for  me  at  Dr.  Nahum  Willard's.  This  physician  had  a  large 
practice,  a  good  reputation  for  skill,  and  a  pretty  library.  Here  were  Dr. 
Cheyne's  works,  Sydenham,  and  others,  and  Van  Swieten's  Commentaries  on 
Boerhaave.  I  read  a  good  deal  in  these  books  and  entertained  many  thoughts 
of  becoming  a  physician  and  a  surgeon.] 


8  DIARY.  [1706. 

those  rules  which  regulate  the  world,  can  as  easily  suspend 
those  laws  whenever  his  providence  sees  sufficient  reason  for 
such  suspension.  This  can  be  no  objection,  then,  to  the 
miracles  of  Jesus  Christ.  Although  some  very  thoughtful  and 
contemplative  men  among  the  heathen  attained  a  strong  per- 
suasion of  the  great  principles  of  religion,  yet  the  far  greater 
number,  having  little  time  for  speculation,  gradually  sunk  into 
the  grossest  opinions  and  the  grossest  practices.  These,  there- 
fore, could  not  be  made  to  embrace  the  true  religion  till  their 
attention  was  roused  by  some  astonishing  and  miraculous 
appearances.  The  reasoning  of  philosophers,  having  nothing 
surprising  in  them,  could  not  overcome  the  force  of  prejudice, 
custom,  passion,  and  bigotry.  But  when  wise  and  virtuous 
men,  commissioned  from  heaven,  by  miracles  awakened  men's 
attention  to  their  reasonings,  the  force  of  truth  made  its  way 
with  ease  to  their  minds. 

3.  Wednesday.  Natural  philosophy  is  the  art  of  deducing 
the  general  laws  and  properties  of  material  substances  from  a 
series  of  analogous  observations.  The  manner  of  reasoning  in 
this  art  is  not  strictly  demonstrative,  and,  by  consequence,  the 
knowledge  hence  acquired  is  not  absolutely  scientific,  because 
the  facts  that  we  reason  upon  are  perceived  by  sense,  and  not  by 
the  internal  action  of  the  mind  contemplating  its  ideas.  But 
these  facts  being  presumed  true  in  the  form  of  axioms,  subse- 
quent reasonings  about  them  may  be  in  the  strictest  sense  scien- 
tific. This  art  informs  us  in  what  manner  bodies  will  influence 
us  and  each  other  in  given  circumstances,  and  so  teaches  us  to 
avoid  the  noxious,  and  embrace  the  beneficial  qualities  of  matter. 
By  this  art,  too,  many  curious  engines  have  been  constructed  to 
facilitate  business,  to  avert  impending  calamities,  and  to  procure 
desired  advantages. 

6.  Saturday.  Rose  at  half  after  four.  Wrote  Bolingbroke's 
letter  on  retirement  and  study. 

7.  Sunday.  Heard  Mr.  Maccarty  all  day.  Spent  the  evening 
and  supped  at  Mr.  Greene's  with  Thayer.  Honesty,  sincerity, 
and  openness  I  esteem  essential  marks  of  a  good  mind.  I  am, 
therefore,  of  opinion  that  men  ought,  (after  they  have  examined 
with  unbiased  judgments  every  system  of  religion,  and  chosen 
one  system,  on  their  own  authority,  for  themselves,)  to  avow 
their  opinions  and  defend  them  with  boldness. 


JBx.  20.]  DIARY.  9 

12.  Friday.  Laid  a  pair  of  gloves  with  Mrs.  Willard  *  that 
she  would  not  see  me  chew  tobacco  this  month. 

14.  Sunday.  Heard  Mr.  Maccarty,  all  day,  upon  Abraham's 
faith  in  offering  up  Isaac.  Spent  the  evening  very  sociably  at 
Mr.  Putnam's.  Several  observations  concerning  Mr.  Franklin,1 
of  Philadelphia,  a  prodigious  genius,  cultivated  with  prodigious 
industry. 

15.  Monday.  I  sometimes  in  my  sprightly  moments  consider 
myself,  in  my  great  chair  at  school,  as  some  dictator  at  the  head 
of  a  commonwealth.  In  this  little  state  I  can  discover  all  the 
great  geniuses,  all  the  surprising  actions  and  revolutions  of  the 
great  world,  in  miniature.  I  have  several  renowned  generals 
but  three  feet  high,  and  several  deep  projecting  politicians  in 
petticoats.  I  have  others  catching  and  dissecting  flies,  accu- 
mulating remarkable  pebbles,  cockle  shells,  &c,  with  as  ardent 
curiosity  as  any  virtuoso  in  the  Royal  Society.  Some  rattle  and 
thunder  out  A,  B,  C,  with  as  much  fire  and  impetuosity  as 
Alexander  fought,  and  very  often  sit  down  and  cry  as  heartily 
upon  being  outspelt,  as  Caesar  did,  when  at  Alexander's  sepulchre 
he  recollected  that  the  Macedonian  hero  had  conquered  the 
world  before  his  age.  At  one  table  sits  Mr.  Insipid,  foppling2 
and  fluttering,  spinning  his  whirligig,  or  playing  with  his  fingers, 
as  gaily  and  wittily  as  any  Frenchified  coxcomb  brandishes  his 
cane  or  rattles  his  snuff-box.  At  another,  sits  the  polemical 
divine,  plodding  and  wrangling  in  his  mind  about  "  Adam's  fall, 
in  which  we  sinned  all,"  as  his  Primer  has  it.  In  short,  my 
little  school,  like  the  great  world,  is  made  up  of  kings,  politicians, 
divines,  L.  D.'s,  fops,  buffoons,  fiddlers,  sycophants,  fools,  cox- 
combs, chimney  sweepers,  and  every  other  character  drawn  in 
history,  or  seen  in  the  world.  Is  it  not,  then,  the  highest  pleasure, 
my  friend,  to  preside  in  this  little  world,  to  bestow  the  proper 
applause  upon  virtuous  and  generous  actions,  to  blame  and 
punish  every  vicious  and  contracted  trick,  to  wear  out  of  the 
tender  mind  every  thing  that  is  mean  and  little,  and  fire  the 

1  Benjamin  Franklin,  whose  growing  reputation  in  Europe,  on  account  of  bis 
experiments  in  electricity,  was  coming  back  to  increase  bis  reputation  at  home. 

2  There  is  no  such  English  word,  but  its  meaning  is  clear  enough. 

*  [The  family  of  the  Willards  of  Lancaster  were  often  at  Worcester,  and  I 
formedan  acquaintance  with  them,  especially  Abel  Willard,  who  had  been  one 
year  with  me  at  College,  and  had  studied  the  law  under  Mr.  Pratt  in  Boston. 
With  him  I  lived  in  friendship.] 


10  DIARY.  [1756. 

new-born  soul  with  a  noble  ardor  and  emulation  ?  The  world 
affords  no  greater  pleasure.  Let  others  waste  their  bloom  of 
life  at  the  card  or  billiard  table  among  rakes  and  fools,  and 
when  their  minds  are  sufficiently  fretted  with  losses,  and 
inflamed  by  wine,  ramble  through  the  streets  assaulting  inno- 
cent people,  breaking  windows,  or  debauching  young  girls.  I 
envy  not  their  exalted  happiness.  I  had  rather  sit  in  school  and 
consider  which  of  my  pupils  will  turn  out  in  his  future  life  a 
hero,  and  which  a  rake,  which  a  philosopher,  and  which  a  para- 
site, than  change  breasts  with  them,  though  possessed  of  twenty 
laced  waistcoats  and  a  thousand  pounds  a  year.  Methinks  I  hear 
you  say,  This  is  odd  talk  for  John  Adams !  I'll  tell  you,  then,  the 
occasion  of  it.  About  four  months  since,  a  poor  girl  in  this  neigh- 
borhood, walking  by  the  meeting-house  upon  some  occasion  in 
the  evening,  met  a  fine  gentleman  with  laced  hat  and  waistcoat, 
and  a  sword,  who  solicited  her  to  turn  aside  with  him  into  the 
horse  stable.  The  girl  relucted  a  little,  upon  which  he  gave  her 
three  guineas,  and  wished  he  might  be  damned  if  he  did  not  have 
her  in  three  months.  Into  the  horse  stable  they  went.  The 
three  guineas  proved  three  farthings,  and  the  girl  proved  with 
child,  without  a  friend  upon  earth  that  will  own  her,  or  knowing 
the  father  of  her  three-farthing  bastard. 

17.  Wednesday.  A  fine  morning.  Proceeded  on  my  journey 
towards  Braintree.  Stopped  to  see  Mr.  Haven,1  of  Dedham, 
who  told  me,  very  civilly,  he  supposed  I  took  my  faith  on  trust 
fromDr.  Mayhew,  and  added,  that  he  believed  the  doctrine  of 
the  satisfaction  of  Jesus  Christ  to  be  essential  to  Christianity,  and 
that  he  would  not  believe  this  satisfaction  unless  he  believed  the 
Divinity  of  Christ.  Mr.  Balch  was  there  too,  and  observed,  that 
he  would  not  be  a  Christian  if  he  did  not  believe  the  mysteries 
of  the  gospel ;  that  he  could  bear  with  an  Arminian,  but  when, 
with  Dr.  Mayhew,  they  denied  the  Divinity  and  satisfaction  of 
Jesus  Christ,  he  had  no  more  to  do  with  them ;  that  he  knew  not 
what  to  make  of  Dr.  Mayhew's  two  discourses  upon  the  expected 
dissolution  of  all  things.  They  gave  him  an  idea  of  a  cart  whose 
wheels  wanted  greasing ;  it  rumbled  on  in  a  hoarse,  rough  man- 
ner;   there  was  a  good  deal  of  ingenious  talk  in  them,  but  it 


1  The  Reverend  Jason  Haven,  then  just  ordained  as  pastor  of  the  first  parish 
in  Dedham. 


2Et.  20.]  DIARY.  H 

was  thrown  together  in  a  jumbled,  confused  order.  He  believed 
the  J)octor  wrote  them  in  a  great  panic.  He  added  further  that 
Arminians,  however  stiffly  they  maintain  their  opinions  in  health, 
always,  he  takes  notice,  retract  when  they  come  to  die,  and 
choose  to  die  Calvinists.  Set  out  for  Braintree,  and  arrived 
about  sunset. 

21.  Sunday.  Vernal  equinox.  Spent  the  evening  at  Mr. 
Wibird's1  with  Messrs.  Quincy,2  Cranch,3  Savil,  in  conversation 
upon  the  present  situation  of  public  affairs.  Mr.  Quincy  exerted 
his  talents  in  a  most  eloquent  harangue.  Mr.  Cranch  quoted 
the  Bishop  of  Quebec's  letter 4  concerning  the  French  Mission- 
aries among  the  Indians.     Some,  he  says,  are  very  good  men. 

24.  Wednesday.  Set  out  for  Worcester ;  dined  at  Dedham, 
and  rode  from  thence  in  the  rain  to  Mendon.  Supped  and  lodg- 
ed at  Josiah  Adams's. 

25.  Thursday.  Rode  to  Uxbridge ;  tarried  at  my  uncle  Webb's, 
and  lodged  with  Mr.  Nathan.5 

26.  Friday.     Rode  to  Grafton ;  dined  at  Josiah  Rawson's.    He 


1  The  Rev.  Anthony  Wibird,  for  forty-five  years  pastor  of  the  first  church  in 
Braintree,  had  been  settled  the  year  before,  February  5,  1755. 

2  Josiah  Quincy,  the  elder,  often  mentioned  in  this  Diary.  In  this  year  he 
retired  from  active  business,  and  resided  in  Braintree  from  this  time  until  his 
death  in  1784.  He  was  the  friend  and  correspondent  of  many  distinguished 
men  of  his  times,  several  interesting  letters  from  whom,  addressed  to  him,  are 
published  in  the  Memoir  of  Josiah  Quincy,  Jun.,  by  his  son. 

3  The  late  Judge  Richard  Cranch,  had  emigrated  from  Devonshire,  in  Eng- 
land, ten  years  before,  in  company  with  General  Palmer,  who  had  married  his 
sister.     He  was  now  living  in  Braintree. 

4  This  letter  was  printed  in  the  Boston  Evening  Post,  of  September  8,  1755. 
It  seems  to  have  been  considered  so  important  in  its  manifestation  of  the  hostile 
spirit  of  the  French  Catholics,  "the  turbulent  Gallicks"  spoken  of  in  the  letter 
to  Nathan  Webb,  as  to  have  been  issued  in  a  separate  sheet,  and  sold  at  a  low 
price.     The  note  appended  to  the  advertisement  in  the  Post  reads  as  follows  :  — 

"  N.  B.  It  ought  to  be  read  (for  more  reasons  than  one)  by  every  intelligent 
man  in  North  America." 

The  war  between  Great  Britain  and  France  was  not  formally  declared  until 
May  of  this  year,  1 756.  But  it  had  already  been  carried  on  in  America  for  many 
months.  The  forcible  removal  of  the  French  neutrals  of  Acadia,  took  place 
in  1 755,  a  measure  of  grievous  wrong,  the  true  character  of  which  haply  might 
have  been  forgotten  but  for  the  immortality  lately  given  to  it  by  the  verse  of 
Longfellow. 

5  This  is  the  Nathan  Webb  to  whom  had  been  addressed,  in  the  preceding 
month  of  October,  that  remarkable  letter  which  will  be  found  fully  commented 
upon  in  the  preceding  volume.  The  journey  on  horseback  to  Worcester, 
spending  three  days  on  the  way,  is  in  some  contrast  with  the  habits  of  the 
present  generation. 


12  DIARY.  [1756.' 

exerted  his  Rawsonian  talents  concerning  the  felicity  of  Heaven. 
I  sat  and  heard,  for  it  is  in  vain  to  resist  so  impetuous  a  torrent. 
Proceeded  to  Worcester ;  drank  tea  at  Mr.  Maccarty's,  and  spent 
the  evening  at  Major  Gardiner's. 

27.  Saturday.  The  stream  of  life  sometimes  glides  smoothly 
on  through  the  flowery  meadows  and  enamelled  plains  ;  at  other 
times  it  drags  a  winding,  reluctant  course,  through  offensive 
bogs  and  dismal,  gloomy  swamps.  The  same  road  now  leads 
us  through  a  spacious  country,  fraught  with  every  delightful  ob- 
ject; then  plunges  us  at  once  into  miry  sloughs,  or  stops  our 
passage  with  craggy  and  inaccessible  mountains.  The  free  rov- 
ing songster  of  the  forest  now  rambles  unconfined,  and  hops  from 
spray  to  spray,  but  the  next  hour,  perhaps,  he  alights  to  pick  the 
scattered  grain,  and  is  entangled  in  the  snare.  The  ship  which, 
wafted  by  a  favorable  gale,  sails  prosperously  upon  the  peaceful 
surface,  by  a  sudden  change  of  weather  may  be  tossed  by  the 
tempest,  and  driven  by  furious  opposite  winds  upon  rocks  or 
quicksands.1  In  short,  nothing  in  this  world  enjoys  a  constant 
series  of  joy  and  prosperity. 

29.  Monday.  We  find  ourselves  capable  of  comprehending 
many  things,  of  acquiring  considerable  degrees  of  knowledge  by 
our  slender  and  contracted  faculties.  Now  may  we  not  suppose 
our  minds  strengthened  and  capacities  dilated,  so  as  fully  to  com- 
prehend this  globe  of  earth  with  its  numerous  appendages  ?  May 
we  not  suppose  them  further  enlarged  to  take  in  the  solar  sys- 
tem in  all  its  relations  ?  Nay,  why  may  we  not  go  further,  and 
suppose  them  increased  to  comprehend  the  whole  created  uni- 
verse, with  all  its  inhabitants,  their  various  relations,  dependen- 
cies, duties,  and  necessities  ?  If  this  is  supposable,  then  a  being 
of  such  great  capacity,  endowed  with  sufficient  power,  would  be 
an  accomplished  judge  of  all  rational  beings  —  would  be  fit  to 
dispense  rewards  to  virtue  and  punishments  to  vice. 

1  At  this  very  time  one  of  Britain's  most  finished  poets  was  engaged  in  depict- 
ing the  fate  of  one  of  her  monarchs,  through  the  use  of  this  figure.  The  lines, 
applied  to  the  unfortunate  Edward  the  Second,  will  recur  to  every  cultivated 
mind. 

"Fair  laughs  the  morn,  and  soft  the  zephjrr  blows, 
While  proudly  riding  o'er  the  azure  realm, 
In  gallant  trim  the  gilded  vessel  goes, 

Youth  on  the  prow,  and  pleasure  at  the  helm ; 
Regardless  of  the  sweeping  whirlwind's  sway, 
That,  hush'd  in  grim  repose,  expects  his  evening  prey." 


Mr.  20.]  DIARY.  13 

April  10.  Saturday.  The  man  to  whom  nature  has  given 
a  great  and  surprising  genius,  will  perform  great  and  surprising 
achievements.  But  a  soul  originally  narrow  and  confined  will 
never  be  enlarged  to  a  distinguishing  capacity.  Such  a  one 
must  be  content  to  grovel  amidst  pebbles  and  butterflies  through 
the  whole  of  his  life.  By  diligence  and  attention  indeed,  he 
may  possibly  get  the  character  of  a  man  of  sense ;  but  never 
that  of  a  great  man. 

15.  Thursday.  Drank  tea  and  spent  the  evening  at  Mr. 
Putnam's,  in  conversation  concerning  Christianity.  He  is  of 
opinion  that  the  apostles  were  a  company  of  enthusiasts.  He 
says  that  we  have  only  their  word  to  prove  that  they  spoke  with 
different  tongues,  raised  the  dead,  and  healed  the  sick,  &c* 

23.  Friday.  I  can  as  easily  still  the  fierce  tempest  or  stop 
the  rapid  thunderbolt,  as  command  the  motions  and  operations 
of  my  own  mind.  I  am  dull  and  inactive,  and  all  my  resolu- 
tions, all  the  spirits  I  can  muster  are  insufficient  to  rouse  me  from 
this  senseless  torpitude.  My  brains  seem  constantly  in  as  great 
confusion  and  wild  disorder  as  Milton's  chaos ;  they  are  numb, 
dead.  I  have  never  any  bright,  refulgent  ideas.  Every  thing 
appears  in  my  mind  dim  and  obscure,  like  objects  seen  through 
a  dirty  glass  or  roiled  water. 

24.  Saturday.  All  my  time  seems  to  roll  away  unnoticed. 
I  long  to  study  sometimes,  but  have  no  opportunity.  I  long  to 
be  a  master  of  Greek  and  Latin.  I  long  to  prosecute  the  math- 
ematical and  philosophical  sciences.  I  long  to  know  a  little  of 
ethics  and  moral  philosophy.  But  I  have  no  books,  no  time,  no 
friends.  I  must  therefore  be  contented  to  live  and  die  an  igno- 
rant, obscure  fellow. 

25.  Sunday.  Astronomers  tell  us  with  good  reason,  that  not 
only  all  the  planets  and  satellites  in  our  solar  system,  but  all  the 
unnumbered  worlds  that  revolve  round  the  fixed  stars  are  inhab- 

*  [At  breakfast,  dinner,  and  tea,  Mr.  Putnam  was  commonly  disputing  with 
me  upon  some  question  of  religion.  He  had  been  intimate  with  one  Peasley 
Collins,  the  son  of  a  Quaker  in  Boston,  who  had  been  to  Europe,  and  came 
back  a  disbeliever  of  every  thing ;  fully  satisfied  that  religion  was  a  cheat,  a 
cunning  invention  of  priests  and  politicians ;  that  there  would  be  no  future  state 
any  more  than  there  is  at  present  any  moral  government.  Putnam  could  aot 
go  these  whole  lengths  with  him.  Although  he  would  argue  to  the  extent  of 
his  learning  and  ingenuity  to  destroy  or  invalidate  the  evidences  of  a  future 
state,  and  the  principles  of  natural  and  revealed  religion,  yet  I  could  plainly 
perceive  that  he  could  not  convince  himself  that  death  was  an  endless  sleep.] 

VOL.   II.  2 


14  DIARY.  [1756. 

ited,  as  well  as  this  globe  of  earth.  If  this  is  the  case,  all  man- 
kind are  no  more  in  comparison  of  the  whole  rational  creation 
of  God,  than  a  point  to  the  orbit  of  Saturn.  Perhaps  all  these 
different  ranks  of  rational  beings  have  in  a  greater  or  less  degree 
committed  moral  wickedness.  If  so,  I  ask  a  Calvinist  whether 
he  will  subscribe  to  this  alternative,  "Either  God  Almighty  must 
assume  the  respective  shapes  of  all  these  different  species  and 
suffer  the  penalties  of  their  crimes  in  their  stead,  or  else  all  these 
beings  must  be  consigned  to  everlasting  perdition  ?  " 

26.  Monday.  The  reflection  that  I  penned  yesterday  appears 
upon  the  revision  to  be  weak  enough.  For  first,  we  know  not 
that  the  inhabitants  of  other  globes  have  sinned.  Nothing  can 
be  argued  in  this  manner  till  it  is  proved  at  least  probable  that 
all  these  species  of  rational  beings  have  revolted  from  their 
rightful  Sovereign.  When  I  examine  the  little  prospect  that  lies 
before  me,  and  find  an  infinite  variety  of  bodies  in  one  horizon 
of,  perhaps,  two  miles  diameter,  how  many  millions  of  such 
prospects  there  are  upon  the  surface  of  this  earth,  how  many 
millions  of  globes  there  are  within  our  view,  each  of  which  has 
as  many  of  these  prospects  upon  its  own  surface  as  our  planet ; 
great  and  marvellous  are  thy  works  !  &c. 

28.  Wednesday.  Drank  tea  at  Mr.  Putnam's,  walked  with 
him  to  his  farm,  talked  about  all  nature. 

29.  Thursday.  Fast  day;  heard  Mr.  Maccarty,  spent  the 
evening  at  Mr.  Putnam's.  Our  proper  business  in  this  life  is 
not  to  accumulate  large  fortunes,  not  to  gain  high  honors  and 
important  offices  in  the  state,  not  to  waste  our  health  and  spirits 
in  pursuit  of  the  sciences,  but  constantly  to  improve  ourselves 
in  habits  of  piety  and  virtue.  Consequently  the  meanest 
mechanic  who  endeavors,  in  proportion  to  his  ability,  to  promote 
the  happiness  of  his  fellow  men,  deserves  better  of  society,  and 
should  be  held  in  higher  esteem  than  the  greatest  magistrate 
who  uses  his  power  for  his  own  pleasures,  or  avarice,  or  ambi- 
tion. 

30.  Friday.  Reading  Milton.  That  man's  soul,  it  seems  to 
me,  was  distended  as  wide  as  creation.  His  power  over  the 
human  mind  was  absolute  and  unlimited.  His  genius  was 
great  beyond  conception,  and  his  learning  without  bounds.  I 
can  only  gaze  at  him  with  astonishment,  without  comprehending 
the  vast  compass  of  his  capacity. 


Mr.  20.]  DIARY.  15 

May  1.  Saturday.  If  we  consider  a  little  of  this  our  globe, 
we  find  an  endless  variety  of  substances  mutually  connected 
with  and  dependent  on  each  other.  In  the  wilderness  we  see 
an  amazing  profusion  of  vegetables,  which  afford  sustenance  and 
covering  to  the  wild  beasts.  The  cultivated  plains  and  meadows 
produce  grass  for  the  cattle,  and  herbs  for  the  service  of  man. 
The  milk  and  the  flesh  of  other  animals  afford  a  delicious  pro- 
vision for  mankind.  A  great  part  of  the  human  species  are 
obliged  to  provide  food  and  nourishment  for  other  helpless  and 
improvident  animals.  Vegetables  sustain  some  animals ;  these 
animals  are  devoured  by  others,  and  these  others  are  continually 
cultivating  and  improving  the  vegetable  species.  Thus,  nature 
upon  our  earth  is  in  a  continual  rotation.  If  we  rise  higher,  we 
find  the  sun  and  moon,  to  a  very  great  degree,  influencing  us. 
Tides  are  produced  in  the  ocean ;  clouds  in  the  atmosphere ;  all 
nature  is  made  to  flourish  and  look  gay  by  these  enlivening  and 
invigorating  luminaries.  Yea,  life  and  cheerfulness  is  diffused 
to  all  the  other  planets,  as  well  as  ours,  upon  the  sprightly  sun- 
beams. No  doubt  there  is  as  great  a  multitude  and  variety  of 
bodies  upon  each  planet,  in  proportion  to  its  magnitude,  as  there 
is  upon  ours.  These  bodies  are  connected  with,  and  influenced 
by  each  other.  Thus,  we  see  the  amazing  harmony  of  our  solar 
system.  The  minutest  particle,  in  one  of  Saturn's  satellites, 
may  have  some  influence  upon  the  most  distant  regions  of  the 
system.  The  stupendous  plan  of  operation  was  projected  by 
Him  who  rules  the  universe,  and  a  part  assigned  to  every  particle 
of  matter,  to  act  in  this  great  and  complicated  drama.  The 
Creator  looked  into  the  remotest  futurity,  and  saw  his  great 
designs  accomplished  by  this  inextricable,  this  mysterious  com- 
plication of  causes.  But  to  rise  still  higher,  this  solar  system  is 
but  one  very  small  wheel  in  the  great,  the  astonishing  machine 
of  the  world.  Those  stars,  that  twinkle  in  the  heavens,  have 
each  of  them  a  choir  of  planets,  comets,  and  satellites,  dancing 
round  them,  playing  mutually  on  each  other,  and  all,  together, 
playing  on  the  other  systems  that  lie  around  them.  Our  system, 
considered  as  one  body  hanging  on  its  centre  of  gravity,  may 
affect  and  be  affected  by  all  the  other  systems  within  the  compass 
of  creation.  Thus,  it  is  highly  probable  every  particle  of  matter 
influences  and  is  influenced  by  every  other  particle  in  the  whole 
collected  universe. 


16  DIARY.  [1756. 

2.  Sunday.  I  think  it  necessary  to  call  myself  to  a  strict  account 
how  I  spend  my  time,  once  a  week,  at  least.  Since  the  14th  of 
April,  I  have  been  studying  the  first  part  of  Butler's  Analogy. 

3.  Monday.  Spent  the  evening  and  supped  at  Mr.  Maccarty's. 
The  love  of  fame  naturally  betrays  a  man  into  several  weaknesses 
and  fopperies  that  tend  very  much  to  diminish  his  reputation, 
and  so  defeat  itself.     Vanity,  I  am  sensible,  is  my  cardinal  vice 

</  and  cardinal  folly ;  and  I  am  in  continual  danger,  when  in  com- 
pany, of  being  led  an  ignis  fatuus  chase  by  it,  without  the 
strictest  caution  and  watchfulness  over  myself. 

4.  Tuesday.  Let  any  man,  suppose  of  the  most  improved 
understanding,  look  upon  a  watch  when  the  parts  are  separated. 
Let  him  examine  every  wheel  and  spring  separately  by  itself. 
Yet,  if  the  use  and  application  of  these  springs  and  wheels  is 
not  explained  to  him,  he  will  not  be  able  to  judge  of  the  use 
and  advantage  of  particular  parts ;  much  less  will  he  be  able  if 
he  has  only  one  wheel.  In  like  manner  we,  who  see  but  a  few 
cogs  in  one  wheel  of  the  great  machine  of  the  universe,  can 
make  no  right  judgment  of  particular  phenomena  in  nature. 

7.  Friday.  Spent  the  evening  and  supped  at  Mr.  Maccarty's. 
A  man's  observing  the  flux  of  the  tide  to-day,  renders  it  credible 
that  the  same  phenomenon  may  be  observed  to-morrow.  In  the 
same  manner,  our  experience  that  the  Author  of  nature  has 
annexed  pain  to  vice,  and  pleasure  to  virtue,  in  general,  I  mean, 
renders  it  credible  that  the  same,  or  a  like  disposition  of  things, 
may  take  place  hereafter.  Our  observing  that  the  state  of 
minority  was  designed  to  be  an  education  for  mature  life,  and 
that  our  good  or  ill  success,  in  a  mature  life,  depends  upon  our 
good  or  ill  improvement  of  our  advantages  in  minority,  renders 
it  credible  that  this  life  was  designed  to  be  an  education  for  a 
future  one ;  and  that  our  happiness  or  misery,  in  a  future  life, 
will  be  allotted  us  according  as  our  characters  shall  be  virtuous 
or  vicious.  For  God  governs  his  great  kingdom,  the  world,  by 
very  general  laws.  We  cannot,  indeed,  observe  many  instances 
of  these  laws,  but  wherever  we  see  any  particular  disposition 
of  things,  we  may  strongly  presume  that  there  are  other  dispo- 
sitions of  things,  in  other  systems  of  nature,  analogous  and  of  a 
piece  with  this. 

8.  Saturday.     Went  a  shooting  with  Mr.  Putnam ;  drank  tea 
with  him  and  his  ladv. 


^Et.  20.]  DIARY.  1 7 

9.  Sunday.  Since  last  Sunday  I  have  wrote  a  few  pages  of 
the  Spectator;  read  the  last  part  of  Butler's  Analogy;  wrote 
out  the  tract  upon  Personal  Identity,  and  that  upon  the  Nature 
of  Virtue.     A  poor  week's  work ! 

11.  Tuesday.  The  first  day  of  Court.  Nature  and  truth,  or 
rather  truth  and  right  are  invariably  the  same  in  all  times  and 
in  all  places;  and  reason,  pure  unbiased  reason,  perceives  them 
alike  in  all  times  and  in  all  places.  But  passion,  prejudice, 
interest,  custom,  and  fancy,  are  infinitely  precarious ;  if,  therefore, 
we  suffer  our  understandings  to  be  blinded  or  perverted  by  any 
of  these,  the  chance  is  that  of  millions  to  one,  that  we  shall 
embrace  errors.  And  hence  arises  that  endless  variety  of  opin- 
ions entertained  by  mankind.  The  weather  and  the  season  are, 
beyond  expression,  delightful ;  the  fields  are  covered  with  a 
bright  and  lively  verdure  ;  the  trees  are  all  in  bloom,  and  the 
atmosphere  is  filled  with  a  ravishing  fragrance ;  the  air  is  soft 
and  yielding ;  and  the  setting  sun  sprinkled  his  departing  rays 
over  the  face  of  nature,  and  enlivened  all  the  landscapes  around 
me ;  the  trees  put  forth  their  leaves,  and  the  birds  fill  the  spray. 

12.  Wednesday.     Rambled  about  all  day,  gaping  and  gazing,  i/ 

14.  Friday.  Drank  tea  at  the  Colonel's.  Not  one  new  idea 
this  week. 

15.  Saturday.  A  lovely  day ;  soft  vernal  showers.  Exercise 
invigorates  and  enlivens  all  the  faculties  of  body  and  of  mind ; 
it  arouses  our  animal  spirits,  it  disperses  melancholy ;  it  spreads 
a  gladness  and  satisfaction  over  our  minds,  and  qualifies  us  for 
every  sort  of  business,  and  every  sort  of  pleasure. 

16.  Sunday.  The  week  past  was  court  week.  I  was  inter- 
rupted by  company,  and  the  noisy  bustle  of  the  public  occasion, 
so  that  I  have  neither  read  nor  wrote  any  thing  worth  mention- 
ing. Heard  Mr.  Thayer,  and  spent  the  evening  at  Mr.  Putnam's 
very  sociably. 

17.  Monday.  The  elephant  and  the  lion,  when  their  strength 
is  directed  and  applied  by  man,  can  exert  a  prodigious  force. 
But  their  strength,  great  and  surprising  as  it  is,  can  produce  no 
great  effects  when  applied  by  no  higher  ingenuity  than  their 
own.  But  man,  although  the  powers  of  his  body  are  but  small 
and  contemptible,  by  the  exercise  of  his  reason  can  invent 
engines  and  instruments,  to  take  advantage  of  the  powers  in 
nature,  and  accomplish  the  most  astonishing  designs.     He  can 

2* 


18  DIARY.  [175G. 

rear  the  valley  into  a  lofty  mountain,  and  reduce  the  mountain 
to  a  humble  vale.  He  can  rend  the  rocks  and  level  the  proud- 
est trees ;  at  his  pleasure  the  forest  is  cleared,  and  palaces  rise ; 
when  he  pleases  the  soaring  eagle  is  precipitated  to  earth,  and 
the  light-footed  roe  is  stopped  in  his  career.  He  can  cultivate 
and  assist  nature  in  her  own  productions,  by  pruning  the  trees 
and  manuring  the  land.  He  makes  the  former  produce  larger 
and  fairer  fruit ;  and  the  latter  to  bring  forth  better  and  greater 
plenty  of  grain.  He  can  form  a  communication  between 
remotest  regions  for  the  benefit  of  trade  and  commerce,  over  the 
yielding  and  fluctuating  element  of  water.  The  telescope  has 
settled  the  regions  of  heaven,  and  the  microscope  has  brought 
up  to  view  innumerable  millions  of  animals  that  escape  the 
observation  of  our  naked  sight. 

23.  Sunday.  Heard  Mr.  Maccarty.  He  is  particularly  fond 
of  the  following  expressions:  carnal,  ungodly  persons;  sensu- 
ality and  voluptuousness;  walking  with  God,  unregeneracy, 
rebellion  against  God ;  believers ;  all  things  come  alike  to  all ; 
there  is  one  event  to  the  righteous  and  to  the  wicked ;  shut  out 
of  the  presence  of  God;  solid,  substantial,  and  permanent  joys  ; 
joys  springing  up  in  the  soul ;  the  shines  of  God's  countenance. 

When  we  consider  the  vast  and  incomprehensible  extent  of  the 
material  universe,  those  myriads  of  fixed  stars  that  emerge  out 
of  the  remote  regions  of  space  to  our  view  by  glasses,  —  and  the 
finer  our  glasses  the  more  of  these  systems  we  discover; — when 
we  consider  that  space  is  absolutely  infinite  and  boundless,  that 
the  power  of  the  Deity  is  strictly  omnipotent,  and  his  goodness 
without  limitation,  who  can  come  to  a  stop  in  his  thoughts  and 
say,  hither  does  the  universe  extend  and  no  further  ? 

"  Nothing  can  proceed  from  nothing."  But  something  can 
proceed  from  something,  and  thus  the  Deity  produced  this  vast 
and  beautiful  frame  of  the  universe  out  of  nothing ;  that  is,  He 
had  no  preexistent  matter  to  work  upon,  or  to  change  from  a 
chaos  into  a  world.  But  He  produced  a  world  into  being  by  his 
Almighty  fiat,  perhaps,  in  a  manner  analogous  to  the  production 
of  resolutions  in  our  minds.  This  week  I  have  read  one  volume 
of  Duncan  Forbes's  works,  and  one  half  of  Bentley's  Sermons 
at  the  Boilean  Lectures. 

24.  Monday.  Had  the  projectile  force  in  the  planets  been 
greater  than  it  is,  they  would  not  describe  circles,  but  very 


^t.  20.]  DIARY.  J  9 

eccentrical  ellipses  round  the  sun;  and  then  the  inhabitants 
would  be  tormented,  yea,  destroyed,  and  the  planets  left  barren 
and  uninhabitable  wastes,  by  extreme  vicissitudes  of  heat  and 
cold.  It  was  many  million  times  as  likely  that  some  other 
degree  of  velocity  would  have  been  lighted  on,  as  that  the 
present  would,  if  chance  had  the  disposal  of  it ;  and  any  other 
degree  would  have  absolutely  destroyed  all  animal  and  sensitive, 
if  not  vegetable,  inhabitants.  Ergo,  an  intelligent  and  benevo- 
lent mind  had  the  disposal  and  determination  of  these  tilings. 

28.  Friday.  If  we  examine  critically  the  little  prospect  that 
lies  around  us,  at  one  view  we  behold  an  almost  infinite  variety 
of  substances  over  our  heads.  The  sun  blazes  in  divine  efful- 
gence ;  the  clouds,  tinged  with  various  colors  by  the  refracted 
sunbeams,  exhibit  most  beautiful  appearances  in  the  atmosphere. 
The  cultivated  plains  and  meadows  are  attired  in  a  delightful 
verdure,  and  variegated  with  the  gay  enamel  of  flowers  and 
roses ;  on  one  hand  we  see  an  extensive  forest,  a  whole  kingdom 
of  vegetables  of  the  noblest  land;  upon  the  hills  we  discern 
flocks  of  grazing  cattle ;  and  on  the  other  hand  a  city  rises  up  to 
view,  with  its  spires  among  the  clouds.  All  these,  and  many 
more  objects  encounter  our  eyes  in  the  prospect  of  our  horizon, 
perhaps  two  or  three  miles  in  diameter.  Now  every  animal  that 
we  see  in  this  prospect,  men  and  beasts,  is  endued  with  a  most 
curiously  organized  body.  They  consist  of  bones,  and  blood, 
and  muscles,  and  nerves,  and  ligaments,  and  tendons,  and  chyle, 
and  a  million  other  things,  all  exactly  fitted  for  the  purposes  of 
life,  and  motion,  and  action.  Every  plant  has  almost  as  com- 
plex and  curious  a  structure  as  animals ;  and  the  minutest  twig 
is  supported  and  supplied  with  juices  and  life,  by  organs  and 
filaments  proper  to  draw  this  nutrition  of  the  earth.  It  would 
be  endless  to  consider,  minutely,  every  substance  or  species  of 
substances  that  falls  under  our  eyes  in  this  one  prospect.  Now 
let  us  for  a  minute  consider  how  many  million  such  prospects 
there  are  upon  this  single  planet,  all  of  which  contain  as  great, 
and  some  a  much  greater  variety  of  animals  and  vegetables. 
When  we  have  been  sufficiently  astonished  at  this  incomprehen- 
sible multitude  of  substances,  let  us  rise  in  our  thoughts,  and 
consider  how  many  planets,  and  satellites,  and  comets,  there  are 
in  this  one  solar  system,  each  of  which  has  as  many  such  pros- 
pects upon  its  surface  as  our  earth.     Such  a  view  as  this  may 


20  DIARY.  [1756. 

suffice  to  show  us  our  ignorance ;  but  if  we  rise  still  higher  in 
our  thoughts,  and  consider  that  stupendous  army  of  fixed  stars 
that  is  hung  up  in  the  immense  space,  as  so  many  suns,  each 
placed  in  the  centre  of  his  respective  system,  and  diffusing  his 
enlivening  and  invigorating  influences  to  his  whole  choir  of 
planets,  comets,  and  satellites ;  and  that  each  of  this  unnumbered 
multitude  has  as  much  superficies,  and  as  many  prospects,  as 
our  earth,  we  find  ourselves  lost  and  swallowed  up  in  this  incom- 
prehensible, (I  had  almost  said)  infinite  magnificence  of  nature. 
Our  imaginations,  after  a  few  faint  efforts,  sink  down  into  a 
profound  admiration  of  what  they  cannot  comprehend.  God, 
whose  almighty  fiat  first  produced  this  amazing  universe,  had 
the  whole  plan  in  view  from  all  eternity ;  intimately  and  perfectly 
knew  the  nature  and  all  the  properties  of  all  these  his  creatures. 
He  looked  forward  through  all  duration,  and  perfectly  knew  all 
the  effects,  all  the  events  and  revolutions  that  could  possibly  and 
would  actually  take  place  throughout  eternity. 

29.  Saturday.     Drank  tea  at  Mr.  Putnam's. 

What  is  the  proper  business  of  mankind  in  this  life  ?  We 
come  into  the  world  naked,  and  destitute  of  all  the  conveniences 
and  necessaries  of  life ;  and  if  we  were  not  provided  for  and 
nourished  by  our  parents,  or  others,  should  inevitably  perish  as 
soon  as  born ;  we  increase  in  strength  of  body  and  mind,  by  slow 
and  insensible  degrees ;  one  third  of  our  time  is  consumed  in 
sleep,  and  three  sevenths  of  the  remainder  is  spent  in  procuring  a 
mere  animal  sustenance ;  and  if  we  live  to  the  age  of  threescore 
and  ten,  and  then  sit  down  to  make  an  estimate  in  our  minds 
of  the  happiness  we  have  enjoyed,  and  the  misery  we  have 
suffered,  we  shall  find,  I  am  apt  to  think,  that  the  overbalance 
of  happiness  is  quite  inconsiderable.  We  shall  find  that  we  have 
been,  through  the  greatest  part  of  our  lives,  pursuing  shadows, 
and  empty  but  glittering  phantoms,  rather  than  substances. 
We  shall  find  that  we  have  applied  our  whole  vigor,  all  our 
faculties,  in  the  pursuit  of  honor,  or  wealth,  or  learning,  or  some 
other  such  delusive  trifle,  instead  of  the  real  and  everlasting 
excellencies  of  piety  and  virtue.  Habits  of  contemplating  the 
Deity  and  his  transcendent  excellencies,  and  correspondent  hab- 
its of  complacency  in,  and  dependence  upon  him ;  habits  of 
reverence  and  gratitude  to  God,  and  habits  of  love  and  compas- 
sion to  our  fellow  men;   and  habits  of  temperance,  recollection, 


JEt.  20.]  DIARY.  2i 

and  self-government,  will  afford  us  a  real  and  substantial  pleasure. 
We  may  then  exult  in  a  consciousness  of  the  favor  of  God,  and 
the  prospect  of  everlasting  felicity. 

30.  Sunday.  Heard  Mr.  Maccarty.  "  You,  who  are  sinners, 
are  in  continual  danger  of  being  swallowed  up  quick,  and  borne 
away  by  the  mighty  torrent  of  God's  wrath  and  justice.  It  is 
now,  as  it  were,  restrained  and  banked  up  by  his  goodness.  But 
he  will,  by  and  by,  unless  repentance  prevent,  let  it  out  in  full 
fury  upon  you."  This  week  I  have  wrote  the  eighth  Sermon  of 
Bentley's  Boilean  Lectures.  Read  part  of  the  first  volume  of 
/   Voltaire's  Age  of  Louis  XIV.     I  make  poor  weeks'  works. 

l^I7~Monday.  When  we  see  or  feel  any  body,  we  discern 
nothing  but  bulk  and  extension.  We  can  change  this  extension 
into  a  great  variety  of  shapes  and  figures,  and,  by  applying  our 
senses  to  it,  can  get  ideas  of  those  different  figures ;  but  can  do 
nothing  more  than  change  the  figure.  If  we  pulverize  glass  or 
salt,  the  original  constituent  matter  remains  the  same,  only  we 
have  altered  the  contexture  of  its  parts.  Large  loads  and  heaps 
of  matter,  as  mountains  and  rocks,  lie  obstinate,  inactive,  and 
motionless,  and  eternally  will  remain  so,  unless  moved  by  some 
force  extrinsic  to  themselves.  Dissolve  the  cohesion,  and  reduce 
these  mountains  to  their  primogenial  atoms ;  these  atoms  are  as 
dull  and  senseless  as  they  were  when  combined  into  the  shape 
of  a  mountain.  In  short,  matter  has  no  consciousness  of  its 
own  existence,  has  no  power  of  its  own,  no  active  power  I  mean, 
but  is  wholly  passive  ;  nor  can  thought  be  ever  produced  by  any 
modification  of  it.  To  say  that  God  can  superadd  to  matter  a 
capacity  of  thought,  is  palpable  nonsense  and  contradiction. 
Such  a  capacity  is  inconsistent  with  the  most  essential  proper- 
ties of  matter. 

June  1.  Tuesday.  The  reasoning  of  mathematicians  is 
founded  on  certain  and  infallible  principles.  Every  word  they 
use  conveys  a  determinate  idea,  and  by  accurate  definitions  they 
excite  the  same  ideas  in  the  mind  of  the  reader  that  were  in  the 
mind  of  the  writer.  When  they  have  defined  the  terms  they 
intend  to  make  use  of,  they  premise  a  few  axioms,  or  self-evident 
principles,  that  every  man  must  assent  to  as  soon  as  proposed. 
They  then  take  for  granted  certain  postulates,  that  no  one  can 
deny  them,  such  as,  that  a  right  line  may  be  drawn  from  one 
given  point  to  another;  and  from  these  plain  simple  principles 


22  DIARY.  [1756. 

they  have  raised  most  astonishing  speculations,  and  proved  the 
extent  of  the  human  mind  to  be  more  spacious  and  capable 
than  any  other  science. 

2.  Wednesday.  When  we  come  into  the  world,  our  minds 
are  destitute  of  all  sorts  of  ideas.  Our  senses  inform  us  of 
various  qualities  in  the  substances  around  us ;  as  we  grow  up 
our  acquaintance  with  things  enlarges  and  spreads ;  colors  are 
painted  in  our  minds  through  our  eyes ;  all  the  various  modula- 
tions of  sounds  enter  by  our  ears ;  fragrance  and  foetor  are  per- 
ceived by  the  smell ;  extension  and  bulk  by  the  touch.  These 
ideas  that  enter,  simple  and  uncompounded,  through  our  senses, 
are  called  simple  ideas,  because  they  are  absolutely  one  and 
indivisible.  Thus,  the  whiteness  of  snow  cannot  be  divided  or 
separated  into  two  or  more  whitenesses.  The  same  may  be  said 
of  all  other  colors.  It  is,  indeed,  in  our  power  to  mix  or  com- 
pound colors  into  new  and  more  beautiful  appearances  than  any 
that  are  to  be  found  in  nature;  so  we  can  combine  various 
sounds  into  one  melodious  tune  ;  in  short,  we  can  modify  and 
dispose  the  simple  ideas  of  sensation  into  whatever  shape  we 
please.  But  these  ideas  can  enter  our  minds  no  other  way  but 
through  the  senses.  A  man  born  blind  will  never  gain  one  idea 
of  light  or  color.  One  born  deaf  will  never  get  an  idea  of 
sound. 

5.  Saturday.     Dreamed  away  the  afternoon. 

14.  Monday.  He  is  not  a  wise  man,  and  is  unfit  to  fill  any 
important  station  in  society,  that  has  left  one  passion  in  his  soul 
unsubdued.  The  love  of  glory  will  make  a  General  sacrifice  the 
interest  of  his  nation  to  his  own  fame.  Avarice  exposes  some 
to  corruption,  and  all  to  a  thousand  meannesses  and  villanies 
destructive  to  society.  Love  has  deposed  lawful  kings,  and 
aggrandized  unlawful,  ill  deserving  courtiers.  Envy  is  more 
studious  of  eclipsing  the  lustre  of  other  men  by  indirect  strata- 
gems, than  of  brightening  its  own  lustre  by  great  and  meritorious 
actions.  These  passions  should  be  bound  fast,  and  brought  under 
the  yoke.  Untamed,  they  are  lawless  bulls ;  they  roar  and 
bluster,  defy  all  control,  and  sometimes  murder  their  proper 
owner.  But,  properly  inured  to  obedience,  they  take  their  places 
under  the  yoke  without  noise,  and  labor  vigorously  in  their 
master's  service.  From  a  sense  of  the  government  of  God,  and 
a  regard  to  the  laws  established  by  his  providence,  should  all 


Mt.  20.]  DIARY.  23 

our  actions  for  ourselves  or  for  other  men  primarily  originate; 
and  this  master  passion  in  a  good  man's  soul,  like  the  larger 
fishes  of  prey,  will  swallow  up  and  destroy  all  the  rest. 

15.  Tuesday.  Consider  for  one  minute  the  changes  produced 
in  this  country  within  the  space  of  two  hundred  years.  Then  the 
whole  continent  was  one  continued  dismal  wilderness,  the  haunt 
of  wolves  and  bears  and  more  savage  men.  Now  the  forests 
are  removed,  the  land  covered  with  fields  of  corn,  orchards 
bending  with  fruit,  and  the  magnificent  habitations  of  rational 
and  civilized  people.  Then,  our  rivers  flowed  through  gloomy 
deserts  and  offensive  swamps.  Now,  the  same  rivers  glide 
smoothly  on,  through  rich  countries  fraught  with  every  delightful 
object,  and  through  meadows  painted  with  the  most  beautiful 
scenery  of  nature  and  of  art.  The  narrow  huts  of  the  Indians 
have  been  removed,  and  in  their  room  have  arisen  fair  and  lofty 
edifices,  large  and  well  compacted  cities. 

July  21.  Wednesday.  Kept  school.  I  am  now  entering  on 
another  year,  and  I  am  resolved  not  to  neglect  my  time  as  I  did 
last  year.  I  am  resolved  to  rise  with  the  sun,  and  to  study  the 
Scriptures  on  Thursday,  Friday,  Saturday,  and  Sunday  morn- 
ings, and  to  study  some  Latin  author  the  other  three  mornings. 
Noons  and  nights  I  intend  to  read  English  authors.  This  is  my 
fixed  determination ;  and  I  will  set  down  every  neglect  and  every 
compliance  with  this  resolution.  May  I  blush  whenever  I  suffer 
one  hour  to  pass  unimproved.  I  will  rouse  up  my  mind  and  fix 
my  attention ;  I  will  stand  collected  within , myself,  and  think 
upon  what  I  read  and  what  I  see ;  I  will  strive,  with  all  my 
soul,  to  be  something  more  than  persons  who  have  had  less 
advantages  than  myself. 

22.  Thursday.  Fast  day.  Rose  not  till  seven  o'clock.  This 
is  the  usual  fate  of  my  resolutions.  Wrote  the  first  three  chap- 
ters of  St.  James.  Wrote  in  Bolingbroke  pretty  industriously. 
Spent  the  evening  at  Mr.  Paine's.  The  years  of  my  youth  are 
marked  by  divine  Providence  with  various  and  with  great  events. 
The  last  year  is  rendered  conspicuous,  in  the  memorials  of  past 
ages,  by  a  series  of  very  remarkable  events,  of  various  kinds. 
The  year  opened  with  the  projection  of  three  expeditions,1  to 
prevent  the  further,  and  remove  the  present,  depredations  and 

1  The  events  referred  to  are  fully  narrated  in  all  the  histories  of  the  time. 
Hutchinson,  in.  31-42.     Grahame,  iii.  382,  et  seq.    Hildreik,  ii.  455,  et  seq. 


24  DIARY.  [1756. 

encroachments  of  our  turbulent  French  neighbors.  I  shall  not 
minute  the  gradual  steps  advanced  by  each  army,  but  only  the 
issue  of  each.  Braddock,  the  commander  of  the  forces  destined 
against  Du  Quesne,  and  six  or  seven  hundred  of  his  men,  were 
butchered  in  a  maimer  unexampled  in  history ;  all  routed  and 
destroyed  without  doing  the  least  injury,  that  we  know  of,  to 
the  enemy.  Johnson,  with  his  army,  was  attacked  by  the  Baron 
Dieskau,  but  happily  maintained  his  ground  and  routed  the 
enemy,  taking  Dieskau  prisoner.  Monckton  and  Winslow,  at 
Nova  Scotia,  gained  their  point,  took  the  fortresses,  and  sent  oft' 
the  inhabitants  into  these  provinces.  Boscawen  bravely  defended 
our  coast  with  his  fleet,  and  made  great  havoc  among  the  French 
merchant-ships.  All  these  actions  were  performed  in  a  time  of 
peace.  Sed  paido  majora  canamus.  God  Almighty  has  exerted 
the  strength  of  his  tremendous  arm,  and  shook  one  of  the  finest, 
richest,  and  most  populous  cities  in  Europe,  into  ruin  and  deso- 
lation, by  an  earthquake.1  The  greatest  part  of  Europe  and 
the  greatest  part  of  America,  have  been  in  violent  convulsions, 
and  admonished  the  inhabitants  of  both  that  neither  riches,  nor 
honors,  nor  the  solid  globe  itself,  is  a  proper  basis  on  which  to 
build  our  hopes  of  security.  The  British  nation  has  been  making 
very  expensive  and  very  formidable  preparations  to  secure  its 
territories  against  an  invasion  by  the  French,  and  to  humble  the 
insolent  tempers  and  aspiring  prospects  of  that  ambitious  and 
faithless  nation.2  The  gathering  of  the  clouds  seems  to  forebode 
very  tempestuous  weather,  and  none  can  tell  but  the  storm  will 
break  heavy  upon  himself  in  particular.  Is  it  not  then  the 
highest  frenzy  and  distraction  to  neglect  these  expostulations  of 
Providence,  and  continue  a  rebellion  against  the  Potentate  who 
alone  has  wisdom  enough  to  perceive,  and  power  enough  to 
procure  for  us  the  only  certain  means  of  happiness,  and  goodness 
enough  to  prompt  him  to  both  ? 

23.  Friday.  Rose  at  seven ;  wrote  the  two  last  chapters  of 
St.  James. 

24.  Saturday.  Rose  at  seven ;  wrote  a  little  in  Greek ;  after- 
noon wrote  Bolingbroke. 

1  The  earthquake  of  the  first  of  November,  1755,  which  destroyed  Lisbon, 
and  was  followed  in  America  by  that  mentioned  in  the  first  page  of  the  Diary. 

2  It  was  part  of  Governor  Shirley's  plan  lor  175G,  to  remove  the  French 
from  the  Lakes;  to  this  end  he  proposed  to  raise  three  thousand  men  in  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  as  the  proportion  of  the  Province  to  an  army  of  nine  thousand,  to  be 
completed  by  the  rest  of  New  England  and  New  York.     Hutchinson,  iii.  14-46. 


JEt.  20.]  DIARY.  25 

25.  Sunday.  Rose  at  half  after  six.  Good  sense,  some  say, 
is  enough  to  regulate  our  conduct,  and  to  dictate  thoughts  and 
actions  which  are  proper  upon  certain  occasions.  This,  they  say, 
will  soften  and  refine  the  motions  of  our  limbs  into  an  easy  and 
agreeable  air,  although  the  dancing  master  was  never  applied  to ; 
and  this  will  suggest  good  answers,  good  observations,  and  good 
expressions  to  us,  better  than  refined  breeding.  Good  sense  will 
make  us  remember  that  others  have  as  good  a  right  to  think  for 
themselves,  and  to  speak  their  own  opinions,  as  we  have ;  that 
another  man's  making  a  silly  speech  does  not  warrant  my  ill 
nature  and  pride  in  grasping  the  opportunity  to  ridicule  him  and 
show  my  wit ;  a  puffy,  vain,  conceited  conversation,  never  fails 
to  bring  a  man  into  contempt,  although  his  natural  endowments 
be  ever  so  great,  and  his  application  and  industry  ever  so  intense ; 
no  accomplishments,  no  virtues,  are  a  sufficient  atonement  for 
vanity  and  a  haughty  overbearing  temper  in  conversation ;  and 
such  is  the  humor  of  the  world,  the  greater  a  man's  parts,  and  the 
nobler  his  virtues  in  other  respects,  the  more  derision  and  ridicule 
does  this  one  vice  and  folly  throw  him  into.  Good  sense  is  gen- 
erally attended  with  a  very  lively  sense  and  delight  in  applause ; 
the  love  of  fame  in  such  men  is  generally  much  stronger  than  in 
other  people,  and  this  passion,  it  must  be  confessed,  is  apt  to 
betray  men  into  impertinent  exertions  of  their  talents,  sometimes 
into  censorious  remarks  upon  others,  often  into  little  meannesses 
to  sound  the  opinions  of  others,  and,  oftenest  of  all,  into  a  child- 
ish affectation  of  wit  and  gayety.  I  must  own  myself  to  have 
been,  to  a  very  heinous  degree,  guilty  in  this  respect ;  when  in 
company  with  persons  much  superior  to  myself  in  years  and 
place,  I  have  talked  to  show  my  learning;  I  have  been  too  bold 
with  great  men,  which  boldness  will,  no  doubt,  be  called  self- 
conceit  ;  I  have  made  ill  natured  remarks  upon  the  intellectuals, 
manners,  practice,  &c,  of  other  people ;  I  have  foolishly  aimed 
at  wit  and  spirit,  at  making  a  shining  figure  in  gay  company ; 
but,  instead  of  shining  brighter,  I  only  clouded  the  few  rays  that 
before  rendered  me  visible.  Such  has  been  my  unhappy  fate. 
I  now  resolve,  for  the  future,  never  to  say  an  illnatured  thing 
concerning  ministers  or  the  ministerial  profession ;  never  to  say 
an  envious  thing  concerning  governors,  judges,  ministers,  clerks, 
sheriffs,  lawyers,  or  any  other  honorable  or  lucrative  offices  or 
officers ;    never  to  affect  wit  upon  laced  waistcoats,  or  large 

VOL.    II.  3 


26  DIARY.  [1756. 

estates,  or  their  possessors  ;  never  to  show  my  own  importance 
or  superiority  by  remarking  the  foibles,  vices,  or  inferiority  of 
others.  But  I  now  resolve,  as  far  as  lies  in  me,  to  take  notice 
chiefly  of  the  amiable  qualities  of  other  people ;  to  put  the  most 
favorable  construction  upon  the  weaknesses,  bigotry,  and  errors 
of  others,  &c. ;  and  to  labor  more  for  an  inoffensive  and  amiable, 
than  for  a  shining  and  invidious  character. 

26.  Monday.  Rose  at  seven ;  read  carefully  thirty  lines'  in 
Virgil. 

27.  Tuesday.  Read  carefully  thirty  lines  in  Virgil.  Wrote  a 
little  in  Bolingbroke  at  noon,  and  a  little  at  night.  Spent  the 
evening  at  Mr.  Putnam's. 

28.  Wednesday.  Read  about  forty  lines  in  Virgil,  and  wrote 
a  little  at  noon.     Nothing  more. 

29.  Thursday.     Rose  at  half  after  six ;  read  a  little  Greek. 

30.  Friday.     Dreamed  away  the  time. 

31.  Saturday.  The  nature  and  essence  of  the  material  world 
is  not  less  concealed  from  our  knowledge  than  the  nature  and 
essence  of  God.  We  see  ourselves  surrounded  on  all  sides  with 
a  vast  expanse  of  heavens,  and  we  feel  ourselves  astonished  at 
the  grandeur,  the  blazing  pomp  of  those  stars  with  which  it  is 
adorned.  The  birds  fly  over  our  heads  and  our  fellow  animals 
labor  and  sport  around  us ;  the  trees  wave  and  murmur  in  the 
winds ;  the  clouds  float  and  shine  on  high ;  the  surging  billows 
rise  in  the  sea,  and  ships  break  through  the  ternpest ;  here  rises 
a  spacious  city,  and  yonder  is  spread  out  an  extensive  plain. 
These  objects  are  so  common  and  familiar  that  we  think  ourselves 
fully  acquainted  with  them ;  but  these  are  only  effects  and  pro- 
perties ;  the  substance  from  whence  they  flow  is  hid  from  us  in 
impenetrable  obscurity. 

God  is  said  to  be  self-existent,  and  that  therefore  he  must 
have  existed  from  eternity,  and  throughout  immensity.  God 
exists  by  an  absolute  necessity  in  his  own  nature ;  that  is,  it 
implies  a  contradiction  to  suppose  him  not  to  exist.  To  ask 
what  this  necessity  is,  is  as  if  you  should  ask  what  the  necessity 
of  the  equality  between  twice  two  and  four  is ;  twice  two  are 
necessarily  in  their  own  nature  equal  to  four,  not  only  here,  but 
in  every  point  of  space;  not  only  now,  but  in  every  point  of 
duration.  In  the  same  manner  God  necessarily  exists,  not  only 
here,  but  throughout  unlimited  space ;  not  only  now,  but  through- 


JEt.  20.]  DIARY.  27 

out  all  duration,  past  and  future.  We  observe  in  the  animate 
and  in  the  inanimate  creation  a  surprising  diversity  and  a  sur- 
prising uniformity.  Of  inanimate  substances  there  is  a  great 
variety,  from  the  pebble  in  the  streets  quite  up  to  the  vegetables 
in  the  forest ;  of  animals  there  is  no  less  a  variety  of  species,  from 
the  animalcula,  that  escape  our  naked  sight,  quite  through  the 
intermediate  kinds  up  to  elephants,  horses,  men.  Yet,  notwith- 
standing this  variety,  there  is,  from  the  highest  species  of  animals 
upon  this  globe,  which  is  generally  thought  to  be  man,  a  regular 
and  uniform  subordination  of  one  tribe  to  another,  down  to  the 
apparently  insignificant  animalcules  in  pepper  water;  and  the 
same  subordination  continues  quite  through  the  vegetable  king- 
dom. And  it  is  worth  observing  that  each  species  regularly  and 
uniformly  preserve  all  their  essential  and  peculiar  properties 
without  partaking  of  the  peculiar  properties  of  others.  We  do 
not  see  chickens  hatched  with  fins  to  swim ;  nor  fishes  spawned 
with  wings  to  fly ;  we  do  not  see  a  colt  foaled  with  claws  like  a 
bird,  nor  man  with  the  clothing  or  armor  which  his  reason  renders 
him  capable  of  procuring  for  himself.  Every  species  has  its 
distinguishing  properties,  and  every  individual  that  is  born  has 
all  those  properties  without  any  of  the  distinguishing  properties 
of  another  species.  What  now  can  preserve  this  prodigious 
variety  of  species  and  this  inflexible  uniformity  among  the 
individuals  but  the  continual  and  vigilant  providence  of  God  ? 

August  1.  Sunday.  Heard  Mr.  Maccarty  all  day.  Spent  the 
evening  at  the  Colonel's.  The  event  shows  that  my  resolutions 
are  of  a  very  thin  and  vapory  consistency.  Almost  a  fortnight 
has  passed  since  I  came  to  Worcester  the  last  time ;  some  part 
of  the  time  I  have  spent  as  frugally  and  industriously  as  I 
possibly  could  ;  but  the  greatest  part  I  have  dreamed  away  as 
usual.  I  am  now  entering  upon  a  new  month  and  a  new 
week ;  and  I  should  think  that  one  month  would  carry  me 
forward  considerably,  if  I  could  keep  up  a  continual  presence 
of  mind  and  a  close  application  at  all  proper  times ;  this  I  will 
labor  after. 

2.  Monday.  Agreeably  to  the  design  laid  last  night,  I  arose 
this  morning  before  the  sun. 

7.  Saturday.  All  this  past  week  my  designs  have  been  inter- 
rupted by  the  troubles  and  confusion  of  the  house.  I  shall  be 
able  to  resume  the  thread  of  my  studies,  I  hope,  now.     Wrote 


28  DIARY.  [1756. 

pretty  industriously  in  Bolingbroke.  I  have  never  looked  atten- 
tively into  my  own  breast;  I  have  never  considered  (as  I  ought) 
the  surprising  faculties  and  operations  of  the  mind.  *  Our  minds 
are  capable  of  receiving  an  infinite  variety  of  ideas  from  those 
numerous  material  objects  with  which  we  are  surrounded ;  and 
the  vigorous  impressions  which  we  receive  from  these,  our  minds 
are  capable  of  retaining,  compounding,  and  arranging  into  all 
the  varieties  of  picture  and  of  figure ;  our  minds  are  able  to 
retain  distinct  comprehensions  of  an  infinite  multitude  of  things, 
without  the  least  labor  or  fatigue.  By  curiously  inquiring  into 
the  situation,  fruits,  produce,  manufactures,  &c,  of  our  own, 
and  by  travelling  into  or  reading  about  other  countries,  we  can 
gain  distinct  ideas  of  almost  every  thing  upon  this  earth,  at 
present ;  and  by  looking  into  history  we  can  settle  in  our  minds 
a  clear  and  a  comprehensive  view  of  this  earth  at  its  creation ; 
of  its  various  changes  and  revolutions ;  of  its  various  catastro- 
phes ;  of  its  progressive  cultivation,  sudden  depopulation,  and 
gradual  repeopling;  of  the  growth  of  several  kingdoms  and 
empires ;  of  their  wealth  and  commerce,  wars  and  politics ;  of 
the  characters  of  their  principal  leading  men  ;  of  their  grandeur 
and  power ;  of  their  virtues  and  vices ;  and  of  their  insensible 
decays  at  first,  and  of  their  swift  destruction  at  last.  In  fine, 
we  can  attend  the  earth  from  its  nativity  through  all  the  various 
turns  of  fortune ;  through  all  its  successive  changes ;  through  all 
the  events  that  happen  on  its  surface ;  and  through  all  the  suc- 
cessive generations  of  mankind  to  the  final  conflagration,  when 
the  whole  earth,  with  all  its  appendages,  shall  be  consumed  and 
dissolved  by  the  furious  element  of  fire.  And  after  our  minds 
are  furnished  with  this  ample  store  of  ideas,  far  from  feeling 
burdened  or  overloaded,  our  thoughts  are  more  free,  and  active, 
and  clear  than  before,  and  we  are  capable  of  diffusing  our 
acquaintance  with  things  much  further ;  we  are  not  satiated 
with  knowledge  ;  our  curiosity  is  only  improved  and  increased ; 
our  thoughts  rove  beyond  the  visible  diurnal  sphere ;  they  range 
through  the  heavens  and  lose  themselves  amidst  a  labyrinth  of 
worlds ;  and,  not  contented  with  what  is,  they  run  forward  into 
futurity,  and  search  for  new  employment  there.  Here,  they  can 
never  stop ;  the  wide,  the  boundless  prospect  lies  before  them ; 
here  alone  they  find  objects  adequate  to  their  desires. 

I  know  not  by  what  fatality  it  happens,  but  I  seem  to  have  a 


i£T.  20.]  DIARY.  99 

necessity  upon  me  of  trifling  away  my  time.     Have  not  read  fifty 
lines  in  Virgil  this  week ;  have  wrote  very  little. 

12.  Thursday.    Friday.     I  know  not  what  became  of  these 
days. 

14.  Saturday.  I  seem  to  have  lost  sight  of  the  object  that 
I  resolved  to  pursue.  Dreams  and  slumbers,  sloth  and  negli- 
gence, will  be  the  ruin  of  my  schemes.  However,  I  seem  to  be 
awake  now ;  why  can't  I  keep  awake  ?  I  have  wrote  Scrip- 
ture pretty  industriously  this  morning.  Why  am  I  so  unreason- 
able as  to  expect  happiness,  and  a  solid,  undisturbed  contentment, 
amidst  all  the  disorders  and  the  continual  rotations  of  worldly 
affairs  ?  Stability  is  nowhere  to  be  found  in  that  part  of  the 
universe  that  lies  within  our  observation ;  the  natural  and  the 
moral  world  are  continually  changing ;  the  planets,  with  all  their 
appendages,  strike  out  their  amazing  circles  round  the  sun ;  upon 
the  earth  one  day  is  serene  and  clear,  no  cloud  intercepts  the 
land  influences  of  the  sun,  and  all  nature  seems  to  flourish  and 
look  gay ;  but  these  delightful  scenes  soon  vanish,  and  are  suc- 
ceeded by  the  gloom  and  darkness  of  the  night ;  and,  before  the 
morning  appears,  the  clouds  gather,  the  winds  rise,  lightnings 
glare,  and  thunders  bellow  through  the  vast  of  heaven.  Man 
is  sometimes  flushed  with  joy,  and  transported  with  the  full  fury 
of  sensual  pleasure,  and  the  next  hour  lies  groaning  under  the 
bitter  pangs  of  disappointment  and  adverse  fortune.  Thus,  God 
has  told  us  by  the  general  constitution  of  the  world,  by  the 
nature  of  all  terrestrial  enjoyments,  and  by  the  constitution  of  our 
own  bodies,  that  this  world  was  not  designed  for  a  lasting  and 
a  happy  state,  but  rather  for  a  state  of  moral  discipline;  that  we 
might  have  a  fair  opportunity  and  continual  incitement  to  labor 
after  a  cheerful  resignation  to  all  the  events  of  Providence,  after 
habits  of  virtue,  self-government,  and  piety ;  and  this  temper 
of  mind  is  in  our  power  to  acquire,  and  this  alone  can  secure  us 
against  all  the  adversities  of  fortune,  against  all  the  malice  of 
men,  against  all  the  operations  of  nature.  A-world  in  flames, 
and  a  whole  system  tumbling  in  ruins  to  the  centre,  have  nothing 
terrifying  in  them  to  a  man  whose  security  is  builded  on  the  ada- 
mantine basis  of  good  conscience  and  confirmed  piety.  If  I  could 
but  conform  my  life  and  conversation  to  my  speculations,  I 
should  be  happy.  Have  I  hardiness  enough  to  contend  with 
Omnipotence  ?  or  have  I  cunning  enough  to  elude  Infinite  Wis- 

3* 


[ 


30  DIARY.  [175G. 

dom  ?  or  ingratitude  enough  to  spurn  at  Infinite  Goodness  ? 
The  situation  that  I  am  in,  and  the  advantages  that  I  enjoy,  are 
thought  to  be  the  best  for  me  by  Him  who  alone  is  competent 
to  judge  of  fitness  and  propriety.  Shall  I  then  complain?  Oh! 
madness,  pride,  impiety ! 

15.  Sunday.  If  one  man  or  being,  out  of  pure  generosity  and 
without  any  expectation  of  returns,  is  about  to  confer  any  favor 
or  emolument  upon  another,  he  has  a  right  and  is  at  liberty  to 
choose  in  what  manner  and  by  what  means  to  confer  it.  He 
may  convey  the  favor  by  his  own  hand  or  by  the  hand  of  his 
servant,  and  the  obligation  to  gratitude  is  equally  strong  upon 
the  benefited  being.  The  mode  of  bestowing  does  not  dimin- 
ish the  kindness,  provided  the  commodity  or  good  is  brought  to 
us  equally  perfect,  and  without  our  expense.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  if  one  being  is  the  original  cause  of  pain,  sorrow,  or 
suffering  to  another,  voluntarily  and  without  provocation,  it  is 
injurious  to  that  other,  whatever  means  he  might  employ,  and 
whatever  circumstances  the  conveyance  of  the  injury  might  be 
attended  with.  Thus,  we  are  equally  obliged  to  the  Supreme 
Being  for  the  information  he  has  given  us  of  our  duty,  whether 
by  the  constitution  of  our  minds  and  bodies,  or  by  a  supernatural 
revelation.  For  an  instance  of  the  latter  let  us  take  original  sin. 
Some  say  that  Adam's  sin  was  enough  to  damn  the  whole  human 
race,  without  any  actual  crimes  committed  by  any  of  them. 
Now  this  guilt  is  brought  upon  them  not  by  their  own  rashness 
and  indiscretion,  not  by  their  own  wickedness  and  vice,  but  by 
the  Supreme  Being.  This  guilt  brought  upon  us  is  a  real  injury 
and  misfortune,  because  it  renders  us  worse  than  not  to  be ;  and, 
therefore,  making  us  guilty  upon  account  of  Adam's  delegation 
or  representing  all  of  us,  is  not  in  the  least  diminishing  the 
injury  and  injustice,  but  only  changing  the  mode  of  conveyance. 

22.  Sunday.  Yesterday  I  completed  a  contract  with  Mr. 
Putnam  to  study  law,  under  his  inspection,  for  two  years.*     I 

*  [But  the  Law  attracted  my  attention  more  and  more,  and,  attending  the 
courts  of  justice,  where  I  heard  Worthington,  Hawley,  Trowbridge,  Putnam, 
and  others,  I  felt  myself  irresistibly  impelled  to  make  some  effort  to  accomplish 
my  wishes.  I  made  a  visit  to  Mr.  Putnam  and  oifered  myself  to  him ;  he 
received  me  with  politeness  and  even  kindness ;  took  a  few  days  to  consider  of 
it,  and  then  informed  me  that  Mrs.  Putnam  had  consented  that  I  should  board 
in  his  house  ;  that  1  should  pay  no  more  than  the  sum  allowed  for  my  lodgings,  and 
that  I  should  pay  him  a  hundred  dollars  when  I  should  find  it  convenient.  I  agreed 
to  his  proposals,  without  hesitation,  and  immediately  took  possession  of  his  office.] 


Mr.  20.]  DIARY.  31 

ought  to  begin  with  a  resolution  to  oblige  and  please  him  and 
his  lady  in  a  particular  manner ;  I  ought  to  endeavor  to  oblige 
and  please  everybody,  but  them  in  particular.  Necessity  drove 
me  to  this  determination,  but  my  inclination,  I  think,  was  to 
preach ;  however,  that  would  not  do.  But  I  set  out  with  firm 
resolutions,  I  think,  never  to  commit  any  meanness  or  injustice 
in  the  practice  of  law.  The  study  and  practice  of  law,  I  am 
sure,  does  not  dissolve  the  obligations  of  morality  or  of  religion ; 
and,  although  the  reason  of  my  quitting  divinity  was  my  opinion 
concerning  some  disputed  points,  I  hope  I  shall  not  give  reason 
of  offence,  to  any  in  that  profession,  by  imprudent  warmth. 

Heard  Crawford  upon  the  love  of  God.  The  obligation  that 
is  upon  us  to  love  God,  he  says,  arises  from  the  instances  of 
his  love  and  goodness  to  us.  He  has  given  us  an  existence 
and  a  nature  which  render  us  capable  of  enjoying  happiness 
and  of  suffering  misery.  He  has  given  us  several  senses,  and  has 
furnished  the  world  around  us  with  a  variety  of  objects  proper  to 
delight  and  entertain  them.  He  has  hung  up  in  the  heavens  over 
our  heads,  and  has  spread  in  the  fields  of  nature  around  about  us, 
those  glorious  shows  and  appearances  by  which  our  eyes  and  our 
imaginations  are  so  extremely  delighted.  We  are  pleased  with 
the  beautiful  appearance  of  the  flowers ;  we  are  agreeably  enter- 
tained with  the  prospect  of  forests  and  meadows,  of  verdant 
fields  and  mountains  covered  with  flocks.  We  are  thrown  into 
a  kind  of  transport  and  amazement  when  we  behold  the  amaz- 
ing concave  of  heaven  sprinkled  and  glittering  with  stars.  He 
has  also  bestowed  upon  the  vegetable  species  a  fragrance  that 
can  almost  as  agreeably  entertain  our  sense  of  smell.  He  has  so 
wonderfully  constituted  the  air,  that  by  giving  it  a  particular 
kind  of  vibration,  it  produces  in  us  as  intense  sensations  of 
pleasure  as  the  organs  of  our  bodies  can  bear,  in  all  the  varieties 
of  harmony  and  concord.  But  all  the  provision  that  He  has  made 
for  the  gratification  of  our  senses,  though  very  engaging  and 
unmerited  instances  of  goodness,  is  much  inferior  to  the  provi- 
sion, the  wonderful  provision  that  He  has  made  for  the  gratifica- 
tion of  our  nobler  powers  of  intelligence  and  reason.  He  has  given 
us  reason  to  find  out  the  truth,  and  the  real  design  and  true  end 
of  our  existence,  and  has  made  all  endeavors  to  promote  them 
agreeable  to  our  minds,  and  attended  with  a  conscious  pleasure 
and  complacency.     On  the  contrary,  He  has  made  a  different 


32  DIARY.  [1756. 

course  of  life  —  a  course  of  impiety  and  injustice,  of  malevolence 
and  intemperance  —  appear  shocking  and  deformed  to  our  first 
reflections ;  and  since  it  was  necessary  to  make  us  liable  to  some 
infirmities  and  distempers  of  body,  He  has  plentifully  stored  the 
bowels  and  the  surface  of  the  earth  with  minerals  and  vegetables 
that  are  proper  to  defend  us  from  some  diseases  and  to  restore 
us  to  health  from  others. 

Besides,  the  powers  of  our  reason  and  invention  have  enabled 
us  to  devise  engines  and  instruments  to  take  advantage  of  the 
powers  that  we  find  in  nature,  to  avert  many  calamities  that 
would  otherwise  befall  us,  and  to  procure  many  enjoyments  and 
pleasures  that  we  could  not  otherwise  attain.  He  has  connected 
the  greatest  pleasure  with  the  discovery  of  truth,  and  made  it  our 
interest  to  pursue  with  eagerness  these  intense  pleasures.  Have 
we  not  the  greatest  reason,  then,  yea,  is  it  not  our  indispensable 
duty,  to  return  our  sincere  love  and  gratitude  to  this  greatest, 
kindest,  and  most  profuse  Benefactor  ?  Would  it  not  show  the 
deepest  baseness  and  most  infamous  ingratitude  to  despise  or  to 
disregard  a  being  to  whose  inexhausted  beneficence  we  are  so 
deeply  indebted  ? 

23.  Monday.  Came  to  Mr.  Putnam's  and  began  law,  and 
studied  not  very  closely  this  week. 


vEt.  21.]  DIARY.  33 


The  choice  of  a  profession  having  been  finally  determined,  an  interval  of 
more  than  two  years  occurs  in  the  Diary,  embracing  the  remainder  of  his  term 
of  residence  at  Worcester.  The  following  extracts,  from  the  Autobiography, 
find  their  place  here. 


1757.  [While  I  was  at  Worcester,  three  great  personages 
from  England  passed  through  that  town.  Lord  Loudon  was 
one ;  he  travelled  in  the  winter  from  New  York  to  Boston,  and 
lodged  at  Worcester  in  his  way.  The  relations  we  had  of  his 
manners  and  conduct  on  the  road,  gave  us  no  great  esteem  of 
his  lordship's  qualifications1  to  conduct  the  war,  and  excited 
gloomy  apprehensions.  The  young  Lord  Howe,  who  passed 
from  Boston  to  New  York,  was  the  very  reverse,  and  spread 
everywhere  the  most  sanguine  hopes,  which,  however,  were  too 
soon  disappointed  by  his  melancholy  but  heroic  death.2  The 
third  was  Sir  Geoffrey  Amherst,  afterward  Lord  Amherst,  and 
commander  in  chief  of  the  English  army.  Amherst,  who  had 
arrived  at  Boston  from  the  conquest  of  Louisburg,  marched  with 
his  army  of  four  thousand  men  across  the  country,  and  halted  a 
few  days  at  Worcester,  having  encamped  his  army  on  the  hill 
behind  the  present  court  house.  Here  we  had  an  opportunity 
of  seeing  him,  his  officers  and  army.  The  officers  were  very 
social,  spent  their  evenings  and  took  their  suppers  with  such  of 
the  inhabitants  as  were  able  to  invite  them,  and  entertained  us 
with  their  music  and  then;  dances.  Many  of  them  were  Scotch- 
men in  their  plaids,  and  their  music  was  delightful ;  even  the 
bagpipe  was  not  disagreeable.  The  General  lodged  with  Colonel 
Chandler  the  elder,  and  was  very  inquisitive  concerning  his  farm, 
insisting  on  rambling  over  the  whole  of  it.  The  excellent  order 
and  discipline  observed  by  these  troops,  revived  the  hopes  of  the 
country,  which  were  ultimately  fully  satisfied  by  the  entire  con- 

1  "  Yes,"  said  Innis,  "  but  he  is  like  St  George  on  the  signs,  always  on  horse- 
back, and  never  rides  on."     Franklin's  Works,  i.  p.  219.     Grahame,  iv.  p.  3. 

2  The  Assembly  of  Massachusetts  voted  him  a  monument,  which  was  placed 
in  Westminster  Abbey.     Hutchinson,  iii.  p.  71. 


34  DIARY.  [1757. 

quest  of  Canada,  with  the  help  of  the  militia  of  the  country, 
which  were  sent  on  to  their  assistance x  with  great  confidence. 

At  the  time  when  Fort  William  Henry  was  besieged,  there 
came  down  almost  every  day  despatches  from  the  General  to 
the  New  England  Colonies,  urging  for  troops  and  assistance. 
Colonel  Chandler  the  younger  had  sent  so  many  expresses  that 
he  found  it  difficult  to  get  persons  to  undertake  the  journeys. 
Complaining  of  this  embarrassment  one  evening,  in  company,  I 
told  him  I  had  so  long  led  a  sedentary  life  that  my  health  began 
to  fail  me,  and  that  I  had  an  inclination  to  take  a  journey  on 
horseback.  The  next  morning,  by  daybreak,  he  was  at  my 
chamber  door  with  despatches  for  the  Governor  of  Rhode  Island ; 
he  said  a  horse  was  ready.  Without  hesitation  I  arose  and  was 
soon  mounted.  Too  much  despatch  was  necessary  for  my  com- 
fort, and,  I  believe,  for  my  health ;  for  a  journey  so  fatiguing,  to 
a  man  who  was  not  on  horseback  more  than  once  a  year  on  a 
short  visit  to  his  parents,  I  cannot  think  calculated  to  relieve  a 
valetudinarian.  Arrived  at  Providence  I  was  informed  that  Mr. 
Greene  was  at  Newport,  with  the  General  Assembly.  I  had 
then  to  ride  through  the  Narraganset  country,  and  to  cross  over 
Conanicut  to  Rhode  Island.  In  the  woods  of  Narraganset  I 
met  two  gentlemen  on  horseback,  of  whom  I  took  the  liberty  to 
inquire  whether  the  Governor  was  still  at  Newport  ?  One  of 
them  answered  he  was  not ;  but  the  gentleman  with  him  was 
the  Governor.  My  despatches  were  delivered  to  him,  and  he 
broke  the  seals  and  read  them  on  the  spot.  He  said  he  believed 
the  French  were  determined  to  have  the  country ; 2  asked  many 
questions,  gave  me  many  polite  invitations  to  return  with  him 
to  his  home,  which,  as  he  said  he  had  no  answer  to  return  by 
me,  and  as  I  was  determined  to  see  Newport,  I  civilly  declined. 
Pursuing  my  journey  I  found  a  great  difficulty  to  get  over  the 
water,  as  the  boats  and  men  were  gone  upon  their  usual  employ- 
ment. One  was  found  after  a  time  very  tedious  to  me,  and  I 
landed  on  the  island  and  had  a  good  opportunity  to  see  the 
whole  of  it,  as  my  road  to  Bristol  lay  through  the  whole  length 

1  The  then  small  town  of  Worcester  alone  furnished,  during  the  fifteen  years 
that  the  war  with  the  French  continued,  four  hundred  and  fifty-three  men. 
Lincoln's  Worcester,  p.  66. 

2  "It  is  almost  incredible  that  four  or  five  thousand  men,  most  of  them  Cana- 
dians and  savages,  should  give  such  an  alarm."     Hutchinson,  iii.  p.  60. 


JEt.  22.]  DIARY.  35 

of  it.  To  me  the  whole  island  appeared  a  most  beautiful  garden, 
an  ornamented  farm ;  but  hostile  armies  have  since  degarnished 
it  of  a  principal  embellishment,  the  noble  rows  and  plantations 
of  trees.  Crossing  over  the  ferry  to  Bristol,  I  spent  a  night  with 
Colonel  Green,  whose  lady  was  a  Church,  and  sister  to  Mrs.  John 
Chandler.  Here  I  was  happy,  and  felt  myself  at  home.  Next 
morning  I  pursued  my  journey  to  Worcester.  The  whole  was 
accomplished  in  four  days,  one  of  which  was  Sunday.  As  I 
was  obliged  to  ride  all  that  day,  I  had  an  opportunity  of  observing 
the  manners  of  Rhode  Island ;  —  much  more  gay  and  social  than 
our  Sundays  in  Massachusetts. 

In  1758,  my  period  with  Mr.  Putnam  expired.  Two  gentle- 
men, by  name  Doolittle  and  Baldwin,1  visited  me  in  the  office, 
and  invited  me  to  settle  in  Worcester.  They  said,  as  there  were 
two  sides  to  a  question,  and  two  lawyers  were  always  wanted 
where  there  was  one,  I  might  depend  upon  business  in  my  pro- 
fession ;  they  were  pleased  to  add  that  my  character  was  fair, 
and  well  esteemed  by  all  sorts  of  people  in  the  town  and  through 
the  county;  that  they  wished  to  get  me  chosen  at  the  next 
election,  which  was  very  near,  Register  of  Deeds,  which  would 
procure  me  something  handsome  for  the  present,  and  insure  me 
employment  at  the  bar ;  that,  as  the  Chandler  family  had 
engrossed  almost  all  the  public  offices  and  employment  in  the 
town  and  county,  they  wished  to  select  some  person  qualified 
to  share  with  them  in  those  honors  and  emoluments.  My 
answer  was,  that  as  the  Chandlers  were  worthy  people,  and 
discharged  the  duties  of  their  offices  very  well,  I  envied  not 
their  felicity,  and  had  no  desire  to  set  myself  in  opposition  to 
them,  and  especially  to  Mr.  Putnam,  who  had  married  a  beauti- 
ful daughter  of  that  family,  and  had  treated  me  with  civility 
and  kindness.  But  there  was  one  motive  with  me  which  was 
decisive.  I  was  in  very  ill  health;  and  the  air  of  Worcester 
appeared  to  be  unfriendly  to  me  to  such  a  degree  that  I  panted 
for  want  of  the  breezes  from  the  sea,  and  the  pure  zephyrs  from 
the  rocky  mountains  of  my  native  town ;  that  my  father  and 
mother  invited  me  to  live  with  them ;  and,  as  there  never  had 
been  a  lawyer  in  any  country  part  of  the  then  county  of  Suffolk, 


1  Notices  of  these  gentlemen,  afterwards  active  in  promoting  the  Revolution, 
•will  be  found  in  Lincoln's  History  of  Worcester,  pp.  176,  281. 


36  DIARY.  [1758. 

I  was  determined  at  least  to  look  into  it  and  see  if  there  was 
any  chance  for  me.  They  replied  that  the  town  of  Boston  was 
full  of  lawyers,  and  many  of  them  of  established  characters  for 
long  experience,  great  abilities,  and  extensive  fame,  who  might 
be  jealous  of  such  a  novelty  as  a  lawyer  in  the  country  part  of 
their  county,  and  might  be  induced  to  obstruct  me.  I  returned, 
that  I  was  not  wholly  unknown  to  some  of  the  most  celebrated 
of  those  gentlemen ;  that  I  believed  they  had  too  much  candor 
and  generosity  to  injure  a  young  man ;  and,  at  all  events,  I 
could  try  the  experiment,  and  if  I  should  find  no  hope  of  success, 
I  should  then  think  of  some  other  place  or  some  other  course.] 

1758. 

October  5.  Braintree.  Yesterday  I  arrived  here  from  Wor- 
cester. I  am  this  day  about  beginning  Justinian's  Institutions, 
with  Arnold  Vinnius's  notes ;  I  took  it  out  of  the  library  at 
college.  It  is  intituled  "  D.  Justiniani  sacratissimi  Principis 
Institutionum  sive  Elementorum  Libri  quatuor,  Notis  perpet- 
uis  multo,  quam  hucusque,  diligentius  illustrati,  Cura  et  Studio 
Arnoldi  Vinnii  J.  C.  Editio  novissima  priori  emendatior  et  Pro- 
gressu  Juris  civilis  Romani,  Fragmentis  XII.  Tabularum  et 
Rerum  Nominumque  Lidice  auctior,  ut  ex  Prsefatione  nostra 
patet." 

Now  I  shall  have  an  opportunity  of  judging  of  a  Dutch  com- 
mentator, whom  the  dedicator  calls,  "  Celeberrimus  sua  Eetate  in 
hac  academia  Doctor."  Let  me  read  with  attention,  deliberation, 
distinction.  Let  me  admire  with  knowledge.  It  is  low  to  admire 
a  Dutch  commentator  merelv  because  he  uses  Latin  and  Greek 
phraseology.  Let  me  be  able  to  draw  the  true  character  both 
of  the  text  of  Justinian  and  of  the  notes  of  his  commentator, 
when  I  have  finished  the  book.  Few  of  my  contemporary  begin- 
ners in  the  study  of  the  law  have  the  resolution  to  aim  at  much 
knowledge  in  the  civil  law ;  let  me,  therefore,  distinguish  myself, 
from  them  by  the  study  of  the  civil  law  in  its  native  languages, 
those  of  Greece  and  Rome.  I  shall  gain  the  consideration,  and 
perhaps  favor,  of  Mr.  Gridley  and  Mr.  Pratt  by  this  means.  As 
a  stimulus  let  me  insert  in  this  place,  Justinian's  "  adhortationem 
ad  studium  juris  : —  Sumraa  itaque  ope  et  alacri  studio  has  leges 
nostras  accipite ;  et  vosmetipsos  sic  eruditos  ostendite,  ut  spes 


I 


yEt.  22.]  DIAHY.  37 

vos  pulcherrima  foveat,  toto  legitimo  opere  perfecto,  posse  etiam 
nostram  Rempublicam  in  partibus  ejus  vobis  credendis  guber- 
nari."  Data  Constantinopoli  XL  Kalendas  Decembris,  Domino 
Justiniano  perpetuo  Augusto,  tertium  Consule.  —  Cicero  l  da 
Orat.  "  Pergite,  ut  facitis,  adolescentes  ;  atque  in  id  studium, 
in  quo  estis,  incumbite,  ut  et  vobis  honori,  et  amicis  utilitati, 
et  reipublicae  emolumento  esse  possitis."  Arnoldus  Vinnius  in 
Academia  Leydensi  Juris  Professor  fait  celeberrimus. 

I  have  read  about  ten  pages  in  Justinian,  and  translated  about 
four  pages  into  English ;  this  is  the  whole  of  my  day's  work. 
I  have  smoked,  chatted,  trifled,  loitered  away  this  whole  day  : 
almost; — by  much  the  greatest  part  of  this  day  has  been  spent  in 
unloading  a  cart,  in  cutting  oven  wood,  in  making  and  recruiting 
my  own  fire,  in  eating  victuals  and  apples,  in  drinking  tea,  cut- 
ting and  smoking  tobacco,  and  in  chatting  with  Dr.  Savil's  wife 
at  then-  house  and  at  this.1  Chores,2  chat,  tobacco,  tea,  steal 
away  time ;  but  I  am  resolved  to  translate  Justinian  and  his 
commentator's  notes  by  daylight,  and  read  Gilbert's  Tenures 
by  night,  till  I  am  master  of  both,  and  I  will  meddle  with  no 
other  book  in  this  chamber  on  a  week  day ;  on  a  Sunday  I  will 
read  the  Enquiry  into  the  Nature  of  the  Human  Soul,  and  for 
amusement,  I  will  sometimes  read  Ovid's  Art  of  Love  to  Mrs. 
Savil.  This  shall  be  my  method.  I  have  read  Gilbert's  first 
section,  of  Feuds,  this  evening,  but  am  not  master  of  it. 

6.  Friday.     Rose  about  sunrise,  unpitched   a   load  of  hay, 
translated  two  leaves  more  of  Justinian,  and  in  the  afternoon 
walked  to  Deacon  Webb's,  then  around  by  the  mill  pond,  home  ; 
smoked  a  pipe  with  Webb3  at  the  Doctor's,  and  am  now  about      V 
reading  over  again  Gilbert's  section  of  Feudal  Tenures. 

8.  Sunday.     Read  a  few  leaves  in  Baxter's  Enquiry  into  the    \ 
Nature  of  the  Human  Soul.     He  has  explained  with  great  exact- 
ness the  resistance  which  matter  makes  to  any  change  of  its 
state  or  condition,  whether  of  motion  or  of  rest,  the  vis  inertice, 

1  The  two  houses  were  separated  only  by  a  cartway,  and  both  belonged  to  the 
father  of  the  author.  In  the  one  John  Adams,  in  the  other  his  son  John  Quincv, 
nine  years  after  this  date,  was  born.  Both  are  still  standing  very  much  in  their 
primitive  state,  as  represented  in  the  plate  which  accompanies  the  present 
volume. 

2  Anglice  —  chares  and  chewres — the  word,  however  spelt,  is  well  understood 
and  has  the  best  authority  for  its  use. 

3  His  cousin,  Nathan  Webb,  before  referred  to. 

VOL.    II.  4 


38  DIARY.  [1758. 

the  positive  inactivity  of  matter,  not  barely  its  inactivity,  but  its 
antiactivity,  for  it  not  only  is  destitute  of  a  power  of  changing 
its  state  from  rest  to  motion  or  from  motion  to  rest,  but  it  has  a 
positive  power,  —  each  single  particle  has  a  positive  power  of 
resisting  any  force  that  attempts  to  change  its  state.  But  a 
leaden  ball  held  between  my  fingers,  as  soon  as  I  withdraw  my 
fingers  will,  of  itself  for  aught  I  see,  change  its  state  from  rest  to 
motion  and  fall  suddenly  to  the  floor.  This  phenomenon  is  not 
vis  inertia ;  it  is  by  no  reluctance  or  aversion  to  motion  that  it 
moves,  but  it  seems  to  be  a  tendency  to  motion,  an  active  prin- 
ciple. If  it  is  passive,  the  agent  that  presses  it  downwards  is 
invisible  ;  but  because  matter,  in  all  the  experiments  I  have 
tried,  resists  a  change  from  rest  to  motion  upwards,  wiH  it  follow 
that  all  matter  essentially  resists  a  change  from  rest  to  motion 
downwards  ?  Is  it  a  posteriori  from  experiments  that  he  deduces 
this  proposition  that  all  matter  essentially  resists  any  change 
of  state  ?  or  is  it  a  priori  from  some  property  that  is  essentially 
included  in  our  ideas  of  matter  that  he  demonstratively  argues 
this  vis  inertia  ?  Is  inactivity  and  anti-activity  included  in  our 
ideas  of  matter  ?  Are  activity,  perceptivity,  &c,  properties  that 
we  by  only  comparing  ideas  can  see  to  be  incompatible  to  any 
properties  of  matter  ?  If  nothing  is  matter  which  has  not  this 
anti-active  principle,  then  human  minds  are  not  matter,  for  they 
have  no  such  principle ;  we  are  conscious  that  we  can  begin 
and  end  motion  of  ourselves.  If  he  argues  a  posteriori  from 
experiments,  he  can  pretend  only  to  probability,  for  unless  he 
was  certain  that  he  had  made  the  experiment  and  found  the 
property  in  every  particle  of  matter  that  ever  was  created,  he 
could  not  be  certain  that  there  was  no  particle  in  the  world 
without  this  property,  though  he  had  tried  all  but  one  and  found 
that  they  had  it.  We  have  tried  but  a  few  parcels  of  matter ; 
the  utmost  we  can  say  is,  that  all  we  have  tried  are  inactive  ; 
but  for  argument's  sake  I  will  deny  that  all  the  parcels  that  we 
have  tried  have  this  property ;  on  the  contrary  I  will  say  that  all 
have  a  motive  power  downwards ;  powder  has  an  active  power 
springing  every  way,  &c.  Thus  experiment  is  turned  against 
the  doctrine.  I  cannot  yet  see  how  he  will  prove  all  matter 
anti-inactive  a  priori  from  properties  of  matter  before  known 
essential,  with  which  he  must  show  this  to  be  necessarily  con- 
nected. 


JEt.  22.]  DIARY.  39 

9.  Monday.  Read  in  Gilbert's  Tenures.  I  must  and  will 
make  that  book  familiar  to  me. 

10.  Tuesday.  Read  in  Gilbert.  I  read  him  slowly,  but  I 
gain  ideas  and  knowledge  as  I  go  along,  which  I  do  not  always 
when  I  read. 

11.  Wednesday.  Rode  to  Boston ;  conversed  with  Ned 
Quincy  l  and  Samuel,  Peter  Chardon,  &c.  By  the  way,  Peter 
Chardon  is  a  promising  youth;  he  aspires  and  will  reach 
to  a  considerable  height ;  he  has  a  sense  of  the  dignity  and 
importance  of  his  profession,  that  of  the  law;  he  has  a  just 
contempt  of  the  idle,  incurious,  pleasure-hunting  young  fellows 
of  the  town,  who  pretend  to  study  law ;  he  scorns  the  character, 
and  he  aims  at  a  nobler ;  he  talks  of  exulting  in  an  unlimited 
field  of  natural,  civil,  and  common  law ;  talks  of  nerving,  sharp- 
ening the  mind  by  the  study  of  law  and  mathematics ;  quotes 
Locke's  Conduct  of  the  Understanding;  and  transcribes  points  of 
law  into  a  common-place  book,  on  Locke's  model.  This  fellow's 
thoughts  are  not  employed  on  songs  and  girls,  nor  his  time  on 
flutes,  fiddles,  concerts,  and  card  tables :  he  will  make  something. 

12.  Thursday.  Examined  the  laws  of  this  Province  concern- 
ing roads,  cattle,  fences,  &c,  &c.  Read  in  Gilbert.  This  small 
volume  will  take  me  a  fortnight ;  but  I  will  be  master  of  it. 

13.  Friday.  Read  Gilbert.  Went  in  the  evening  to  Colonel 
Quincy's;  heard  a  trial  before  him  as  a  justice,  between  Jos. 
Field  and  Luke  Lambert.  The  case  was  this :  Lambert's 
horse  broke  into  Field's  inclosure  and  lay  there  some  time, 
damage  feasant.2     When   Lambert  found  that  Ms  horse  was 

i  Edmund  Quincy,  the  eldest  of  the  three  sons  of  Josiah  Quincy,  senior,  died 
before  the  Revolution.  Samuel  Quincy,  the  second  son,  was  afterwards  Soli- 
citor General  of  the  Province  under  the  Crown.  He  took  the  side  of  Govern- 
ment in  the  Revolution,  left  the  country,  and  died  in  the  island  of  Antigua, 
in  1789.  Some  interesting  letters  to  and  from  this  gentleman  are  to  be  found  at 
the  close  of  the  supplement  to  Curwen's  Journal,  edited  by  Mr.  Ward.  Of  the 
name  and  race  of  Chardon,  one  of  the  Huguenot  families,  whose  transfer,  under 
the  edict  of  Nantes,  proved  as  great  a  gain  to  America  as  it  was  a  loss  to  France, 
no  relic  remains.  The  person  named  in  the  text  was  the  last  of  his  family,  and 
did  not  live  long  enough  to  verify  the  prediction.  He  went  to  the  island  of 
Barbadoes,  where  he  died  in  176t>. 

2  The  report  of  this,  apparently  the  first  case  in  which  the  writer  became 
interested,  though  devoid  of  interest  in  itself,  is  retained  on  account  of  the  light 
it  throws  upon  his  early  formed  habits  of  analytical  investigation ;  and,  because 
connected  with  the  amusing  incident  of  the  defective  writ,  subsequently  related. 
During  many  following  years,  not  only  reports  of  cases,  but  also  the  draughts  of 
his  own  arguments  are  embodied  in  the  Diary. 


40  DIARY.  [1758. 

there,  he  entered  the  inclosure ;  and,  although  Field  calls  to  him 
and  forbids  it,  waved  his  hat,  and  screamed  at  the  horse,  and  drove 
him  away,  without  tendering  Field  his  damages.  This  was  a 
rescous  of  the  horse  out  of  Field's  hands ;  for,  although  Lambert 
had  a  right  to  enter  and  take  out  his  horse,  tendering  the  dama- 
ges, yet,  as  the  words  of  the  law  are,  "  That  whoever  shall 
rescous  any  creature,  &c,  out  of  the  hands  of  any  person  about  to 
drive  them  to  pound,  whereby  the  party  injured  shall  be  liable  to 
lose  his  damages,  and  the  law  be  eluded,  shall  forfeit,  &c. ; "  and 
as  Field  was  actually  about  to  drive  them  to  pound,  and  Lambert 
offered  him  no  damages,  this  was  completely  a  rescous.  Field, 
after  the  rescous,  went  to  Colonel  Quincy,  made  complaint 
against  Lambert,  and  requested  and  obtained  a  wan-ant.  The 
warrant  was  directed  to  the  constable,  who  brought  the  offender 
before  the  justice,  attended  with  the  complainant  and  the  wit- 
nesses ordered  to  be  summoned. 

Quincy,1  for  defendant,  took  exception  on  the  warrant,  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  justice ;  because  the  sum  originally  sued  for, 
consisting  of  the  forfeiture  of  forty  shillings  to  the  poor,  and  the 
parties'  damages  estimated  at  nine  pence,  which  was  forty  shil- 
lings nine  pence,  was  a  greater  sum  than  the  justice  can  take 
cognizance  of;  and,  because  the  words  of  this  act  of  the  province 
are,  that  this  forty  shillings  to  the  poor  and  these  damages  to  the 
party  injured  shall  be  recovered  by  action,  &c,  in  any  of  his 
Majesty's  courts  of  record ;  —  now,  as  the  court  of  a  single  justice 
is  not  one  of  his  Majesty's  courts  of  record,  the  forfeiture  and 
damages  prayed  for  in  this  complaint  cannot  be  recovered  in  this 
court. 

The  justice  adjourned  his  court  till  eight  o'clock,  Monday 
morning,  in  order  to  inform  himself — 1.  Whether  the  court  of 
a  single  justice  of  the  peace  was  one  of  his  majesty's  courts  of 
record?  2.  "Whether  a  single  justice  can  take  cognizance  of 
any  matter  in  which  the  sum  originally  prosecuted  for  is  more 
than  forty  shillings  ? 

If,  upon  examination,  the  Colonel  shall  find  that  a  single 
justice  has  no  authority  to  hear  and  determine  such  a  rescous, 
at  the  adjournment  the  proceedings  will  be  quashed,  and  the 
complainant  must  begin  de  novo ;  but  if  he  finds  that  a  single 

1  Samuel  Quincy. 


^t.  22.]  DIARY.  41 

justice  has  authority  to  determine  the  matter,  he  will  proceed  to 
judgment.  The  questions  that  arise  in  my  mind,  on  this  case, 
are  these. 

1.  What  is  the  true  idea  and  definition  of  a  court  of  record  ? 
What  courts  in  England,  and  what  in  this  province,  are  courts 
of  record,  and  what  are  not  ?     Wood,  Jacobs,  &c. 

2.  Whether  a  justice  has  authority,  by  warrant,  to  hear  and 
determine  of  any  offence,  the  penalty  of  which,  or  the  forfeiture 
of  which,  to  the  king,  the  poor,  the  informer,  &c,  is  more  than 
forty  shillings  ? 

3.  Whether  a  court  is  denominated  a  court  of  record  from 
its  keeping  records  of  its  proceedings  ?  Whether  every  court 
is  a  court  of  record  whose  president  is  a  judge  of  record? 
For  it  seems  plain  in  Dalton,  that  a  justice  of  the  peace  is  a 
judge  of  record. 

4.  On  supposition  the  warrant  should  be  quashed,  who  should 
pay  the  costs  of  the  original  warrant,  of  the  defendant's  attend- 
ance, and  of  witnesses'  oaths  and  attendance  ?  The  complain- 
ant, who  was  mistaken,  through  ignorance,  in  going  to  the 
justice  for  a  remedy,  or  the  justice,  who  was  mistaken  in  the 
same  manner  in  acting  upon  the  complaint  beyond  his  authority  ? 

5.  What  are  the  steps  of  prosecuting  by  information  ?  Is  not 
a  motion  made  in  court,  that  the  information  may  be  amended 
or  filed  ?  Are  informations  ever  filed  but  by  attorney-general  ? 
When  the  penalty,  sued  for  by  the  information,  is  half  to  the 
king,  or  half  to  the  poor,  and  the  other  half  to  the  informer,  is  the 
defendant  committed  till  he  discharges  the 'penalty,  or  is  an 
execution  ever  issued? 

6.  It  is  said,  courts  of  record  alone  have  power  to  impose  a 
fine  or  imprison.     Quaere,  which  ? 

7.  A  rescous  is  a  breach  of  law,  and  a  breach  of  the  peace ; 
and  remedy  for  it  may  be  by  action  of  trespass,  which  is  always 
contra  pacem. 

8.  Are  not  justices'  warrants  confined  to  criminal  matters? 
May  a  warrant  be  issued  for  a  trespass  quare  clausum  fregit  ? 
It  may  for  a  trespass  of  assault  and  battery. 

Justices  may  punish  by  fine,  imprisonment,  stripes,  &c.  The 
Colonel  inquired  what  punishment  he  could  inflict  on  a  constable 
for  disobedience  to  his  warrant,  for  not  making  return  of  his 
doings  ?     He  found  a  case  ruled  in  King's  Bench,  that  a  consta- 

4* 


42  DIARY.  [1758. 

ble  is  a  subordinate  officer  to  a  justice  of  the  peace,  and  is 
indictable  at  common  law  for  neglect  of  duty.  The  malfeasance 
or  nonfeasance  of  officers,  are  crimes  and  offences  that  may  be 
inquired  of,  indicted,  or  presented  by  the  grand  jury  at  common 
law. 

Field  took  Lambert's  horses  damage  feasant  in  his  close  once 
before,  and  impounded  them,  and  gave  him  verbal  notice  that 
his  horses  were  in  pound ;  but  neglected  to  give  either  Lambert 
or  the  pound-keeper  an  account  of  the  damages  the  horses  had 
done  him.  Lambert  went  to  the  pound-keeper  and  demanded 
his  horses,  tendering  the  pound-keeper's  fees,  and  the  pound- 
keeper  delivered  them  up.  Now,  quaere,  whether  Field  is  enjoined 
by  any  law  of  the  province  to  get  his  damages  appraised,  and  to 
lodge  an  account  of  them  with  the  pound-keeper  ? 

2.  Whether,  as  he  neglected  this,  the  pound-keeper  cannot 
justify  his  resigning  of  them  to  the  owner  ? 

3.  If  Field  had  lodged  an  estimation  of  his  damages  with  the 
pound-keeper,  and  the  pound-keeper  had  nevertheless  resigned 
the  creatures  up  without  taking  the  damages,  would  not  an 
action  lay  against  him,  as  an  action  lies  against  a  prison-keeper, 
for  a  voluntary  escape  ?  and,  quaere,  what  action  would  be 
proper  ?     I  want  a  form  of  an  action  of  escape  now. 

4.  It  cannot  be  called  an  indirect  way  of  delivering  his  crea- 
tures out  of  pound,  to  pay  or  tender  the  pound-keeper  his  fees, 
and  demand  and  receive  his  cattle  of  him  when  he  has  unlocked 
or  opened  the  pound  gate  and  turned  the  creatures  out.  So  that 
it  will  not  admit  a  query  whether  Lambert  is  liable  to  an  action 
for  receiving  his  horses  of  the  pound-keeper.  It  is  plain,  I  think, 
he  is  not. 

16.  Monday.  Read  a  few  pages  in  Gilbert.  I  proceed  very 
slowly. 

17.  Tuesday.  Read  in  Gilbert,  went  to  Monatiquot 1  to  see 
the  raising  of  the  new  meeting  house;  no  observations  worth 
noting.  I  have  not  spirits  and  presence  of  mind  to  seek  out 
scenes  of  observation  and  to  watch  critically  the  air,  counte- 
nances, actions,  and  speeches  of  old  men  and  young  men,  of 

1  That  part  of  the  town  which  has  retained  the  name  of  Braintree.  It  con- 
stituted what  was  then  called  the  middle  precinct.  The  south  precinct  was 
afterwards  set  off'  as  a  town  with  the  name  of  Randolph.  The  north  precinct 
became  the  town  of  Quincy. 


JEt.  22.]  DIARY.  43 

old  women  and  young  girls,  of  physicians  and  priests,  of  old 
maids  and  bachelors.  I  should  chatter  with  a  girl,  and  watch 
her  behavior,  her  answers  to  questions,  the  workings  of  vanity 
and  other  passions  in  her  breast.  But  objects  before  me  do  not 
suggest  proper  questions  to  ask  and  proper  observations  to  make ; 
so  dull  and  confused  at  present  is  my  mind. 

Saw  lawyer  Thacher's  father  *  at  Mr.  Niles's.  He  said,  "  old 
Colonel  Thacher  of  Barnstable  was  an  excellent  man ;  he  was 
a  very  holy  man ;  I  used  to  love  to  hear  him  pray ;  he  was  a 
counsellor  and  a  deacon.  I  have  heard  him  say  that  of  all  his 
titles  that  of  a  deacon  he  thought  the  most  honorable."  Qucsre 
—  Is  he  a  new  light  ?  Old  age  has  commonly  a  sense  of  the 
importance  and  dignity  of  religion.  I  dare  say  he  is  not  well 
pleased  with  his  son's  professing  the  law ;  he  had  rather  have  him 
a  deacon. 

18.  Wednesday.     Went  to  Boston. 

Bob  Paine?  "  I  have  ruined  myself  by  a  too  eager  pursuit  of 
wisdom.  I  have  now  neither  health  enough  for  an  active  life 
nor  knowledge  enough  for  a  sedentary  one." 

Quincy.     "  We  shall  never  make  your  great  fellows." 

Thus  Paine  and  Quincy  both  are  verging  to  despair. 

Paine.  "  If  I  attempt  a  composition,  my  thoughts  are  slow 
and  dull." 

Paine  is  discouraged,  and  Quincy  has  not  courage  enough3  to 
harbor  a  thought  of  acquiring  a  great  character.  In  short,  none  of 
them  have  a  foundation  that  will  support  them.  Peter  Chardon 
seems  to  me  in  the  directest  road  to  superiority.  Paine's  face 
has  lost  its  bloom,  and  his  eye  its  vivacity  and  fire ;  his  eye  is 
weak,  his  countenance  pale,  and  his  attention  unsteady ;  and, 
what  is  worse,  he  suffers  this  decline  of  health  to  retard  and 


1  Oxenbridge  Thacher  the  elder,  father  of  Oxenbridge  the  lawyer,  often 
mentioned  in  this  Diary.  He  lived  at  Milton,  and  died  in  1772,  at  the  age  of 
ninety-three.     Eliot's  Biographical  Dictionary. 

2  Robert  Treat  Paine.  His  father  was  for  some  time  pastor  of  a  church  in 
Weymouth,  the  town  adjoining  Braintree.  Eunice  Paine,  his  sister,  became  an 
inmate  of  the  hospitable  dwelling  of  General  Palmer,  at  Germantown.  Hence 
his  intimate  acquaintance  in  Braintree.  Notwithstanding  this  tone  of  despond- 
ency, the  native  energy  of  Paine's  character  ultimately  opened  to  him  a  distin- 
guished career  in  Massachusetts.  A  tolerably  full  account  of  him  is  found  in 
Sanderson's  Biography  of  the  Signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

3  This  prediction  was  fully  verified  twenty  years  afterwards. 


44  DIARY.  [1758. 

almost  to  stop  his  studies ;  and  Quincy's  soul  is  afraid  to  aim  at 
great  acquisition. 

Paine  (to  me.)     "  You  don't  intend  to  be  a  sage,  I  suppose  ? " 

Oh,  Paine  has  not  penetration  to  reach  the  bottom  of  my  mind. 
He  don't  know  me ;  next  time  I  will  answer  him,  and  say,  "  No. 
Knowledge  enough  to  keep  out  of  fire  and  water  is  all  that  I 
aim  at." 

19.  Thursday.  I  borrowed  yesterday  of  Quincy  the  first 
volume  of  Batista  Angeloni's  Letters,1  and  a  "  General  Treatise 
of  naval  trade  and  commerce  as  founded  on  the  laws  and  statutes 
of  this  realm,  in  which  those "  (laws  and  statutes,  I  suppose) 
"  relating  to  his  majesty's  customs,  merchants,  masters  of  ships, 
mariners,  letters  of  marque,  privateers,  prizes,  convoys,  cruisers, 
&c.  are  particularly  considered  and  treated  with  due  care  under  all 
the  necessary  heads,  from  the  earliest  time  down  to  the  present," 
second  edition,  in  two  volumes.  Read  Angeloni  through,  I 
believe,  and  studied  carefully  about  a  dozen  pages  in  mercantile 
law.  Angeloni's  Letters  are  all  of  a  piece.  He  has  an  odd  sys- 
tem of  faith,  namely,  that  utility  is  truth,2  and  therefore  that 
transubstantiation  is  true,  and  auricular  confession  is  true,  because 
they  are  useful,  and  promote  the  happiness  of  mankind.  There- 
fore rain  is  true,  because  it  is  useful  in  promoting  the  growth  of 
herbs  and  fruit  and  flowers,  and  consequently  of  animals,  for 
man's  use.  This  is  very  different  from  mathematical  truth,  and 
this  explanation  of  his  meaning  gives  room  to  suspect  that  he 
disbelieves  a  revelation  himself,  though  he  thinks  it  useful  for 
the  world  to  believe  it. 

He  reasons,  Who  can  conceive  that  a  being  of  infinite  wisdom, 
justice,  and  goodness,  would  suffer  the  world  to  be  governed  two 
thousand  years  by  a  religion  that  was  false  ?  But  may  not  this 
question  be  asked  of  the  Mahomedans,  the  Chinese,  in  short,  of 
every  religion  under  heaven ;  and  will  not  the  argument  equally 
prove  these  all  to  be  true  ? 

What   passion   is  most  active  and  prevalent  in 's  mind? 

The  desire  of  money.  He  retails  sugar  by  the  pound,  3  by 
the  bunch,  pins,  penknives,  to  save  these  articles  in  his  family, 
and  net  a  few  shillings  profit.     He  makes  poor  people  who  are 

1  This  work,  now  deservedly  forgotten,  was  the  means  of  procuring  for  its 
author,  Dr.  Shebbeare,  the  distinction  of  the  pillory  in  England. 

2  Vol.  i.  p.  91.  3  Illegible. 


Mr.  23.]  DIARY.  45 

in  his  debt  pay  him  in  labor  He  bargains  with  his  debtors  in  the 
two  other  parishes  for  wood  which  he  sends  to  the  landing  place 
and  to  Dr.  Marsh's ;  thus  by  practice  of  physic,  trading,  and  bar- 
gaining, and  scheming,  he  picks  up  a  subsistence  for  his  family 
and  gathers  very  gradually  additions  to  his  stock ;  but  this  is 
low.  The  same  application  and  scheming  in  his  profession 
would  raise  up  and  spread  him  a  character,  preserve  him  profit- 
able business,  and  make  him  his  fortune.  But  by  this  contempt- 
ible dissipation  of  mind  among  pins,  needles,  tea,  snuffboxes, 
vendues,  loads  of  wood,  day  labor,  &c.  he  is  negligent  of  the 
theory  of  his  profession,  and  will  live  and  die  unknown.  These 
drivelling  souls,  oh !  He  aims  not  at  fame,  only  at  a  living  and 
a  fortune. 

21.  Saturday.  Rose  with  the  sun.  I  am  now  set  down  to 
the  laws  relating  to  naval  trade  and  commerce.  Let  me  inquire 
of  the  next  master  of  a  ship  that  I  see,  what  is  a  bill  of  lading; 
what  the  log-book;  what  invoices  they  keep;  what  accounts  they 
keep  of  goods  received  on  board  and  of  goods  delivered  out; 
what  in  other  ports  ?  &c. 

22.  Sunday.  Conversed  with  Captain  Thacher  about  com- 
mercial affairs.1 

24.  Tuesday.  Rode  to  Boston  ;  arrived  about  half  after  ten ; 
went  into  the  court  house  and  sat  down  by  Mr.  Paine,  at 
the  lawyers'  table.  I  felt  shy,  under  awe  and  concern ;  for  Mr 
Gridley,  Mr.  Pratt,  Mr.  Otis,  Mr.  Kent,  and  Mr.  Thacher,  were 
all  present,  and  looked  sour.  I  had  no  acquaintance  with  any- 
body but  Paine  and  Quincy,  and  they  took  but  little  notice. 

However,  I  attended  court  steadily  all  day,  and  at  night  went 
to  consort  with  Samuel  Quincy  and  Dr.  Gardiner.  There  I  saw 
the  most  spacious  and  elegant  room,  the  gayest  company  of 
gentlemen,  and  the  finest  row  of  ladies  that  ever  I  saw ;  but  the 
weather  was  so  dull,  and  I  so  disordered,  that  I  could  not  make 
one  half  the  observations  that  I  wanted  to  make. 

25.  Wednesday.  Went  in  the  morning  to  Mr.  Gridley's*  and 
asked  the  favor  of  his  advice,  what  steps  to  take  for  an  intro- 
duction to  the  practice  of  law  in  this  county.     He  answered, 

1  Here  follows  a  minute  abstract  of  the  conversation ;  of  bills  of  lading,  invoices, 
accounts,  &c. 

*  [Jeremiah  Gridley,  the  father  of  the  bar  in  Boston,  and  the  preceptor  of 
Pratt,  Otis,  Thacher,  Gushing,  and  many  others.] 


46  DIARY.  [1758. 

"  Get  sworn."     Ego.   "  But  in  order  to  that,  sir,  as  I  have  no 

patron  in  this  county " G.  "  I  will  recommend  you  to  the 

court;  mark  the  day  the  court  adjourns  to,  in  order  to  make  up 
judgments ;  come  to  town  that  day,  and,  in  the  mean  time,  I 
will  speak  to  the  bar ;  for  the  bar  must  be  consulted,  because  the 
court  always  inquires  if  it  be  with  consent  of  the  bar."  Then 
Mr.  Gridley  inquired  what  method  of  study  I  had  pursued,  what 
Latin  books  I  read,  what  Greek,  what  French  ?  what  I  had  read 
upon  rhetoric  ?  Then  he  took  his  common-place  book  and  gave 
me  Lord  Hale's  advice  to  a  student  of  the  common  law ;  and 
when  I  had  read  that,  he  gave  me  Lord  C.  J.  Reeve's  advice 
to  his  nephew,  in  the  study  of  the  common  law.  Then  he  gave 
me  a  letter  from  Dr.  Dickins,  Regius  Professor  of  Law  at  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  to  him,  pointing  out  a  method  of 
studying  the  civil  law ;  then  he  turned  to  a  letter  he  wrote  to 
Judge  Lightfoot,  Judge  of  the  Admiralty  in  Rhode  Island,  direct- 
ing to  a  method  of  studying  the  admiralty  law.  Then  Mr. 
Gridley  run  a  comparison  between  the  business  and  studies  of  a 
lawyer,  a  gentleman  of  the  bar  in  England  and  those  of  one  here  : 
A  lawyer  in  this  country  must  study  common  law,  and  civil  law, 
and  natural  law,  and  admiralty  law ;  and  must  do  the  duty  of  a 
counsellor,  a  lawyer,  an  attorney,  a  solicitor,  and  even  of  a 
scrivener ;  so  that  the  difficulties  of  the  profession  are  much 
greater  here  than  in  England.  "  The  difficulties  that  attend  the 
study  may  discourage  some,  but  they  never  discouraged  me." 
y/  (Here  is  conscious  superiority.)  "  I  have  a  few  pieces  of  advice 
to  give  you,  Mr.  Adams.  One  is,  to  pursue  the  study  of  the  law, 
rather  than  the  gain  of  it ;  pursue  the  gain  of  it  enough  to  keep 
out  of  the  briers,*  but  give  your  main  attention  to  the  study  of 
it.  The  next  is,  not  to  marry  early ;  for  an  early  marriage  will 
obstruct  your  improvement ;  and,  in  the  next  place,  it  will  involve 
you  in  expense.  Another  thing  is,  not  to  keep  much  company, 
for  the  application  of  a  man  who  aims  to  be  a  lawyer  must  be 
incessant ;  his  attention  to  his  books  must  be  constant,  which  is 
inconsistent  with  keeping  much  company.  In  the  study  of  law, 
the  common  law,  be  sure,  deserves  your  first  and  last  attention ; 
and  he  has  conquered  all  the  difficulties  of  this  law,  who  is 

*  [His  advice  made  so  deep  an  impression  on  my  mind,  that  I  believe  no 
lawyer  in  America  ever  did  so  much  business  as  I  did  afterwards,  in  the  seven- 
teen years  that  I  passed  in  the  practice  at  the  bar,  for  so  little  profit.] 


jEt.  23.]  DIARY.  47 

master  of  the  Institutes.  You  must  conquer  the  Institutes.  The 
road  of  science  is  much  easier  now  than  it  was  when  I  set  out ; 
I  began  with  Coke-Littleton,  and  broke  through."  I  asked  his 
advice  about  studying  Greek.  He  answered,  "  It  is  a  matter  of 
mere  curiosity."  After  this  long  and  familiar  conversation,  we 
went  to  court,  attended  all  day,  and  in  the  evening  I  went  to 
ask  Mr.  Thacher's1  concurrence  with  the  bar;  drank  tea  and 
spent  the  whole  evening  —  upon  original  sin,  origin  of  evil,  the 
plan  of  the  universe,  and  at  last  upon  law.  He  says  he  is  sorry 
that  he  neglected  to  keep  a  common-place  book  when  he  began 
to  study  law,  and  he  is  of  half  a  mind  to  begin  now.  Thacher 
thinks  this  county  is  full. 

26.  Thursday.  Went  in  the  morning  to  wait  on  Mr.  Pratt.2 
He  inquired  "  if  I  had  been  sworn  at  Worcester  ? "  "  No." 
"  Have  you  a  letter  from  Mr.  Putnam  to  the  court  ?  "  "  No." 
"  It  would  have  been  most  proper  to  have  done  one  of  these 
things  first.  When  a  young  gentleman  goes  from  me  into 
another  county,  I  always  write  in  his  favor  to  the  court  in  that 
county ;  or,  if  you  had  been  sworn  there,  you  would  have  been 
entitled  to  be  sworn  here.  But  now,  nobody  in  this  county 
knows  any  thing  about  you,  so  nobody  can  say  any  thing  in 
your  favor  but  by  hearsay.  I  believe  you  have  made  a  proper 
proficiency  in  science,  and  that  you  will  do  very  well,  from  what 
I  have  heard,  but  that  is  only  hearsay." 

(How  different  is  this  from  Gridley's  treatment !  Besides,  it  is 
weak  ;  for  neither  the  court  nor  the  bar  will  question  the  veracity 
of  Mr.  Gridley  and  Mr.  Pratt.  So  that  the  only  uncertainty  that 
can  remain  is,  whether  Mr.  Putnam  was  in  earnest  in  the  account 
he  gave  of  my  morals  and  studies  to  those  gentlemen ;  which 
cannot  be  removed  by  a  line  from  him,  or  by  my  being  sworn  at 
Worcester,  or  any  other  way  than  by  getting  Mr.  Putnam  sworn.) 
After  this,  he  asked  me  a  few  short  questions  about  the  course 

1  Oxenbridge  Thacher.  There  was  not  a  citizen  of  Boston  more  universally 
beloved  for  his  learning,  ingenuity,  every  domestic  and  social  virtue,  and  con- 
scientious conduct  in  every  relation  of  life. — J.  A.  Mr.  Tudor,  who,  in  his  Life 
of  James  Otis,  has  done  much  to  embody  the  memory  of  these  times,  has  given  a 
happy  sketch  of  his  character,  p.  57.  A  more  particular  account  of  him  may 
be  found  in  Dr.  Eliot's  Dictionary. 

2  Benjamin  Pratt  is  mentioned  by  Hutchinson  as  "  of  the  first  character  in  his 
profession."  He  was  at  this  time  a  representative  for  Boston,  the  second  instance 
of  an  election  of  a  lawyer  to  that  place.  A  few  years  after  this  he  was  made 
Chief  Justice  of  New  York. 


48  DIARY.  [1758. 

of  my  studies,  which  I  answered,  and  then  came  off  as  full  of 
wrath  as  I  was  full  of  gratitude  when  I  left  Gridley  the  morning 
before.  Pratt  is  infinitely  harder  of  access  than  Gridley ;  he  is 
ill-natured,  and  Gridley  is  good-natured. 

Attended  court  all  day,  and  at  night  waited  on  Otis,1  at 
his  office,  where  I  conversed  with  him  ;  and  he  with  great  ease 
and  familiarity  promised  me  to  join  the  bar  in  recommending 
me  to  the  court.*  Mr.  Gridley  lent  me  Van  Muyden's  Compen- 
diosa  Institutionum  Justiniani  Tractatio  in  Usum  Collegiorum, 
Editio  tertia  prioribus  auctior  et  emendatior.  Pax  Artium  Altrix. 
After  I  have  mastered  this,  I  must  read  Hoppius's  Commentary 
on  Justinian.  The  design  of  this  book  is  to  explain  the  technical 
terms,  and  to  settle  the  divisions  and  distributions  of  the  civil 
law.  By  the  way,  this  is  the  first  thing  a  student  ought  to  aim 
at,  namely,  distinct  ideas  under  the  terms,  and  a  clear  apprehen- 
sion of  the  divisions  and  distributions  of  the  science.  This  is 
one  of  the  principal  excellencies  of  Hawkins's  Pleas  of  the  Crown, 
and  it  is  the  very  end  of  this  book  of  Van  Muyden.  Let  me 
remark  here  one  important  neglect  of  the  last  week :  I  omitted 
minuting  the  names  of  the  cases  at  trial  in  my  ivory  book ;  and 
I  omitted  to  keep  pen,  ink  and  paper,  at  my  lodgings,  in  order  to 
commit  to  writing,  at  night,  the  cases  and  points  of  law  that 
were  argued  and  adjudged  in  the  day.  Let  me  remember  to 
mark  in  my  memorandum  book  the  names  of  the  cases,  and  the 
terms  and  points  of  law  that  occur  in  each  case ;  to  look  these 
terms  and  points  in  the  books  at  Otis's,  Pratt's,  or  any  other 
office,  and  to  digest  and  write  down  the  whole,  in  the  evening, 
at  my  lodgings.  This  will  be  reaping  some  real  advantage  by 
my  attendance  on  the  courts ;  and  without  this,  the  observations 
which  I  may  make  will  lie  in  total  confusion  in  my  mind. 

27-30.  Friday,  Saturday,  Sunday,  Monday.  All  spent  in 
absolute  idleness,  or,  which  is  worse,  gallanting  the  girls. 

31.  Tuesday.  Sat  down  and  recollected  myself,  and  read  a 
little  in  Van  Muyden,  a  little  in  Naval  Trade  and  Commerce. 

November  2.  Thursday.     Rode  as  far  as  Smelt  Brook,  break- 

1  James  Otis  the.  younger. 

*  ["  There  were  so  many  lawyers  in  Boston,"  he  said,  "  that  it  was  not  worth 
while  to  call  upon  more  than  three  or  four  of  them.  I  listened  too  willingly  to 
this  opinion ;  for  I  afterwards  found  there  were  several  others  well  entitled  to 
this  respect  from  me,  and  some  little  offence  was  taken.] 


JEt.  23.]  DIARY.  49 

fasted,  made  my  fire,  and  am  now  set  down  to  Van  Muyden  in 
earnest; — his  Latin  is  easy,  his  definitions  are  pretty  clear,  and 
his  divisions  of  the  subject  are  judicious. 

5.  Sunday.  Drank  tea  at  Colonel  Quincy' s ;  he  read  to  me 
a  letter  Colonel  Gooch  l  wrote  him  in  answer  to  his  questions, 
whether  a  justice's  court  was  a  court  of  record?  And  then  con- 
cluded :  "  So  that  Sammy  was  right,  for  he  was  all  along  of  that 
opinion.  I  have  forgot  what  your  opinion  was."  (This  must 
be  false,  or  else  partiality  and  parental  affection  have  blotted 
out  the  remembrance,  that  I  first  started  to  his  son  Sam,  and  him 
too,  the  doubt  whether  he  had  jurisdiction  as  a  justice.  Sam 
made  him  really  imagine  what  he  wished  had  been  true,  namely, 
that  he,  Samuel,  had  started  it.  If  he  did  remember,  he  knew 
it  was  insult  to  me;  but  I  bore  it.  Was  forgetfulness,  was 
partiality,  or  was  a  cunning  design  to  try  if  I  was  not  vain  of 
being  the  starter  of  the  doubt,  the  true  cause  of  his  saying  he 
forgot  what  my  opinion  was  ?) 

6.  Monday.  Went  to  town ;  went  to  Mr.  Gridley's  office, 
but  he  had  not  returned  to  town  from  Brookline.  Went  again: 
not  returned ;  attended  court  till  after  twelve,  and  began  to  grow 
uneasy,  expecting  that  Quincy  would  be  sworn,  and  I  have  no 
patron,  when  Mr.  Gridley  made  his  appearance,  and  on  sight  of 
me  whispered  to  Mr.  Pratt,  Dana,  Kent,  Thacher,  &c.  about  me. 
Mr.  Pratt  said,  "  Nobody  knew  me."  "  Yes,"  says  Gridley, 
"  I  have  tried  him,  he  is  a  very  sensible  fellow."  At  last,  he  rose 
up,  and  bowed  to  his  right  hand,  and  said  "  Mr.  Quincy,"  —  when 
Quincy  rose  up :  then  he  bowed  to  me,  "  Mr.  Adams,"  —  when  I 
walked  out.  "  May  it  please  your  honors,  I  have  two  young 
gentlemen,  Mr.  Quincy  and  Mr.  Adams,  to  present  for  the  oath 
of  an  attorney.  Of  Mr.  Quincy,  it  is  sufficient  for  me  to  say 
he  has  lived  three  years  with  Mr.  Pratt ;  of  Mr.  Adams,  as  he  is 
unknown  to  your  honors,  it  is  necessary  to  say  that  he  has  lived 
between  two  and  three  years  with  Mr.  Putnam  of  Worcester, 
has  a  good  character  from  him  and  all  others  who  know  him, 
and  that  he  was  with  me  the  other  day  several  hours,  and  I 
take  it,  he  is  qualified  to  study  the  law  by  his  scholarship,  and 
that  he  has  made  a  very  considerable,  a  very  great  proficiency 

1  See  the  record  of  the  9th  August,  1760,  note,  for  an  account  of  this  per- 
sonage, in  connection  with  a  curious  picture  of  the  manners  of  the  time. 

VOL.    II.  5  I) 


50  DIARY.  [1758. 

in  the  principles  of  the  law,  and  therefore,  that  the  client's  interest 
may  be  safely  intrusted  in  his  hands.  I  therefore  recommend  him, 
with  the  consent  of  the  bar,  to  your  honors  for  the  oath."  Then 
Mr.  Pratt  said  two  or  three  words,  and  the  clerk  was  ordered  to 
swear  us  ;  after  the  oath,  Mr.  Gridley  took  me  by  the  hand,  wished 
me  much  joy,  and  recommended  me  to  the  bar.  I  shook  hands 
with  the  bar,  and  received  their  congratulations,  and  invited 
them  over  to  Stone's  to  drink  some  punch,  where  the  most  of 
us  resorted,  and  had  a  very  cheerful  chat.* 

December  3  or  4.  Tuesday.  Bob  Paine  is  conceited,  and 
pretends  to  more  knowledge  and  genius  than  he  has.  I  have 
heard  him  say  that  he  took  more  pleasure  in  solving  a  prob- 
lem in  algebra  than  in  a  frolic.  He  told  me  the  other  day, 
that  he  was  as  curious  after  a  minute  and  particular  knowledge 
of  mathematics  and  philosophy  as  I  could  be  about  the  laws  of 
antiquity.  By  his  boldness  in  company  he  makes  himself  a 
great  many  enemies ;  his  aim  in  company  is  to  be  admired,  not 
to  be  beloved.  He  asked  me  what  Dutch  commentator  I  meant  ? 
I  said,  Vinnius.  "  Vinnius ! "  says  he,  (with  a  flush  of  real  envy, 
but  pretended  contempt,)  "  you  cannot  understand  one  page  of 
Vinnius."  He  must  know  that  human  nature  is  disgusted  with 
such  incomplaisant  behavior ;  besides,  he  has  no  right  to  say 
that  I  do  not  understand  every  word  in  Vinnius  or  even  in  x 
for  he  knows  nothing  of  me.  For  the  future  let  me  act  the 
part  of  a  critical  spy  upon  him ;  not  that  of  an  open,  unsuspi- 
cious friend.  Last  superior  court  at  Worcester,  he  dined  in 
company  with  Mr.  Gridley,  Mr.  Trowbridge,  and  several  others, 
at  Mr.  Putnam's ;  and  although  a  modest,  attentive  behavior 
would  have  best  become  him  in  such  a  company,  yet  he  tried  to 

1   One  word  illegible. 

*  [At  this  time  the  study  of  the  law  was  a  dreary  ramble  in  comparison  of 
what  it  is  at  this  day.  The  name  of  Blackstone  had  not  been  heard,  whose 
Commentaries,  together  with  Sullivan's  Lectures  and  Reeves's  History  of  the 
Law,  have  smoothed  the  path  of  the  student,  while  the  long  career  of  Lord 
Mansfield,  his  many  investigations  and  decisions,  the  number  of  modern  report- 
ers in  his  time,  and  a  great  number  of  writers  on  particular  branches  of  the 
science,  have  greatly  facilitated  the  acquisition  of  it.  I  know  not  whether  a 
set  of  the  Statutes  at  Large  or  of  the  State  Trials  was  in  the  country.  I  was 
desirous  of  seeking  the  law  as  well  as  I  could  in  its  fountains,  and  I  obtained  as 
much  knowledge  as  I  could  of  Bracton,  Britton,  Fleta  and  Glanville;  but  I 
suffered  very  much  for  want  of  books,  which  determined  me  to  furnish  myself  at 
any  sacrifice  with  a  proper  library  ;  and  accordingly,  by  degrees,  I  procured  the 
best  library  of  law  in  the  State.] 


t 


jEt.   23.]  DIARY.  51 

engross  the  whole  conversation  to  himself.  He  did  the  same  in 
the  evening,  when  all  the  judges  of  the  superior  court,  with  Mr. 
Winthrop,  Sewall,  &c,  were  present ;  and  he  did  the  same  last 
Thanksgiving  day  at  Colonel  Quincy's,  when  Mr.  Wibird,  Mr. 
Cranch,  &c.  were  present.  This  impudence  may  set  the  million 
agape  at  him,  but  will  make  all  persons  of  sense  despise  him 
or  hate  him.  That  evening,  at  Putnam's,  he  called  me  a 
numskull  and  a  blunderbuss  before  all  the  superior  judges.  I 
was  not  present  indeed,  but  such  expressions  were  indecent,  and 
tended  to  give  the  judges  a  low  opinion  of  me,  as  if  I  was 
despised  by  my  acquaintances.  He  is  an  impudent,  ill  bred, 
conceited  fellow;  yet  he  has  wit,  sense,  and  learning,  and  a  great 
deal  of  humor;  and  has  virtue,  and  piety,  except  his  fretful, 
peevish,  childish  complaints  against  the  disposition  of  things. 
This  character  is  drawn  with  resentment  of  his  ungenerous 
treatment  of  me,  and  allowances  must  therefore  be  made ;  but 
these  are  unexaggerated  facts. 

Lambert  sets  up  for  a  wit  and  a  humorist.  He  is  like  a  little 
knurly,  ill-natured  horse,  that  kicks  at  every  horse  of  his  own  size, 
and  sheers  off  from  every  one  that  is  larger.  I  should  mind 
what  I  say  before  him,  for  he  is  always  watching  for  wry  words 
to  make  into  a  droll  story  to  laugh  at.  Such  fellows  are  hated 
by  all  mankind ;  yet  they  rise  and  make  a  figure,  and  people 
dread  them.  But  though  men  of  bitter  wit  are  hated  and  feared, 
yet  they  are  respected  by  the  world.  Queer e  —  Was  there  ever 
a  wit  who  had  much  humanity  and  compassion,  much  tender- 
ness of  nature  ?  Mr.  Congreve  was  tender,  extremely  tender  of 
giving  offence  to  any  man.  Dr.  Arbuthnot  was  a  great  wit  and 
humorist,  yet  he  was  tender  and  prudent.  Mr.  Cranch  has  wit, 
and  is  tender  and  gentle. 

The  other  night  I  happened  to  be  at  the  Doctor's  with  Ben  ^ 
Veasey ;  he  began  to  prate  upon  the  presumption  of  philosophy 
in  erecting  iron  rods  to  draw  the  lightning  from  the  clouds. 
His  brains  were  in  a  ferment,  and  he  railed  and  foamed  against 
those  points  and  the  presumption  that  erected  them,  in  language 
taken  partly  from  Scripture  and  partly  from  the  disputes  of 
tavern  philosophy,  in  as  wild,  mad  a  manner  as  King  Lear 
raves  against  his  daughter's  disobedience  and  ingratitude,  and 
against  the  meanness  of  the  storm  in  joining  with  his  daughters 
against  him,  in  Shakspeare's  Lear.     He  talked  of   presuming 


52  DIARY.  [1758. 

upon  God,  as  Peter  attempted  to  walk  upon  the  water ;  attempt- 
ing to  control  the  artillery  of  heaven  —  an  execution  that  mor- 
tal man  can't  stay  —  the  elements  of  heaven ;  fire,  heat,  rain, 
wind,  &c. 

Let  me  search  for  the  clue  which  led  great  Shakspeare  into 
the  labyrinth  of  mental  nature.  Let  me  examine  how  men 
think.  Shakspeare  had  never  seen  in  real  life  persons  under  the 
influence  of  all  those  scenes  of  pleasure  and  distress  which 
he  has  described  in  his  works;  but  he  imagined  how  a  per- 
son of  such  a  character  would  behave  in  such  circumstances, 
by  analogy  from  the  behavior  of  others  that  were  most  like 
that  character  in  nearly  similar  circumstances  which  he  had 
seen. 

18.  Monday.  I  this  evening  delivered  to  Mr.  Field  a  declara- 
tion in  trespass  for  a  rescue.  I  was  obliged  to  finish  it  without 
sufficient  examination.  If  it  should  escape  an  abatement,  it 
is  quite  undigested  and  unclerk-like.  I  am  ashamed  of  it,  and 
concerned  for  it.  If  my  first  writ  should  be  abated,  if  I  should 
throw  a  large  bill  of  costs  on  my  first  client,  my  character  and 
business  will  suffer  greatly ;  it  will  be  said,  I  do  not  understand 
my  business.  No  one  will  trust  his  interest  in  my  hands.  I  never 
saw  a  writ  on  that  law  of  the  province.  I  was  perplexed,  and 
am  very  anxious  about  it.  Now  I  feel  the  disadvantages  of 
Putnam's  insociability  and  neglect  of  me.  Had  he  given  me, 
now  and  then,  a  few  hints  concerning  practice,  I  should  be  able 
to  judge  better  at  this  hour  than  I  can  now.  I  have  reason  to 
complain  of  him;  but  it  is  my  destiny  to  dig  treasures  with  my 
own  fingers ;  nobody  will  lend  me  or  sell  me  a  pickaxe.  How 
this  first  undertaking  will  terminate,  I  know  not;  I  hope  the. 
dispute  will  be  settled  between  them,  or  submitted,  and  so  my 
writ  never  come  to  an  examination ;  but,  if  it  should,  I  must 
take  the  consequences ;  I  must  assume  a  resolution  to  bear 
without  fretting. 

20.  Wednesday.  I  am  this  forenoon  resuming  the  study  of 
Van  Muyden ;  I  begin  at  the  ninety-ninth  page. 

21.  Thursday.  Yesterday  and  to-day  I  have  read  aloud 
Tully's  four  Orations  against  Catiline.  The  sweetness  and 
grandeur  of  his  sounds,  and  the  harmony  of  his  numbers,  give 
pleasure  enough  to  reward  the  reading,  if  one  understood  none 
of  nis  meaning.     Besides,  I  find  it  a  noble  exercise ;  it  exercises 


Mt.  23.]  DIARY.  53 

my  lungs,  raises  my  spirits,  opens  my  pores,  quickens  the  circu- 
lations, and  so  contributes  much  to  health. 

26.  Tuesday.  Being  the  evening  after  Christmas,  the  Doctor 
and  I  spent  the  evening  with  Mr.  Cleverly  and  Major  Miller. 
Mr.  Cleverly  was  cheerful,  alert,  sociable,  and  complaisant; 
so  much  good  sense  and  knowledge,  so  much  good  humor 
and  contentment,  and  so  much  poverty,  are  not  to  be  found 
in  any  other  house,  I  believe,  in  this  province.  I  am  amazed, 
that  a  man  of  his  ingenuity  and  sprightliness  can  be  so  shift- 
less. But  what  avails  a  noisy  fame,  a  plentiful  fortune,  and 
great  figure  and  consideration  in  this  world  ?  Neither  Pratt  nor 
Gridley,  Mayhew  nor  Eliot,  Stockbridge  nor  Hersey,  appears 
more  easy  and  happy,  with  all  their  wealth  and  reputation,  than 
he  with  neither. 

29.  Friday.  Let  me  see  if  Bob  Paine  don't  pick  up  this 
story  to  laugh  at.1  Lambert  will  laugh,  no  doubt,  and  will  tell 
the  story  to  every  man  he  sees,  and  will  squib  me  about  it  when- 
ever he  sees  me.  He  is  impudent  and  unfair  enough  to  turn 
this,  on  every  occasion,  to  my  disadvantage.  Impudence,  droll- 
ery, villany,  in  Lambert;  indiscretion,  inconsideration,  irresolu- 
tion, and  ill  luck  in  me ;  and  stinginess,  as  well  as  ill  luck,  on 
the  side  of  Field ;  —  all  unite  in  this  case  to  injure  me.  Field's 
wrath  waxed  hot  this  morning,  when  he  found  himself  defeated 
a  second  time.  He  wished  the  affair  in  hell,  called  Lambert  a 
devil,  and  said,  "  that  is  always  the  way  in  this  town  ;  when  any 
strange  devil  comes  into  town,  he  has  all  the  privileges  of  the 
town." 

Let  me  note  the  fatal  consequences  of  precipitation.  My  first 
determination,  what  to  do  in  this  affair,  was  right ;  I  determined 
not  to  meddle,  but,  by  the  cruel  reproaches  of  my  mother,  by  the 
importunities  of  Field,  and  by  the  fear  of  having  it  thought  I 
was  incapable  of  drawing  the  writ,  I  was  seduced  from  that 
determination ;  and  what  is  the  consequence  ?  the  writ  is  defect- 
ive. It  will  be  said  I  undertook  the  case,  but  was  unable  to 
manage  it ;  this  nonsuit  will  be  in  the  mouth  of  everybody ; 
Lambert  will  proclaim  it.     Let  me  never  undertake  to  draw  a 

1  This  refers  to  the  failure  of  the  writ,  so  strongly  apprehended  in  the  record 
of  the  18th.  Few  of  the  profession  have  not  experienced  something  of  the 
state  of  feeling  here  so  naturally  portrayed,  in  connection  with  the  first  venture 
on  a  writ. 

5* 


54  DIARY.  [1759. 

writ  without  sufficient  time  to  examine  and  digest  in  my  mind 
all  the  doubts,  queries,  objections,  that  may  arise.  But  nobody 
will  know  of  any  abatement,  except  this  omission  of  the  county. 
An  opinion  will  spread  among  the  people  that  I  have  not  cun- 
ning enough  to  cope  with  Lambert.  I  should  endeavor,  at  my 
first  setting  out,  to  possess  the  people  with  an  opinion  of  my 
subtlety  and  cunning.  But  this  affair  certainly  looks  like  a 
strong  proof  of  the  contrary. 

31.  Sunday.  Andrew  Oliver 1  is_a  very  sagacious  trifler.  He 
can  decipher,  with  surprising  penetration  and  patience,  any  thing 
wrote  in  signs,  whether  English,  Latin,  or  French.  But  to  what 
purpose  ?  It  is  like  great  skill  and  dexterity  in  gaming,  used 
only  for  amusement ;  with  all  his  expertness  he  never  wins  any 
thing.  But  this  is  his  way  to  fame.  One  man  would  be  a 
famous  orator ;  another  a  famous  physician  ;  another  a  famous 
philosopher ;  and  a  fourth  a  famous  dancer ;  and  he  would  be 
a  famous  decipherer.  But  I  am  quite  content  with  the  twenty- 
four  letters,  without  inventing  all  the  possible  marks  that  might 
signify  the  same  things.  Ned  Quincy  is  learning  to  be  such 
another  nugator  sagax,  —  an  artificial  arrangement  of  dots  and 
squares. 

1759.  January  3.  Wednesday.  Drank  tea  at  Colonel  Quin- 
cy's.  Spent  the  evening  there  and  the  next  morning.  In  the 
afternoon  rode  to  Germantown. 

H.  Q.2  or  O.  "  Suppose  you  were  in  your  study,  engaged  in 
the  investigation  of  some  point  of  law  or  philosophy,  and  your 
wife  should  interrupt  you  accidentally,  and  break  the  thread  of 
your  thoughts  so  that  you  never  could  recover  it  ?  " 

Ego.  "  No  man  but  a  crooked  Richard  would  blame  his  wife 
for  such  an  accidental  interruption ;  and  no  woman  but  a 
Xanthippe  would  insist  upon  her  husband's  company  after  he 
had  given  her  his  reasons  for  desiring  to  be  alone." 

O.  "  Should  you  like  to  spend  your  evenings  at  home  in 


Afterwards  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  for  the  county  of  Essex. 
"  He  possessed  fine  talents,  and  was  reckoned  among  our  best  scholars."     Eliot. 

2  Hannah  Quincy,  the  daughter  of  Josiah,  afterwards  married  to  Dr.  Lincoln, 
and  subsequently  to  the  late  Ebenezer  Storer,  of  Boston.  A  remarkable  letter, 
addressed  by  her  to  her  royalist  brother,  Samuel,  upon  his  final  separation 
from  home  and  friends,  is  to  be  found  in  the  supplement  to  Curwen's  Journal, 
near  the  end. 


2Et.  23]  DIARY.  55 

reading  and  conversing  with  your  wife,  rather  than  spend  them 
abroad  in  taverns  or  with  other  company  ?  " 

Ego.  "  Should  prefer  the  company  of  an  agreeable  wife  to 
any  other  company,  for  the  most  part,  not  always ;  I  should  not 
like  to  be  imprisoned  at  home." 

O.  "  Suppose  you  had  been  abroad,  and  came  home  fatigued 
and  perplexed  with  business,  or  came  out  of  your  study  wearied 
and  perplexed  with  study,  and  your  wife  should  meet  you  with 
an  unpleasant  or  an  inattentive  face,  how  should  you  feel  ?  " 

—  "I  would  flee  my  country,  or  she  should." 

O.  "  How  shall  a  pah  avoid  falling  into  a  passion  or  out  of 
humor  upon  some  occasions,  and  treating  each  other  unkindly  ?" 

Ego.  "  By  resolving  against  it ;  every  person  knows  that  all 
are  liable  to  mistakes  and  errors,  and  if  a  husband  finds  his  wife 
in  one,  he  should  use  reasoning  and  convince  her  of  it,  instead 
of  being  angry ;  and  so,  on  the  contrary.  But  if  it  happens  that 
both  get  out  of  humor  and  an  angry  dispute  ensues,  yet  both 
will  be  sorry  when  their  anger  subsides,  and  mutually  forgive 
and  ask  forgiveness,  and  love  each  other  the  better  for  it  for  the 
future." 

O.  thinks  more  than  most  of  her  sex ;  she  is  always  thinking 
or  reading ;    she   sits   and  looks   steadily  one  way,  very  often 

several  minutes  together,  in  deep  thought.     E *  looks  pert, 

sprightly,  gay,  but  thinks  and  reads  much  less  than  O. 

2  exposed  himself  to  ridicule  by  affectation,  by  pretensions 
to  strength  of  mind  and  resolution,  to  depth  and  penetration. 
Pretensions  to  wisdom  and  virtue,  superior  to  all  the  world,  will 
noTTDe  supported  by  words  only.  If  I  tell  a  man  I  am  wiser 
and  better  than  he  or  any  other  man,  he  will  either  despise,  or 
hate,  or  pity  me,  perhaps  all  three.  I  have  not  conversed  enough 
with  the  world  to  behave  rightly.  I  talk  to  Paine  about  Greek ; 
that  makes  him  laugh.  I  talk  to  Samuel  Quincy  about  resolu- 
tion, and  being  a  great  man,  and  study,  and  improving  time ; 
which  makes  him  laugh.  I  talk  to  Ned  about  the  folly  of  affect- 
ing to  be  a  heretic ;  which  makes  him  mad.  I  talk  to  Hannah 
and  Esther  about  the  folly  of  love ;  about  despising  it ;  about 


1  Esther  Quincy,  the  daughter  of  Edmund,  elder  brother  of  Josiah  Quincy; 
afterwards  married  to  Jonathan  Sewall,  frequently  mentioned  in  this  Diary. 

2  One  word  illegible. 


56  DIARY.  [1759. 

being  above  it;  pretend  to  be  insensible  of  tender  passions; 
which  makes  them  laugh.  I  talk  to  Mr.  Wibird  about  the 
decline  of  learning ;  tell  him  I  know  no  young  fellow,  who 
promises  to  make  a  figure ;  cast  sneers  on  Dr.  Marsh,  for  not 
knowing  the  value  of  old  Greek  and  Roman  authors ;  ask  when 
will  a  genius  rise  that  will  shave  his  beard,  or  let  it  grow  rather, 
and  sink  himself  in  a  cell  in  order  to  make  a  figure  ?  I  talked 
to  Parson  Smith,1  about  despising  gay  dress,  grand  buildings 
and  estates,  fame,  &c,  and  being  contented  with  what  will  sat- 
isfy the  real  wants  of  nature. 

All  this  is  affectation  and  ostentation.  It  is  affectation  of 
learning,  and  virtue,  and  wisdom,  which  I  have  not ;  and  it  is  a 
weak  fondness  to  show  all  that  I  have,  and  to  be  thought  to 
have  more  than  I  have.  Besides  this,  I  have  insensibly  fallen 
into  a  habit  of  affecting  wit  and  humor ;  of  shrugging  my 
shoulders  and  moving  and  distorting  the  muscles  of  my  face; 
my  motions  are  stiff  and  uneasy,  ungraceful ;  and  my  attention 
is  unsteady  and  irregular.  These  are  reflections  on  myself,  that 
I  make ;  they  are  faults,  defects,  fopperies,  and  follies,  and  disad- 
vantages.    Can  I  mend  these  faults  and  supply  these  defects  ? 

O makes  observations  on  actions,  characters,  events  in 

Pope's  Homer,  Milton,  Pope's  Poems,  any  plays,  romarlces,  &c, 
that  she  reads ;  and  asks  questions  about  them  in  company  — 
"  What  do  you  think  of  Helen  ?  what  do  you  think  of  Hector, 
&c.  ?  what  character  do  you  like  best  ?  did  you  wish  the  plot 
had  not  been  discovered  in  Venice  Preserved  ?  "  These  are 
questions  that  prove  a  thinking  mind.     E asks  none  such. 

Thus,  in  a  wild  campaign,  a  dissipating  party  of  pleasure, 
observations  and  improvements  may  be  made;  some  foppery, 
and  folly,  and  vice,  may  be  discerned  in  one's  self,  and  motives 
and  methods  may  be  collected  to  subdue  it ;  some  virtue  or 
agreeable  quality  may  be  observed  in  one's  self,  and  improved 
and  cherished ;  or  in  another,  and  transplanted  into  one's  self. 

Though  O knows  and  can  practise  the  art  of  pleasing, 

yet  she  fails  sometimes ;  she  lets  us  see  a  face  of  ridicule  and 
spying  sometimes,  inadvertently,  though  she  looks  familiarly 
and  pleasantly  for  the  most  part.     She  is  apparently  frank,  but 


1  The  Rev.  W.  Smith,  of  Weymouth,  to  whose  daughter  he  was  subsequently 
married. 


JEt.  23.]  DIARY.  57 

really  reserved ;  seemingly  pleased  and  almost  charmed,  when 
she  is  really  laughing  with  contempt ;  her  face  and  heart  have 
no  correspondence. 

Hannah  checks  Parson  Wibird  with  irony.  "  It  was  very 
saucy  to  disturb  you,  very  saucy,  I  'm  sure,"  &c. 

I  am  very  thankful  for  these  checks.  Good  treatment  makes 
me  think  I  am  admired,  beloved,  and  my  own  vanity  will  be 
indulged  in  me ;  so  I  dismiss  my  guard,  and  grow  weak,  silly, 
vain,  conceited,  ostentatious.  But  a  check,  a  frown,  a  sneer,  a 
sarcasm,  rouses  my  spirits,  makes  me  more  careful  and  consid- 
erate. It  may,  in  short,  be  made  a  question,  whether  good 
treatment  or  bad  is  the  best  for  me ;  that  is,  whether  smiles,  kind 
words,  respectful  actions,  do  not  betray  me  intqjweaknesses  and 
littlenesses  that  frowns,  satirical  speeches,  and  contemptuous 
behavior,  make  me  avoid. 

Popularity,  next  to  virtue  and  wisdom,  ought  to  be  aimed  at ; 
for  it  is  the  dictate  of  wisdom,  and  is  necessary  to  the  practice 
of  virtue  in  most. 

Yesterday,  went  down  to  defend  an  action  for  an  old  horse 
versus  Samuel  Spear.  This  was  undertaking  the  relief  of 
distressed  poverty ;  the  defence  of  innocence  and  justice  against 
oppression  and  injustice.  Captain  Thayer,  and  Major  Crosby 
too,  had  told  the  plaintiff  that  he  could  not  maintain  his  action, 
and  advised  him  to  drop  it  or  agree  it,  and  Thayer  spoke  out, 
"  I  would  have  these  parties  agree."  I  did  not  clearly  under- 
stand the  case,  had  no  time  to  prepare,  to  fix  in  my  mind, 
beforehand,  the  steps  that  I  should  take  ;  and  Captain  Hollis, 
Major  Miller,  and  Captain  Thayer,  were,  all  three,  very  active 
and  busy,  and  interested  themselves  in  the  suit. 

It  was  a  scene  of  absolute  confusion;  —  Major  Crosby  per- 
suading an  agreement ;  the  parties  raging  and  scolding ;  I  argu- 
ing; and  the  three  volunteers  proposing  each  one  his  project; 
and  all  the  spectators  smiling,  "whispering,  &c.  My  attention 
was  dissipated,  and  I  committed  oversights,  omissions,  inexpert 
management.  I  should  have  adhered  to  the  relation  my  client 
gave  me,  and  believed  nothing  that  came  from  the  other  side, 
without  proof.  I  should  have  insisted  upon  the  entry,  and 
opposed  any  motion  for  an  adjournment  till  next  week,  or  con- 
tinuance till  next  hour,  to  send  for  witnesses ;  for  Madam  Q. 
could  not  swear  any  thing   that  can  support  this  action ;    I 


58  DIARY.  [1759. 

should  have  offered  to  admit  all  she  could  say.  If  I  had  strictly 
pursued  the  story  that  my  client  told  me,  I  should  have  demanded 
an  entry  of  the  action,  or  else  a  dismission  of  the  defendant  with 
costs.  It  was  equally  idle  and  tame  to  continue  the  action,  to  send 
for  a  witness,  and  to  submit  it  to  referees ;  for  the  witness,  if  sent 
for,  could  not  support  the  action  ;  and  to  submit  the  original 
debt  to  referees,  was  to  submit  nothing ;  for,  by  the  original 
agreement,  nothing  was  due.  The  agreement  was,  to  take  the 
horse  and  keep  him,  and,  if  he  lived  till  April,  to  pay  two  dollars 
for  him  ;  but,  if  he  died  before,  to  pay  nothing ;  now,  he  actually 
died  in  February,  and,  therefore,  nothing,  by  contract,  was  to  be 
paid.  "The  keeping  of  so  old  an  horse  was  more  than  the  service 
he  could  do  was  worth ;  the  hay  he  ate  would  have  had  more 
riding  and  drawing  than  the  horse  did  through  that  winter.  If 
Spear  had  applied  to  such  as  knew,  he  would  not  have  brought 
the  writ ;  but  deputy  sheriffs,  petit  justices,  and  pettifogging 
meddlers,  attempt  to  draw  writs,  and  draw  them  wrong  oftener 
than  they  do  right.  They  are  meddlers,  hinters,  and  projectors. 
I  should  have  made  a  motion  to  the  justice,  that  either  the 
defendant,  or  I,  might  be  consulted  in  the  settlement  of  this 

affair,  and  that , ,  and ,  who  had  no  concern 

with  it,  might  not  determine  it  as  they  pleased.* 

The  other  night  the  choice  of  Hercules  came  into  my  mind, 


*  [Looking  about  me,  in  the  country,  I  found  the  practice  of  law  was  grasped 
into  the  hands  of  deputy  sheriffs,  pettifoggers,  and  even  constables,  who  filled  all 
the  writs  upon  bonds,  promissory  notes,  and  accounts,  received  the  fees  estab- 
lished for  lawyers,  and  stirred  up  many  unnecessary  suits.  I  mentioned  these 
things  to  some  of  the  gentlemen  in  Boston,  who  disapproved  and  even  resented 
them  very  highly.  I  asked  them  whether  some  measures  might  not  be  agreed 
upon  at  the  bar,  and  sanctioned  by  the  court,  which  might  remedy  the  evil. 
They  thought  it  not  only  practicable,  but  highly  expedient,  and  proposed  meet- 
ings of  the  bar  to  deliberate  upon  it.  A  meeting  was  called,  and  a  great  number 
of  regulations  proposed,  not  only  for  confining  the  practice  of  law  to  those  who 
were  educated  to  it,  and  sworn  to  fidelity  in  it,  but  to  introduce  more  regularity, 
urbanity,  candor,  and  politeness,  as  well  as  honor,  equity,  and  humanity,  among 
the  regular  professors.  Many  of  these  meetings  were  the  most  delightful  enter- 
tainments I  ever  enjoyed.  The  spirit  that  reigned  was  that  of  solid  sense, 
generosity,  honor,  and  integrity ;  and  the  consequences  were  most  happy ;  for  the 
courts  and  the  bar,  instead  of  scenes  of  wrangling  chicanery,  quibbling,  and  ill 
manners,  were  soon  converted  to  order,  decency,  truth,  and  candor.  Mr.  Pratt 
was  so  delighted  with  these  meetings  and  their  effects,  that  when  we  all  waited 
on  him  to  Dedham,  in  his  way  to  New  York  to  take  his  seat  as  chief  justice  of 
that  State,  when  we  took  leave  of  him,  after  dinner,  the  last  words  he  said  to  us, 
were,  "  Brethren,  above  all  things,  forsake  not  the  assembling  of  yourselves 
together."] 


JEt.  23.]  DIARY.  59 

and  left  impressions  there  which  I  hope  will  never  be  effaced, 
nor  long  unheeded.  I  thought  of  writing  a  fable  on  the  same 
plan,  but  accommodated,  by  omitting  some  circumstances  and 
inserting  others,  to  my  own  case. 

Let  Virtue  address  me :  "  Which,  dear  youth,  will  you  prefer, 
a  life  of  effeminacy,  indolence  and  obscurity,  or  a  life  of  indus- 
try,' temperance  and  honor  ?  Take  my  advice  ;  rise  and  mount 
your  horse  by  the  morning's  dawn,  and  shake  away,  amidst  the 
great  and  beautiful  scenes  of  nature  that  appear  at  that  time  of 
the  day,  all  the  crudities  that  are  left  in  your  stomach,  and  all 
the  obstructions  that  are  left  in  your  brains.  Then  return  to 
your  studies,  and  bend  your  whole  soul  to  the  institutes  of  the 
law  and  the  reports  of  cases  that  have  been  adjudged  by  the  rules 
in  the  institutes ;  let  no  trifling  diversion,  or  amusement,  or  com- 
pany, decoy  you  from  your  book ;  that  is,  let  no  girl,  no  gun,  no 
cards,  no  flutes,  no  violins,  no  dress,  no  tobacco,  no  laziness, 
decoy  you  from  your  books.  (By  the  way,  laziness,  languor, 
inattention,  are  my  bane.  I  am  too  lazy  to  rise  early  and  make 
a  fire  ;  and  when  my  fire  is  made,  at  ten  o'clock  my  passion  for 
knowledge,  fame,  fortune,  for  any  good,  is  too  languid  to  make  me 
apply  with  spirit  to  my  books,  and  by  reason  of  my  inattention 
my  mind  is  liable  to  be  called  off  from  law  by  a  girl,  a  pipe,  a 
poem,  a  love-letter,  a  Spectator,  a  play,  &c.  &c.)  But  keep  your 
law  book  or  some  point  of  law  in  your  mind,  at  least,  six  hours  in 
a  day.  (I  grow  too  minute  and  lengthy.)  Labor  to  get  distinct 
ideas  of  law,  right,  wrong,  justice,  equity;  search  for  them  in 
your  own  mind,  in  Roman,  Grecian,  French,  English  treatises 
of  natural,  civil,  common,  statute  law;  aim  at  an  exact  know- 
ledge of  the  nature,  end,  and  means  of  government;  compare 
the  different  forms  of  it  with  each  other,  and  each  of  them  with 
their  effects  on  public  and  private  happiness.  Study  Seneca, 
Cicero,  and  all  other  good  moral  writers ;  study  Montesquieu, 
Bolingbroke,  Vinnius,  &c,  and  all  other  good  civil  writers." 

What  am  I  doing?  shall  I  sleep  away  my  whole  seventy 
years  ?  no,  by  every  thing  I  swear  I  will  renounce  this  contem- 
plative, and  betake  myself  to  an  active,  roving  life  by  sea  or 
land,  or  else  I  will  attempt  some  uncommon,  unexpected  enter- 
prise in  law ;  let  me  lay  the  plan,  and  arouse  spirit  enough  to 
push  boldly.  I  swear  I  will  push  myself  into  business;  I'll 
watch  my  opportunity  to  speak  in  court,  and  will  strike  with 


60  DIARY.  [1759. 

surprise — surprise  bench,  bar,  jury,  auditors  and  all.  Activity, 
boldness,  forwardness,  will  draw  attention.  I  '11  not  lean  with 
my  elbows  on  the  table  forever,  like  Read,  Swift,  Fitch,  Skinner, 
Story,  &c. ;  but  I  will  not  forego  the  pleasure  of  ranging  the 
woods,  climbing  cliffs,  walking  in  fields,  meadows,  by  rivers,  lakes, 
&c,  and  confine  myself  to  a  chamber  for  nothing.  I'll  have 
some  boon  in  return,  exchange ;  fame,  fortune,  or  something. 

Here  are  two  nights  and  one  day  and  a  half  spent  in  a  soft- 
ening, enervating,  dissipating  series  of  hustling,  prattling,  poetry, 
love,  courtship,  marriage ;  during  all  this  time  I  was  seduced 
into  the  course  of  unmanly  pleasures  that  Vice  describes  to 
Hercules,  forgetful  of  the  glorious  promises  of  fame,  immortality 
and  a  good  conscience,  which  Virtue  makes  to  the  same  hero 
as  rewards  of  a  hardy,  toilsome,  watchful  life  in  the  service  of 
mankind.  I  could  reflect  with  more  satisfaction  on  an  equal 
space  of  time  spent  in  a  painful  research  of  the  principles  of 
law,  or  a  resolute  attempt  of  the  powers  of  eloquence.  But 
where  is  my  attention  ?  Is  it  fixed  from  sunrise  to  midnight  on 
Grecian,  Roman,  Gallic,  British  law,  history,  virtue,  eloquence  ? 
I  don't  see  clearly  the  objects  that  I  am  after ;  they  are  often  out 
of  sight;  motes,  atoms,  feathers,  are  blown  into  my  eyes  and 
blind  me.  Who  can  see  distinctly  the  course  he  is  to  take  and 
fhc  objects  that  he  pursues,  when  in  the  midst  of  a  whirlwind 
of  dust,  straws,  atoms,  and  feathers  ? 

Let  me  make  this  remark.  In  Parson  Wibird's  company 
something  is  to  be  learned  of  human  nature,  human  life,  love, 
courtship,  marriage.  He  has  "spent  much  of  his  life  from  his 
youth  in  conversation  with  young  and  old  persons  of  both  sexes, 
married  and  unmarried,  and  yet  has  his  mind  stuffed  with 
remarks  and  stories  of  human  virtues  and  vices,  wisdom  and 
folly,  &c.  But  his  opinion,  out  of  poetry,  love,  courtship,  mar- 
riage, politics,  war,  beauty,  grace,  decency,  &c,  is  not  very 
valuable  ;  his  soul  is  lost  in  a  dronish  effeminacy.  I'd  rather 
be  lost  in  a  whirlwind  of  activity,  study,  business,  great  and 
good  designs  of  promoting  the  honor,  grandeur,  wealth,  happi- 
ness of  mankind. 

Pratt.  "  There  is  not  a  page  in  Flavel's  works  without  several 
sentences  of  Latin ;  yet  the  common  people  admire  him.  They 
admire  his  Latin  as  much  as  his  English  and  understand  it  as 
well." 


JEt.  23.]  DIARY.  (jl 

1  "  preached  the  best  sermon  that  I  ever  heard ;  it  was 
plain  common  sense.  But  other  sermons  have  no  sense  at  all ; 
they  take  the  parts  of  them  out  of  their  concordances,  and 
connect  them  together,  head  and  tail."  How  greatly  elevated 
above  common  people  and  above  divines  is  this  lawyer  ?  Is 
not  this  vanity,  littleness  of  mind  ? 

February  1.*  I  intend  a  journey  to  Worcester  to-morrow. 
How  many  observations  shall  I  make  on  the  people  at  Weston 
and  Worcester,  and  how  many  new  ideas,  hints,  rules  of  law 
and  eloquence,  shall  I  acquire  before  I  return  ?  Let  my  journal 
answer  this  question  after  my  return. 

2.  At  Weston,  in  Dr.  Webb's  chamber  at  Hammond's.  His 
landlady  is  an  odd  woman ;  she  seems  good-natured  and  obliging 
too,  but  she  has  so  many  shrugs,  grimaces,  affectations  of  wit, 
cunning,  and  humor,  as  make  her  ridiculous.  She  is  awkward, 
shamefaced,  bashful,  yet  would  fain  seem  sprightly,  witty,  &c. 
She  is  a  squaddy,  masculine  creature,  with  a  swarthy  pale  face, 
a  great,  staring,  rolling  eye,  a  rare  collection  of  disagreeable 
qualities.  I  have  read  several  letters  this  afternoon  and  evening 
in  the  Turkish  Spy.2 

11.  Worcester.  I  have  been  in  this  town  a  week  this  night. 
How  much  have  I  improved  my  health  by  exercise,  or  my  mind 
by  study  or  conversation  in  this  space  ?  I  have  exercised  little, 
eat,  and  drank,  and  slept  intemperately ;  have  inquired  a  little 
of  Mr.  Putnam  and  of  Abel  Willard  concerning  some  points  of 
practice  in  law;  but  dining  once  at  Colonel  Chandler's,  once  at 
Mr.  Paine's,  once  at  the  Doctor's,  drinking  tea  once  at  Mr. 
Paine's,  once  at  the  Doctor's,  and  spending  one  evening  at  the 
Doctor's,  one  at  Gardner's,  and  several  at  Putnam's  in  com- 
pany, has  wasted  insensibly  the  greatest  and  best  part  of  my 
time  since  I  have  been  in  town. 

Oh!  how  I  have  fulfilled  the  vain  boast  I  made  to  Dr.  Webb 
of  reading  twelve  hours  a  day!     What  a  fine  scene  of  study 

1  The  name  is  illegible. 

2  A  work,  once  read  with  great  avidity,  but  now  entirely  neglected. 

*  [The  next  year  after  I  was  sworn  was  the  memorable  year  1759,  when  the 
conquest  of  Canada  was  completed  by  the  surrender  of  Montreal  to  General 
Amherst.  This  event  which  was  so  joyful  to  us,  and  so  important  to  England, 
if  she  had  seen  her  true  interest,  inspired  her  with  a  jealousy  which  ultimately 
lost  her  thirteen  colonies,  and  made  many  of  us  at  the  time  regret  that  Canada 
had  ever  been  conquered.] 

VOL.    II.  6 


62  DIARY.  [1759. 

is  this  office ! 1  a  fine  collection  of  law,  oratory,  history,  and 
philosophy !  But  I  must  not  stay.  I  must  return  to  Braintree ; 
I  must  attend  a  long  superior  court  at  Boston.  How  shall  I 
pursue  my  plan  of  study  ? 

Braintree.  Mr.  Marsh.  "  Father  Flynt2  has  been  very  gay  and 
sprightly  this  sickness.  Colonel  Quincy  went  to  see  him  a  Fast 
day,  and  was  or  appeared  to  be,  as  he  was  about  taking  leave  of 
the  old  gentleman,  very  much  affected  ;  the  tears  flowed  very  fast. 
'  I  hope  sir,'  says  he  in  a  voice  of  grief,  '  you  will  excuse  my  pas- 
sions.' '  Ay,  prithee,'  says  the  old  man, '  I  don't  care  much  for  you 
nor  your  passions  neither.'  Morris  said  to  him  '  You  are  going, 
sir,  to  Abraham's  bosom ;  but  I  don't  know  but  I  shall  reach 
there  first.'     '  Ay,  if  you  are  going  there  I  don't  want  to  go.'  "  3 

I  spent  one  evening  this  week  at  Billy  Belcher's.  I  sat,  book 
in  hand,  on  one  side  of  the  fire,  while  Doctor  Wendell,  Billy 
Belcher,  and  Stephen  Cleverly,  and  another  young  gentleman, 
sat  in  silence  round  the  card  table  all  the  evening.  Two  even- 
ings I  spent  at  Samuel  Quincy's  in  the  same  manner.  Doctor 
Gardiner,  Henry  Quincy,  Ned  Quincy,  and  Samuel  Quincy,  all 
playing  cards  the  whole  evening.  This  is  the  wise  and  salutary 
amusement  that  young  gentlemen  take  every  evening  in  this 
town.  Playing  cards,  chinking  punch  and  wine,^  smoking 
tobacco,  and  swearing,  &c.  &c,  while  a  hundred  of  the  best 
books  lie  on  the  shelves,  desks,  and  chairs  in  the  same  room. 
This  is  not  misspense  of  time ;  this  is  a  wise  a  profitable  im- 
provement of  time  —  cards  and  backgammon  are  fashionable 
diversions.  I  know  not  how  any  young  fellow  can  study  in  this 
town.  What  pleasure  can  a  young  gentleman  who  is  capable 
of  thinking,  take  in  playing  cards  ?  It  gratifies  none  of  the 
senses,  neither  sight,  hearing,  taste,  smelling,  nor  feeling ;  it  can 

1  Probably  written  in  Mr.  Putnam's  office. 

2  Henry  Flynt,  a  tutor  in  Harvard  University  upwards  of  fifty-five  years,  and 
about  sixty  years  a  fellow  of  the  corporation,  familiarly  called  Father  Flynt. 
He  lived  a  bachelor,  and  was  noted  for  his  facetiousness  and  humor  mingled 
with  gravity.  His  sister  had  married  Judge  Edmund  Quincy  of  Braintree,  in 
whose  house,  still  standing,  though  gone  out  of  the  hands  of  the  family,  is  a 
room  which  is  yet  known  as  Flynt's  study.  Peirce's  History  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity, quoted  in  Mr.  Lunt's  Century  Discourses. 

3  Akin  to  this  is  the  following  anecdote :  —  In  a  company  of  gentlemen,  where 
Father  Flynt,  who  was  a  preacher,  was  present,  Mr.  Whitefield  said  "  It  is  my 
opinion  that  Doctor  Tillotson  is  now  in  hell  for  his  heresy."  Father  Flynt 
replied,  "  It  is  my  opinion  that  you  will  not  meet  him  there."  Collections  of 
tin   Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  vol.  xiii.  p.  211. 


JEr.  23.]  DIAKY.  63 

entertain  the  mind  only  by  hushing  its  clamors.  Cards,  back- 
gammon, &c.  are  the  great  antidotes  to  reflection,  to  thinking, 
that  cruel  tyrant  within  us !  What  learning  or  sense  are  we  to 
expect  from  young  gentlemen  in  whom  a  fondness  for  cards,  &c. 
outgrows  and  chokes  the  desire  of  knowledge  ? 

March  14.  Reputation  ought  to  be  the  perpetual  subject  of 
my  thoughts,  and  aim  of  my  behavior.  How  shall  I  gain 
a  reputation  ?  how  shall  I  spread  an  opinion  of  myself  as  a 
lawyer  of  distinguished  genius,  learning,  and  virtue?  Shall  I 
make  frequent  visits  in  the  neighborhood,  and  converse  familiarly 
with  men,  women,  and  children,  in  their  own  style,  on  the  com- 
mon tittletattle  of  the  town  and  the  ordinary  concerns  of  a 
family,  and  so  take  every  fair  opportunity  of  showing  my  know- 
ledge in  the  law  ?  But  this  will  require  much  thought  and  time, 
and  a  very  particular  knowledge  of  the  province  law  and  com- 
mon matters,  of  which  I  know  much  less  than  I  do  of  the  Roman 
law.  Shall  I  endeavor  to  renew  my  acquaintance  with  those 
young  gentlemen  in  Boston  who  were  at  college  with  me,  and 
to  extend  my  acquaintance  among  merchants,  shopkeepers, 
tradesmen,  &c,  and  mingle  with  the  crowd  upon  Change,  and 
traipse  the  town-house  floor  with  one  and  another,  in  order  to 
get  a  character  in  town  ?  But  this,  too,  will  be  a  lingering 
method  and  will  require  more  art,  and  address,  and  patience,  too, 
than  I  am  master  of.  Shall  I,  by  making  remarks  and  proposing 
questions  to  the  lawyers  at  the  bar,  endeavor  to  get  a  great 
character  for  understanding  and  learning  with  them  ?  But  this 
is  slow  and  tedious,  and  will  be  ineffectual ;  for  envy,  jealousy, 
and  self-interest,  will  not  suffer  them  to  give  a  young  fellow  a 
free,  generous  character,  especially  me.  Neither  of  these  projects 
will  bear  examination,  will  avail.  Shall  I  look  out  for  a  cause 
to  speak  to,  and  exert  all  the  soul  and  all  the  body  I  own,  to  cut 
a  flash,  strike  amazement,  to  catch  the  vulgar ;  in  short,  shall  I 
walk  a  lingering,  heavy  pace,  or  shall  I  take  one  bold  determined 
leap  into  the  midst  of  fame,  cash,  and  business  ?  That  is  the 
question ;  —  a  bold  push,  a  resolute  attempt,  a  determined  enter- 
prise, or  a  slow,  silent,  imperceptible  creeping ;  shall  I  creep 
or  fly? 

I  feel  vexed,  fretted,  chafed ;  the  thought  of  no  business  mor- 
tifies, stings  me.  But  let  me  banish  these  fears ;  let  me  assume 
a  fortitude,  a  greatness  of  mind. 


64  DIARY.  [1759. 

In  such  a  slow,  gradual  ascent  to  fame  and  fortune  and  busi- 
ness, the  pleasure  that  they  give  will  be  imperceptible ;  but  by  a 
bold,  sudden  rise,  I  shall  feel  all  the  joys  of  each  at  once.  Have 
I  genius  and  resolution  and  health  enough  for  such  an  achieve- 
ment ? 


"  Means  not,  but  blunders  round  about  a  meaning." 

M has  a  very  confused,  blundering  way  of  asking  questions. 

She  never  knows  distinctly  what  she  is  after,  but  asks,  at  random, 
any  thing,  and  has  a  difficulty  of  recollecting  the  names  of  things. 
The  names  of  things  do  not  flow  naturally  into  my  mind  when 
I  have  occasion  to  use  them.  I  had  the  idea  of  the  General 
Court  in  my  mind  when  I  said  to  Otis,  the  judges  had  some 
important  business  to  do  in,  &c. ;  but  the  words,  General  Court, 
did  not  arise  with  the  idea,  and,  therefore,  Otis  thought  I  made 
a  silly  speech.  My  aunt  C has  the  same  difficulty  of  recol- 
lecting words  and  ideas,  too,  especially  of  tilings  that  are  some 
time  past.  A  slothful  memory,  —  a  slow,  heavy  memory,  in 
opposition  to  a  quick,  prompt  memory. 


Common  people  are  not  incapable  of  discerning  the  motives 
and  springs  of  words  and  actions. 

18.  Monday.  This  whole  day  is  dedicated  to  walking,  riding, 
talk,  &c. ;  no  reading  to-day. 

It  was  avarice,  not  compassion,  that  induced to  pass  the 

last  court;    he  was  afraid  that  P would  be  provoked  to 

appeal  both  to  the  superior  court,  if  he  put  both  in  suit,  and  so 
keep  him  out  of  his  money  six  or  eight  months  ;  six  months 
without  interest !  It  is  fear  of  losing  the  interest  upon  interest, 
that  induces  him  to  pass  this  court.  Oh,  love  of  money !  oh, 
avarice,  disguised  under  the  show  of  compassion ! 


"  Ob  !  but  a  wit  can  study  in  tbe  streets, 
And  raise  bis  mind  above  tbe  mob  be  meets."  * 

1  Here  follow  a  scries  of  desultory  reflections  unconnected  with  eacb  other^ 
and  with  any  action,  which  seem,  nevertheless,  to  have  a  bearing  upon  the 
general  character  of  the  writer. 


.St.  23.]  DIARY.  65 

Who  can  study  in  Boston  streets  ?  I  am  unable  to  observe 
the  various  objects  that  I  meet,  with  sufficient  precision.  My 
eyes  are  so  diverted  with  chimney-sweepers,  sawyers  of  wood, 
merchants,  ladies,  priests,  carts,  horses,  oxen,  coaches,  market- 
men  and  women,  soldiers,  sailors ;  and  my  ears  with  the  rattle- 
gabble  of  them  all,  that  I  cannot  think  long  enough  in  the  street, 
upon  any  one  thing,  to  start  and  pursue  a  thought.  I  cannot 
raise  my  mind  above  this  mob  crowd  of  men,  women,  beasts, 
and  carriages,  to  think  steadily.  My  attention  is  solicited  every 
moment  by  some  new  object  of  sight,  or  some  new  sound.  A 
coach,  cart,  a  lady,  or  a  priest,  may  at  any  time,  by  breaking  a 
couplet,  disconcert  a  whole  page  of  excellent  thoughts. 

What  is  meant  by  "  a  nodding  beam  and  pig  of  lead  ?  "  x  He 
means  that  his  attention  is  necessary  to  preserve  his  life  and 
limbs,  as  he  walks  the  street ;  for  sheets  of  lead  may  fall  from 
the  roofs  of  houses.  I  know  of  no  nodding  beam,  except  at  the 
hay  market. 

Shebbeare's  dedication  is  in  a  strain  of  ironical,  humorous 
satire.  He  reasons  as  warmly  and  positively  as  if  in  earnest, 
in  his  favor ;  but  his  reasoning  is  so  manifestly  weak,  and,  in 
some  places,  ambiguous,  that  every  reader  knows  his  true  inten- 
tion. This  system  of  religion  is  indeed  new.  Religious  institu- 
tions are  mere  means  of  increasing  and  preserving  piety  and 
virtue  in  the  world ;  and  any  thing  that  wall  produce  public  and 
private  advantages  on  the  happiness  and  morals  of  a  nation, 
however  repugnant  to  common  sense,  as  transubstantiation,  e.  g., 
is  true. 

April  8.  Sunday.  Spent  the  evening  at  Captain  Bracket's. 
A  case  was  proposed,  and  my  opinion  asked,  which  gave  me 
opportunity  to  display  some  knowledge  of  law,  but  betrayed  me 
into  mistaken  dogmatism.  I  am  frequently  exposing  my  igno- 
rance of  the  province  law,  but  things  are  started  that  put  me 
upon  examination. 

It  is  in  vain  to  expect  felicity  without  an  habitual  contempt 
of  fortune,  fame,  beauty,  praise,  and  all  such  things ;  unaffected 

1  "  And  then  a  nodding  beam,  or  pig  of  lead, 
God  knows,  may  hurt  the  very  ablest  head." 

Pope's  Imitation  of  Horace's  Second  Epistle. 
6*  E 


66  DIARY.  [1759. 

benevolence  to  men,  and  conscious  integrity,  are  sufficient  sup- 
ports. I  have  no  money,  but  I  have  an  easy  heart,  a  quiet  mind. 
God  made  us  to  be  happy.  I  distress  myself.  This  animi  mag- 
nitude) and  rerum  humanarum  contemptio  are  alone  secure  of 
happiness.     Oh !  stoics,  you  are  wise. 


What  passions  or  affections,  in  human  nature,  are  affected  by 
satire,  by  humor,  and  drollery?  There  is  some  affection  in 
human  nature  which  is  delighted  with  humor  and  satire ;  for  a 
good  deal  of  it  is  to  be  seen  and  heard  in  all  nations,  and  among 
all  ranks  of  people  ;  it  prevails  in  every  country  parish,  may  be 
found  in  every  tavern,  at  every  town  meeting  through  the  pro- 
vince. 

F.  Oh,  blessed  storm !  the  storm  blowed  me  away ;  oh,  blessed 
storm !  This  was  spoken  in  person  of  one  of  the  new  selectmen, 
as  Bracket,  Thayer,  &c. ;  and  upon  this  secret  principle,  that 
an  advantage  had  been  meanly  taken  of  the  thinness  of  the 
meeting  to  get  a  change  of  town  officers  ;  so  that  it  hinted  at 
their  meanness  and  want  of  influence  in  town.  Their  influence 
was  not  sufficient  to  have  carried  a  vote,  had  the  town  been 
together ;  but  they  were  mean  enough  to  seize  the  opportunity, 
when  three  fourths  of  the  town  were  detained  at  home  by  the 
storm,  to  assemble  their  crew  of  debtors  and  laborers,  and 
accomplish  their  projects  as  they  pleased. 

Thus  the  wit  of  this  lay  in  hinting  at  their  meanness  of  soul 
and  insignificancy  in  the  town;  it  hinted  that  the  point  was 
carried,  not  by  merit  nor  by  real  popularity,  but  by  mean  and  clan- 
destine artifice  and  plotting.  How  great  is  the  dread  of  satire 
and  ridicule  in  human  nature!  Mrs.  S.  is  afraid  of  Colonel 
Quincy  and  his  wife  ;  he  will  laugh  at  her  shape,  dress,  behavior. 
I  used  to  dread  J.  O.  and  B.  K.,  because  I  suspected  they 
laughed  at  me ;  I  used  to  dread  Putnam,  because  of  his  satir- 
ical and  contemptuous  smiles. 

Another  reason,  we  were  pleased  to  see  the  old  gentleman 
diverting  himself  and  laughing  at  the  success  of  their  artifices 
to  depose  him,  instead  of  being  angry  and  scolding.  What 
passions  are  pleased  in  the  reader  or  hearer,  and  what  are  vexed 
in  the  person  ridiculed  ? 


Mr.  23.]  DIARY.  67 

Ruggles's 1  grandeur  consists  in  the  quickness  of  his  appre- 
hension, steadiness  of  his  attention,  the  boldness  and  strength 
of  Ms  thoughts  and  expressions,  his  strict  honor,  conscious  supe- 
riority, contempt  of  meanness,  &c.  People  approach  him  with 
dread  and  terror.  Gridley's  grandeur  consists  in  his  great  learn- 
ing, his  great  parts,  and  his  majestic  manner;  but  it  is  diminished 
by  stiffness  and  affectation.  Ruggles  is  as  proud,  as  lordly,  as 
Gridley,  but  he  is  more  popular ;  he  conceals  it  more,  he  times 
it  better ;  and  it  is  easy  and  natural  in  him,  but  is  stiff  and 
affected  in  Gridley.  It  is  an  advantage  to  Ruggles's  character, 
but  a  disadvantage  to  Gridley's.  Gridley  has  a  bold,  spirited 
manner  of  speaking,  but  is  too  stiff,  has  too  little  command  of 
the  muscles  of  his  face;  his  words  seem  to  pierce  and  search,  to 
have  something  quick  and  animating;  he  is  a  great  reasot  er, 
and  has  a  very  vivid  imagination.  Pratt  has  a  strong  elastic 
spring,  or  what  we  call  smartness,  and  strength  in  his  mind ;  his 
ideas  seem  to  lie  deep  and  to  be  brought  up  with  a  strong  effort 
of  the  mind ;  his  ideas  are  vivid,  and  he  sees  their  differences. 

Otis  is  extremely  quick  and  elastic;  his  apprehension  is  as 
quick  as  his  temper.  He  springs  and  twitches  his  muscles 
about  in  thinking. 

Thacher  has  not  the  same  strength  and  elasticity ;  he  is  sen- 
sible but  slow  of  conception  and  communication ;  he  is  queer 
and  affected — he  is  not  easy. 


Colonel  Quincy.  "  I  learned  to  write  letters  of  Pope,  and 
Swift,  &c.  I  should  not  have  wrote  a  letter  with  so  much 
correctness  as  I  can,  if  I  had  not  read  and  imitated  them.  The 
faculty  has  come  to  me  strangely,  without  any  formed  design  of 
acquiring  it."     There  is  a  concealed  encomium  on  himself,  his 

1  Timothy  Ruggles,  a  person,  who,  with  the  exception  of  Hutchinson,  probably 
staked  more  of  influence  and  property  upon  his  activity  on  the  loyal  side  than  any- 
body in  Massachusetts.  At  this  time  he  was  keeping  a  tavern  and  practising  law 
in  Sandwich,  dividing  the  business  of  that  section  of  the  colony  with  the  elder 
Otis;  but  he  soon  afterwards  removed  to  Hardwick,  in  the  county  of  Worcester, 
and  became  the  political  combatant  of  the  younger  Otis  in  the  General  Court. 
He  was  the  President  of  the  Congress  of  1765,  refused  to  sign  the  address  which 
it  adopted,  and  received,  therefor,  the  censure  of  the  House.  He  subsequently 
took  an  active  part  in  organizing  the  loyalists  in  the  field.  He  died  in  Nova 
Scotia  in  1798.     Sabine's  American  Loyalists. 


68  DIARY.  [1759. 

own  letters,  in  this  remark ;  but  there  is  an  observation,  too,  which 
is  worth  considering.  Men  wear  themselves  by  slow  and  imper- 
ceptible degrees  into  confirmed  habits  of  thinking,  speaking,  and 
acting ;  he  began  early  in  life,  I  suppose,  perhaps  at  college,  to 
read  those  smooth  soft  writers,  and  although  he  never  formed 
any  design  of  imitating  their  ease  and  politeness,  yet  he  gradually 
wore  it  into  his  mind.  He  learned  to  write  as  children  learn  to 
speak,  without  thinking  what  they  do.  Perhaps,  had  he  formed 
a  design  in  his  youth  of  acquiring  that  faculty,  and  read  authors 
with  that  design,  he  would  have  acquired  it  much  sooner  and 
more  perfectly.  The  principle  in  nature  is  imitation,  association 
of  ideas,  and  contracting  habits.  How  naturally  we  imitate, 
without  design  or  with,  modes  of  thinking,  speaking,  acting, 
that  please  us.  Thus,  we  conform  gradually  to  the  manners  and 
customs  of  our  own  family,  neighborhood,  town,  province,  nation, 
&c.  At  Worcester  I  learned  several  turns  of  mind  of  Putnam, 
and  at  Boston,  I  find  myself  imitating  Otis,  &c.  But,  queer e — 
who  will  learn  the  art  soonest  and  most  perfectly,  he  who  reads 
without  a  design  of  extracting  beauties,  or  he  who  reads  with  ? 
The  last,  undoubtedly.  Design  attends  and  observes  nicely  and 
critically.  I  learned  with  design  to  imitate  Putnam's  sneerjjua 
sly  look,  and  his  look  of  contempt.  This  look  may  serve  good 
ends  in  life,  may  procure  respect. 

To  form  a  style,  therefore,  read  constantly  the  best  authors ; 
get  a  habit  of  clear  thinking,  and  strength,  and  propriety  and 
harmony  of  expression.  This  one  principle  of  imitation  would 
lead  me  through  the  whole  human  system ;  a  faculty  acquired 
accidentally,  without  any  endeavors  or  foresight  of  the  effect. 
He  read  for  amusement,  not  to  learn  to  write.  Let  me  recol- 
lect and  con  over  all  the  phenomena  of  imitation,  that  I  may 
take  advantage  of  this  principle  in  my  own  case ;  that  I  may 
learn  easier  and  sooner. 


The  road  is  walled  on  each  side  with  a  grove  of  trees.  The 
stillness,  silence,  and  the  uniformity  of  the  prospect,  put  the 
mind  into  a  stirring,  thoughtful  mood. 

But  the  reflections  that  are  made  in  a  grove,  are  forgotten  in 
the  town  ;  and  the  man  who  resembles  a  saint  in  his  thoughts, 
in  the  first,  shall  resemble  a  devil,  in  his  actions,  in  the  last. 


JEt.  23.]  DIARY.  69 

In  such  silent  scenes  as  riding  or  walking  through  the  woods, 
or  sitting  alone  in  my  chamber,  or  lying  awake  in  my  bed,  my 
thoughts  commonly  run  upon  knowledge,  virtue,  books,  &c; 
though  I  am  apt  to  forget  these  in  the  distracting  bustle  of  the 
town,  and  ceremonious  converse  with  mankind. 


This  morning  rode  to  Moses  French's,  to  get  him  to  serve  a 
writ  for  me.  He  told  me  he  was  not  yet  sworn,  but  was  obliged 
to  me  for  coming  to  him,  and  would  be  glad  to  serve  me  at  any 
time,  and  would  now,  rather  than  it  should  be  any  damage  to  me. 

Thus,  he  was  pleased,  I  hope  secured ;  men  are  only  secured 
by  falling  in  with  their  inclination,  by  favoring  their  hopes, 
clearing  their  prospects.  Then  I  went  to  Wales's ;  he  was  not 
at  home.  I  followed  him  to  Germantown.  He  served  the  writ ; 
we  returned  together.     He  seemed  quite  pleasant ;  told  me  the 

practice  of  the  two .     They  drive  a  great  stroke.     There 

is , ,  are  all  pettifogging  dabblers  in  iniquity  and  law. 

I  might  except ,  and,  perhaps, ,  from  the  iniquitous  part. 

I  hope  that  Wales  and  French  are  secured  to  me.     How  they 

love I  cannot  say.     I  hope  they  will  recommend  me  to 

persons  that  they  hear  speaking  of  business,  as  William  Veasey 
did.     Veasey  knew  me  and  mentioned  me  to  S . 


The  difference  between  a  whole  day,  and  a  divided,  scattered 
day.  Queer e  —  Can  any  man  take  a  book  into  his  hand,  in  the 
morning,  and  confine  his  thoughts  to  that  till  night?  Is  not 
such  a  uniformity  tiresome  ?  Is  not  variety  more  agreeable  and 
profitable,  too  ?  Read  one  book  one  hour ;  then  think  an  hour ; 
then  exercise  an  hour ;  then  read  another  book  an  hour ;  then 
dine,  smoke,  walk,  cut  wood ;  read  aloud  another  horn- ;  then 
think,  &c ;  and  thus  spend  the  whole  day  in  perpetual  varia- 
tion, from  reading  to  thinking,  exercise,  company,  &c.  But 
what  is  to  be  argued  by  this  wavering  life,  but  a  habit  of  levity, 
and  impatience  of  thought?  I  never^  spent  a  whole  day  upon 
one  book  in  my  life.  What  is  the  reason  that  I  cannot  remove 
all  papers  and  books  from  my  table,  take  one  volume  into  my 
hands  and  read  it,  and  then  reflect  upon  it  till  night,  without 
wishing  for  my  pen  and  ink  to  write  a  letter,  or  take  down  any 


70  DIARY.  [1759. 

other  book,  or  think  of  the  girls  ?  Because  I  can't  command  my 
attention.  My  thoughts  are  roving  from  girls  to  friends,  from 
friends  to  court,  to  Worcester,  Newbury,  and  then  to  Greece 
and  Rome,  then  to  law ;  from  poetry  to  oratory,  and  law.  Oh ! 
a  rambling  imagination !  Could  I  fix  my  attention,  and  keep 
off  every  fluttering  thought  that  attempts  to  intrude  upon  the 
present  subject,  I  could  read  a  book  all  day. 

"  Wisdom  (curse  on  it)  will  come  soon  or  late. 


I  '11  learn  to  smooth  and  harmonize  my  mind, 
Teach  every  thought  within  its  bounds  to  roll, 
And  keep  the  equal  measure  of  the  soul." 


Accidents,  as  we  call  them,  govern  a  great  part  of  the  world, 

especially  marriages.     S and  E broke  in  upon  H 

and  me,  and  interrupted  a  conversation  that  would  have  termi- 
nated in  a  courtship,  which  would  have  terminated  in  a  marriage, 
which  marriage  might  have  depressed  me  to  absolute  poverty 
and  obscurity,  to  the  end  of  my  life ;  but  that  accident  separated 

us,  and  gave  room  for 's  addresses,  which  have  delivered  me 

from  very  dangerous  shackles,  and  left  me  at  liberty,  if  I  will  but 
mind  my  studies,  of  making  a  character  and  a  fortune. 

Now  let  me  collect  my  thoughts,  which  have  been  long  scat- 
tered among  girls,  father,  mother,  grandmother,  brothers,  matri- 
mony, hustling,  chat,  provisions,  clothing,  fuel,  servants  for  a 
family,  and  apply  them  with  steady  resolution  and  an  aspiring 
spirit  to  the  prosecution  of  my  studies. 

Now  let  me  form  the  great  habits  of  thinking,  writing,  speak- 
ing. Let  my  whole  courtship  be  applied  to  win  the  applause 
and  admiration  of  Gridley,  Pratt,  Otis,  Thacher,  &c.  Let  love 
and  vanity  be  extinguished,  and  the  great  passions  of  ambition, 
patriotism,  break  out  and  burn.  Let  little  objects  be  neglected 
and  forgot,  and  great  ones  engross,  arouse,  and  exalt  my  soul. 
The  mind  must  be  aroused,  or  it  will  slumber.  I  found  a  passion 
growing  in  my  heart,  and  a  consequent  habit  of  thinking,  form- 
ing and  strengthening  in  my  mind,  that  would  have,  ate  out 
every  seed  of  ambition  in  the  first,  and  every  wise  design  or  plan 
in  the  last. 

Yesterday  afternoon  a  plea  puis  darein  continuance  was  argued, 


Mt.  23.]  DIARY.  71 

by  Mr.  Pratt  for  the  plea,  and  Gridley  and  Otis  against  it.  The 
plea  was,  that  after  the  last  continuance,  and  before  the  first  day 
of  the  sitting  of  this  court,  this  term,  namely,  on  such  a  day,  one 
Allen,  one  of  the  plaintiffs,  died.  Mr.  Pratt  argued  that  the  writ 
must  abate ;  for  it  was  clear  law  that  the  writ,  in  this  case,  was 
ipso  facto  abated,  and  might  be  dismissed  at  the  motion  of  any 
person  as  amicus  curice ;  and  of  this  opinion  was  the  whole  court. 
Gridley  took  an  exception  to  the  plea,  as  imperfect,  in  not  giving 
the  plaintiff  a  better  writ.  The  whole  afternoon  was  spent  in 
arguing  this  point,  and  twenty  volumes  of  Institutes  and  report- 
ers, I  suppose,  were  produced  as  authorities. 

(  Otis,  aside.  "  It  makes  me  laugh  to  see  Pratt  lug  a  cartload  of 
books  into  court,  to  prove  a  point  as  clear  as  the  sun.  The 
action  is  as  dead  as  a  hub.") 

Otis.  "  I  will  grant  Mr.  Pratt,  very  readily,  that  there  has  been 
a  time,  since  William  the  Conqueror,  when  this  plea  would  have 
abated  this  writ  in  England.  But,  I  take  it,  that  abatements  at 
this  day  are  rather  odious  than  favored,  and  I  don't  believe  that 
this  plea  could  abate  this  writ,  at  any  time  within  this  century, 
in  Westminster  Hall." 


Is  it  not  absurd  to  study  all  arts  but  that  of  living  in  the  world, 
and  all  sciences  but  that  of  mankind  ?  Popularity  is  the  way  to 
gain  and  figure. 

The  arts  of  gain  are  necessary ;  you  may  get  more  by  studying 
town  meeting  and  training  days,  than  you  can  by  studying 
Justinian  and  all  his  voluminous  and  heavy  commentators. 

Mix  with  the  crowd  in  a  tavern,  in  the  meeting-house,  or  the 
training  field,  and  grow  popular  by  your  agreeable  assistance  in 
the  tittletattle  of  the  hour ;  never  think  of  the  deep  hidden  prin- 
ciples of  natural,  civil,  or  common  law,  for  thoughts  like  these 
will  give  you  a  gloomy  countenance  and  a  stiff  behavior. 

I  should  talk  with  T ,  L ,  C ,  &c.  &c,  about 

changing  horses.     Offer  to  change  or  sell,  trade  in  any  thing. 

It  is  certain  that  retirement  will  lose  its  charms  if  it  is  not 
interrupted  by  business  and  activity.  I  must  converse  and 
deal  with  mankind,  and  move  and  stir  from  one  scene  of  action 
and  debate  and  business  and  pleasure  and  conversation  to 
another,  and  grow  weary  of  all,  before  I  shall  feel  the  strong 


72  DIARY.  [1759. 

desire  of  retiring  to  contemplation  on  men  and  business  and 
pleasure  and  books. 

After  hard  labor  at  husbandry,  reading  and  reflection  in  retire- 
ment will  be  a  relief  and  a  high,  refined  pleasure;  after  attending 
a  town  meeting,  watching  the  intrigues,  arts,  passions,  speeches, 
that  pass  there,  a  retreat  to  reflect,  compare,  distinguish,  will 
be  highly  delightful;  so  after  a  training  day,  after  noting  the 
murmurs,  complaints,  jealousies,  impudence,  envy,  that  pass  in 
the  field,  I  shall  be  pleased  with  my  solitude. 

Transitions  from  study  to  business,  from  business  to  conver- 
sation and  pleasure,  will  make  the  revolution  of  study  still  more 
agreeable  and  perhaps  not  less  profitable  ;  for  we  are  very  apt  in 
total  retirement  to  forget  the  sciences  and  to  smoke  and  trifle 
and  drone  it  too  much. 

I  have  been  very  negligent  and  faulty  in  not  treating  Deacon 

S ,  Nat  B ,  Deacon  B ,  &c,  with  more  attention 

and  sprightliness ;    I  should  bow  and  look  pleasant  to  Deacon 

S ,  and  talk  with  him  about  news,  war,  ministers,  sermons, 

&c. ;  should  watch  critically  every  word  that  Nat  B says,  and 

let  him  see  by  the  motions  of  the  muscles  of  my  face  that  I  have 
discernment  between  wise  and  foolish,  witty  and  silly,  candid  and 
ill-natured,  grave  and  humorous  speeches,  and  let  him  know  on 
proper  occasions  I  can  vent  a  smart  repartee ;  should  always  speak 
and  shake  hands  with  the  Deacon,  inquire  after  his  wife,  sons,  &c, 
and  humor  his  talkative  disposition.  It  is  of  no  small  importance 
to  set  the  tongues  of  old  and  young  men  and  women  a  prating 
in  one's  favor.  As  to  Doctor  Savil  and  his  wife,  I  have  dis- 
missed all  my  guards  before  them,  and  acted  and  spoken  at  ran- 
dom. I  might  easily  gain  their  warmest  words  and  assiduous 
assistance,  by  visiting  seldomer,  by  using  tender  and  soothing, 
instead  of  rough  and  reproachful  language,  and  by  complying 
with  their  requests  of  riding  out  with  her,  and  reading  plays  once 
in  a  while  to  them  in  the  evening.  But  I  have  been  rash, 
boastful,  profane,  uncivil,  blustering,  threatening,  before  them. 

Let  me  remark  Parson  Wibird's  popularity.  He  plays  with 
babies  and  young  children  that  begin  to  prattle,  and  talks  with 
their  mothers,  asks  them  familiar,  pleasant  questions  about  their 
affection  to  their  children ;  he  has  a  familiar,  careless  way  of  con- 
versing with  people,  men  and  women ;  he  has  wit  and  humor. 
Ripping,  that  is,  using  the  words  faith,  devil,  I  swear,  damnable, 


Mt.  23.]  DIAKY.  73 

cursed,  &c,  displeases  the  Doctor,  but  especially  his  wife. 
Threatening  to  quarrel  with  Thayer,  Penniman,  Hollis,  &c, 
disgusts  them,  especially  her. 

Asserting  dogmatically  on  points  of  province  law,  which  he 
knows  more  of  than  I  by  several  years  experience  and  conver- 
sation with  people  concerning  their  estates,  lawsuits,  &c,  and 
being  fretted,  disgust  them  very  much.  I  have  more  faults, 
mistakes,  imprudences,  follies,  rashness,  to  answer  for  in  the 
Doctor's  house  than  in  all  the  town  besides. 

I  am  to  attend  a  vendue  this  afternoon  at  Lambert's  ;  my 
father,  Bracket,  and  Thayer,  are  a  committee  to  lease  out  the 
town  lands  to  the  highest  bidder.  Let  me  remark  the  manage- 
ment of  the  sale  and  the  behavior  of  persons,  especially  of 
Thayer  and  Bracket ;  watch  his  treatment  of  people  and  their 
treatment  of  him.  Let  me  ask  myself  this  question  when  I 
return  :  What  have  I  seen,  heard,  learned  ?  what  hint  observed 
to  lift  myself  into  business  ?  what  reputation  or  disgrace  have 
I  got  by  attending  this  vendue  ?  My  character  will  be  spread 
and  mended,  or  injured  by  it. 

I  was  consulted  by  two  men  this  afternoon,  who  would  not 
have  applied  to  me  if  I  had  not  been  at  vendue ;  —  E.  Niles,  and 
Elijah  Belcher.  And  the  questions  they  asked  have  led  me  into 
useful  thoughts  and  inquiries.  I  find  hints  and  inquiries  arise 
sooner  in  the  world  than  in  my  study. 


It  would  be  an  agreeable  and  useful  speculation  to  inquire 
into  that  faculty  which  we  call  imagination  ;  define  it,  inquire 
the  good  ends  it  answers  in  the  human  system,  and  the  evils  it 
sometimes  produces. 

What  is  the  use  of  imagination?  It  is  the  repository  of 
knowledge.  By  this  faculty  are  retained  all  the  ideas  of  visible 
objects,  all  the  observations  we  have  made  in  the  course  of  life, 
on  men,  and  things,  ourselves,  &c. 

I  am  conscious  that  I  have  the  faculty  of  imagination ;  that  I 
can  at  pleasure  revive  in  my  thoughts  the  ideas  and  assemblages 
of  ideas  that  have  been  before  in  my  mind ;  can  revive  the  scenes, 
diversions,  sports  of  childhood,  youth  ;  can  recall  my  youthful 
rambles  to  the  farms,  frolics,  dalliances,  my  lonely  walks  through 
the  groves,  and  swamps,  and  fields,  and  meadows  at  Worcester ; 

vol.  11.  7 


74  DIARY.  [1759. 

can  imagine  myself  with  the  wildest  tribe  of  Indians  in  America, 
in  their  hunting,  their  wars,  their  tedious  marches  through  wild 
swamps  and  mountains ;  can  fly,  by  this  faculty,  to  the  moon, 
planets,  fixed  stars,  unnumbered  worlds ;  can  cross  the  Atlantic 
and  fancy  myself  in  "Westminster  Hall,  hearing  causes  in  the 
courts  of  justice,  or  the  debates  in  the  House  of  Commons  or 
Lords.  As  all  our  knowledge  is  acquired  by  experience,  that  is, 
by  sensation  or  reflection,  this  faculty  is  necessary  to  retain  the 
ideas  we  receive,  and  the  observations  we  make,  and  to  recall 
them  for  our  use  as  occasion  requires. 

I  am  conscious,  too,  that  this  faculty  is  very  active  and  stirring ; 
it  is  constantly  in  action,  unless  interrupted  by  the  presence  of 
external  objects,  by  reading,  or  restrained  by  attention  ;  it  hates 
restraint,  it  runs  backward  to  past  scenes,  &c,  or  forward  to  the 
future ;  it  flies  into  the  air,  dives  in  the  sea,  rambles  to  foreign 
countries,  or  makes  excursions  to  foreign,  planetary,  starry  worlds. 

These  are  but  hints,  irregular  observations,  not  digested  into 
.  order  ;  but  what  are  the  defects  of  this  faculty  ?   what  are  the 

/  errors,  vices,  habits,  it  may  betray  us  into  if  not  searched  "h 
what  is  the  danger  ?  I  must  know  all  the  ends  of  this  faculty 
and  all  its  phenomena  before  I  can  know  all  its  defects;  its 
phenomena  are  infinitely  various  in  different  men,  and  its  ends 
are  different ;  therefore  its  defects  must  be  almost  infinitely  vari- 
ous ;  but  all  its  defects  may  be  reduced  to  general  laws.  The 
sphere  of  imagination  includes  both  actuality  and  possibility ; 
not  only  what  is,  but  what  may  be. 


Thacher.  "  Pownal's  style  is  better  than  Shirley's ;  Shirley  never 
promoted  any  man  for  merit  alone.  If  Satan  himself  were 
incarnate,  and  in  competition  with  Parson  Wells  for  the  election, 
I  would  vote  for  old  Harry.  I  can't  think  that  any  man  of  true 
good  sense  can  be  so  vain  and  fond  of  talking  of  himself,  as 
Parson  Wells.  Tully  was  not  a  vain  man  ;  the  vainest  thing 
that  ever  he  said  was  in  his  Oration  for  Muraena  ;  that  if  they 
provoked  him  he  would  profess  himself  a  lawyer  in  three  days. 
I  wish  myself  a  soldier;  I  look  upon  these  private  soldiers, 
with  their  guns  upon  their  shoulders,  as  superior  to  me." 

These  are  all  wild,  extravagant,  loose  opinions  and  expressions ; 
he  expresses  himself  as  wildly  as  Colonel  Chandler — wild  flights; 


Mr.  23.]  DIARY.  75 

he  has  not  considered  that  these  crude  thoughts  and  wild  expres- 
sions are  catched  and  treasured  as  proofs  of  his  character.  He  is 
extremely  tender,  and  sensible  of  pleasure  and  of  pain. 

Kent *  is  for  fun,  drollery,  humor,  flouts,  jeers,  contempt.  He 
has  an  irregular,  unmethodical  head,  but  his  thoughts  are  often 
good,  and  his  expressions  happy. 

Thacher's  passions  are  easily  touched,  his  shame,  his  compas- 
sion, his  fear,  his  anger,  &c. 


Fortune  has  burned  Colonel  Quincy's  house  and  some  of  his 
fiirniture.2  Fortune  is  a  capricious  goddess ;  she  diverts  herself 
with  men ;  she  bestows  her  favors  sometimes  with  very  great 
profusion  on  a  man,  and  within  a  few  years  she  strips  him  even 
of  necessaries.  It  is  a  fluctuating  state.  We  are  tossed  on  the 
waves  sometimes  to  heaven,  and  then  sunk  down  to  the  bottom. 

That  house  and  furniture  clung  and  twined  round  his  heart, 
and  could  not  be  torn  away  without  tearing  to  the  quick.  Is  it 
possible  to  preserve  a  serene,  undisturbed  mind,  through  such  a 
fire  and  the  consequences  of  it  ?  There  is,  in  human  nature,  an 
attainable  magnanimity  which  can  see  a  valuable  house  full  of 
furniture  consuming  in  flames,  a  friend,  a  child,  a  wife,  struggling 
in  the  agonies  of  death,  without  a  sigh,  a  tear,  or  a  painful  sen- 
sation or  reflection.  The  "felicis  animi  immota  tranqitillitas?  the 
immovable  tranquillity  of  a  happy  mind,  unmoved  by  perils  of 
water  or  of  fire,  unmoved  by  any  losses,  accidents,  by  loss  of 
wealth,  of  fame,  of  friends,  &c,  —  happy  mind  indeed  !  Cannot 
a  mind  be  called  happy  unless  its  tranquillity,  its  ease,  its  rest,  is 
immovable,  invincible  ? 

1  Benjamin  Kent.  An  eccentric  member  of  the  bar,  whose  humor  too  often 
verged  upon  profanity  to  be  acceptable  to  the  people  of  his  generation.  Although 
early  associated  with  the  Whigs,  he  finally  accompanied  or  followed  his  daughter, 
the  wife  of  Sampson  Salter  Blowers,  to  Halifax  ;  and  for  this  has  been  set  down, 
in  late  publications,  as  a  loyalist ;  but  a  curious  letter,  which  will  be  found  in  a 
note  under  date  5  November,  17  71,  in  the  present  volume,  seems  to  show  that  his 
mind  had  taken  in  all  the  principles  of  the  Revolution,  even  in  advance  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  We  must,  therefore,  impute  his  emigration  to 
some  other  cause  than  his  loyalty. 

2  Josiah  Quincy  met  with  this  misfortune  twice  in  the  course  of  his  life.  At 
this  period  (17  May,  1 759,)  he  occupied  a  house  situated  upon  what  is  now  called 
the  Hancock  lot,  in  the  town  of  Quincy,  noted  as  the  spot  where  the  Rev.  John 
Hancock,  the  pastor  of  the  parish,  lived  and  died,  and  where  his  more  celebrated 
son  was  born. 


76  DIARY.  [1759. 

It  is  not  at  all  surprising  that  the  Colonel  is  more  dejected 
than  his  brother  was.  For  though  his  brother's  reduction  was 
more  complete,  yet  the  Colonel's  was  less  expected.  Ned  was 
reduced  to  be  worse  than  nothing.  Josiah  has  a  competency 
left.  But  Josiah's  loss  was  entirely  unforeseen,  unexpected,  and 
unprepared  for.  Ned's  was,  I  presume,  familiarly  known  and 
considered  by  him  at  least,  beforehand. 

Edmund  lost  a  son  as  suddenly  as  the  Colonel  lost  his  house, 
and  he  showed  as  much  anxiety,  too ;  he  could  not  sleep  all  night 
after  he  heard  of  it.  The  Colonel's  grief  is  more  eloquent  than 
Ned's. 

Disappointments  are  misery.  If  a  man  takes  pride  and  pleas- 
ure in  a  house,  or  in  rich  furniture,  or  clothing,  or  in  any  thing, 
how  is  it  possible  for  him  to  be  satisfied  when  they  are  lost, 
destroyed,  consumed  ? 

"  Not  to  admire  is  all  the  art  I  know, 
To  make  men  happy,  and  to  keep  them  so." 

Colonel  admired  his  house ;  it  is  burned,  he  is  unhappy,  &c. 
They  are  burned,  he  is  unhappy. 


I  made  some  observations  on  barberry  bushes,  sumach,  cater- 
pillars, &c. 

Inquire  the  properties  of  isinglass  and  of  carpenters'  glue; 
how  the  first  attracts  all  the  pumice  and  sediment  in  cider  to 
the  bottom,  and  the  latter  to  the  top. 

Inquire  how  the  juice  lies  in  the  apple ;  what  is  the  cause  of 
its  natural  fermentation ;  and  inquire  the  operation  of  artificial 
fermentation. 

You  regret  your  loss ; x  but  why  ?  Was  you  fond  of  seeing  or 
of  thinking  that  others  saw  and  admired  so  stately  a  pile  ?  or 
was  you  pleased  with  viewing  the  convenient  and  elegant  con- 
trivance of  the  inside,  and  with  showing  to  others  how  neatly  it 
was  finished  ?  Is  it  the  pleasure  of  seeing,  with  your  own  eyes, 
the  elegance  and  grandeur  of  your  house,  or  is  it  the  pleasure 
of  imagining  that  others  admired  it,  and  admired  or  envied  you 

1  This  seems  to  have  been  part  of  a  letter  addressed  to  Josiah  Quincy,  upon 
the  loss  of  his  house  by  fire,  as  noticed  in  the  preceding  page. 


JEr.  23.]  DIARY.  77 

for  it,  that  you  regret  the  loss  of  ?  Did  you  suppose  that  you  was 
esteemed  and  regarded  for  the  beauty  and  conveniency  of  your 
house  ?  or  are  you  mortified  to  think  that  your  enemies  will  be 
gratified  at  your  misfortune  ?  If  these  are  the  sources  of  your 
grief,  it  is  irrational,  unmanly ;  for  the  friendship  that  is  founded 
on  your  figure  and  estate,  is  not  worth  preserving ;  and  the  man 
who  can  rejoice  at  your  loss,  is  not  worth  attention.  But,  if  you 
consider  it  as  a  punishment  of  your  vices  and  follies,  as  a  frown 
that  is  .designed  to  arouse  your  attention  to  things  of  a  more 
permanent  nature,  you  should  not  grieve,  but  rejoice  that  the 
great  Parent  of  the  world  has  thus  corrected  you  for  your  good. 
Figure  and  show  may,  indeed,  attract  the  eyes  and  admiration 
of  the  vulgar,  but  are  little,  very  little,  regarded  by  wise  men. 
Is  it  not  rational,  noble,  to  dote  on  the  pleasure  of  viewing  a  fine 
horse,  and  being  seen  by  others  to  ride  such  a  one  ?  A  fine 
horse,  riches,  learning,  make  people  stare  at  me  and  talk  about 
me  ;  and  a  mighty  boon  this,  to  be  stared  at,  and  talked  of 
by  people  that  I  despise  ;  and  all  that  I  regard  will  love  and 
honor  me  for  acquisitions,  that  I  have  power  to  make  and 
which  cannot  be  torn  from  me.  Wisdom  and  virtue  are  not 
dependent  on  the  elements  of  fire  or  water,  air  or  earth. 


How  should  I  bear  Bob  Paine's  detraction  ?  Should  I  be 
angry,  and  take  vengeance  by  scandalizing  him  ?  or  should  I  be 
easy,  undisturbed,  and  praise  him  as  far  as  he  is  praiseworthy  ?  — 
return  good  for  evil  ?  I  should  have  been  as  well  pleased,  if  he 
had  said  I  was  a  very  ingenious,  promising  young  fellow ;  but, 
as  it  is,  I  am  pretty  easy. 


7* 


78  DIARY.  [1759. 


[Sometime  in  1761  or  '62,1  Mr.  Samuel  Quincy,  with  whom 
I  sometimes  corresponded,  showed  to  Mr.  Jonathan  Sewall,  a 
lawyer  somewhat  advanced  before  us  at  the  bar,  some  juvenile 
letters  of  mine  of  no  consequence,  which,  however,  Sewall 
thought  discovered  a  mind  awake  to  the  love  of  literature  and 
law,  and  insisted  on  being  acquainted  with  me  and  writing  to 
me.  His  acquaintance  and  correspondence  were  readily  em- 
braced by  me  and  continued  for  many  years,  till  political  dis- 
putes grew  so  warm  as  to  separate  us,  a  little  before  the  war 
was  commenced.  His  courtship  of  Miss  Esther  Quincy,  a 
daughter  of  Edmund  Quincy,  brought  him  to  Braintree  com- 
monly on  Saturdays,  where  he  remained  till  Monday,  and  gave 
us  frequent  opportunities  of  meeting,  besides  those  at  court  in 
Boston,  Charlestown,  and  Cambridge.  He  possessed  a  lively 
wit,  a  pleasing  humor,  a  brilliant  imagination,  great  subtlety  of 
reasoning,  and  an  insinuating  eloquence.  His  sentiments  of 
public  affairs  were  for  several  years  conformable  to  mine,  and  he 
once  proposed  to  me  to  write  in  concert  in  the  public  prints  to 
stir  up  the  people  to  militia  duty  and  military  ardor,  and  was 
fully  of  my  opinion,  that  the  British  Ministry  and  Parliament 
would  force  us  to  an  appeal  to  arms  ;  but  he  was  poor,  and  Mr. 
Trowbridge  and  Governor  Hutchinson  contrived  to  excite  him 
to  a  quarrel  with  Mr.  Otis,  because  in  the  General  Court  Colonel 
Otis  and  his  son  had  not  very  warmly  supported  a  petition  for  a 
grant  to  discharge  the  debt  of  his  uncle,  the  late  chief  justice, 
who  died  insolvent.  To  this  artifice  they  added  another  which 
wholly  converted  him,  by  giving  him  the  office  of  solicitor-gen- 
eral. I  know  not  that  I  have  ever  delighted  more  in  the  friend- 
ship of  any  man,  or  more  deeply  regretted  an  irreconcilable 
difference  in  judgment  in  public  opinions.  He  had  virtues  to  be 
esteemed,  qualities  to  be  loved,  and  talents  to  be  admired.  But 
political  principles  were  to  me,  in  that  state  of  the  country,  sacred. 
I  could  not  follow  him,  and  he  could  not  follow  me.] 

1  The  author,  who  appears  to  have  written  his  Autobiography  from  recollection 
only,  here  makes  a  mistake  of  two  or  three  years  in  the  date,  which  should  be 
1759.  Several  letters  of  this  correspondence  have  been  preserved;  some  of 
them  find  their  place  in  the  Memoir. 


Mt.  24.]  DIARY.  79 


Extract  of  a  Letter  to  Jonathan  Sewall. 

This  extract  is  copied  upon  the  first  page  of  one  of  the  small  paper  books 
used  for  this  Diary.  It  was  placed  here  for  a  guide  to  the  writer's  studies,  as 
appears  from  several  subsequent  references. 

October,  1759. 

The  true  end  which  we  ought  to  have  in  view  is  that  proleta- 
rian ac  singulare  quiddam,  which  follows  here. 

'Tis  impossible  to  employ  with  full  advantage  the  forces  of 
our  own  minds  in  study,  in  council,  or  in  argument,  without 
examining  with  great  attention  and  exactness  all  our  mental 
faculties  in  all  their  operations,  as  explained  by  writers  on  the 
human  understanding,  and  as  exerted  by  geometricians. 

'Tis  impossible  to  judge  with  much  precision,  of  the  true 
motives  and  qualities  of  human  actions  or  of  the  propriety  of 
rules  contrived  to  govern  them,  without  considering  with  like 
attention  all  the  passions,  appetites,  affections,  in  nature,  from 
which  they  flow.  An  intimate  knowledge,  therefore,  of  the 
intellectual  and  moral  world  is  the  sole  foundation  on  which  a 
stable  structure  of  knowledge  can  be  erected.  And  the  structure 
of  British  laws  is  composed  of  such  a  vast  and  various  collec- 
tion of  materials,  taken  partly  from  Saxony,  Normandy,  and 
Denmark,  partly  from  Greece  and  Rome,  and  partly  from  the 
Canon  and  Feudal  law,  that 't  is  impossible  for  any  builder  to 
comprehend  the  whole  vast  design,  and  see  what  is  well,  and 
what  is  ill  contrived  or  jointed,  without  acquainting  himself  with 
Saxon,  Danish,  Norman,  as  well  as  Greek  and  Roman  history, 
with  Civil,  Feudal,  and  Canon  law. 

Besides  all  this,  'tis  impossible  to  avail  ourselves  of  the  gen- 
uine powers  of  eloquence,  without  examining  in  their  elements 
and  first  principles,  the  force  and  harmony  of  numbers  as  em- 
ployed by  the  poets  and  orators  in  ancient  and  modern  times, 
and  without  considering  the  natural  powers  of  imagination  and 
the  disposition  of  mankind  to  metaphor  and  figure,  which  will 
require  the  knowledge  of  the  true  principles  of  grammar  and 
rhetoric  and  of  the  best  classical  authors. 

Now,  to  what  higher  object,  to  what  greater  character,  can 
any  mortal  aspire  than  to  be  possessed  of  all  this  knowledge 
well  digested,  and  ready  at  command  to  assist  the  feeble  and 
friendless,  to  discountenance  the  haughty  and  lawless,  to  procure 


80  DIARY.  [1759. 

redress  of  wrongs,  the  advancement  of  right,  to  assert  and 
maintain  liberty  and  virtue,  to  discourage  and  abolish  tyranny 
and  vice  ? l 

October  12.  Began,  in  pursuance  of  the  foregoing  plan,  to 
transcribe,  from  Brightland's  English  Grammar,  answers  to  Mr. 
Gridley's  questions  for  that  Grammar.  I  have  begun,  too,  to 
compare  Dr.  Cowell's  Institutes  of  the  Laws  of  England,  with 
Justinian's  Institutes  of  the  Laws  of  Rome,  title  by  title,  that 

1  The  letter,  to  which  this  was  an  answer,  has  been  preserved ;  it  bears 
date,  29  September,  1759.  The  following  extract,  as  showing  the  spirit  of  Mr. 
Se wall's  part  of  the  correspondence,  is  here  subjoined.  It  is  not  so  remarkable  as 
that  inserted  in  the  Memoir,  mainly,  however,  on  account  of  the  singular  prediction 
respecting  Mr.  Adams,  contained  in  the  latter ;  but  it  does  honor  to  the  writer, 
who,  we  know  from  other  sources,  was  one  of  the  most  accomplished  men  of  his 
time  in  the  colony.  His  controversial  writings  in  the  newspapers,  at  a  period 
when  the  standard  was  very  high,  did  all  that  could  be  done  to  uphold  a  teeble 
cause.  Reputation,  which  in  this  world  generally  follows  the  maintenance  of 
right  principles  and  sometimes  even  that  of  wrong  principles  when  attended 
with  success,  failed  in  his  case  from  the  want  of  both  requisites. 

JONATHAN   SEWALL    TO   JOHN   ADAMS. 

It  gives  me  the  most  sensible  pleasure  to  find  in  my  friend  so  becoming  a 
resolution  to  persevere  in  the  sublime  study  of  the  law,  maugre  all  the  difficul- 
ties and  perplexing  intricacies  with  which  it  seems  embarrassed.  I  call  it  a  sub- 
lime study ;  and  what  more  sublime  ?  What  more  worthy  the  indefatigable 
labors  and  pursuit  of  a  reasonable  man,  than  that  science  by  which  mankind 
raise  themselves  from  the  forlorn,  helpless  state,  in  which  nature  leaves  them, 
to  the  full  enjoyment  of  all  the  inestimable  blessings  of  social  union,  and  by 
which  they  (if  you  will  allow  the  expression)  triumph  over  the  frailties  and 
imperfections  of  humanity  ? 

Though  in  my  last  I  mentioned  the  greatness  of  the  task  we  have  voluntarily 
set  ourselves,  and  the  shortness  of  the  time  to  which  by  the  present  constitution 
of  things  we  are  confined,  as  an  apology  for  my  attempting  to  assist  you  in  your 
progress,  and  to  justify  you  in  making  use  of  means  so  vastly  disproportionate  to 
the  end  ;  I  say,  though  I  hinted  these  things  to  these  purposes,  yet  I  would  not 
have  you  conclude  from  hence  that  I  am  discouraged  from  the  pursuit.  No,  my 
friend,  I  thank  God,  I  am  at  present  far  from  a  state  of  despondency.  The 
difficulties,  't  is  true,  are  great,  but  the  motives  to  resolution  and  diligence  are 
superior.  The  obstacles  are  surmounted  by  the  industrious ;  are  insurmountable 
only  to  the  perversely  indolent,  and  effeminately  irresolute.  For  my  own  part, 
I  am  determined,  as  I  have  (to  return  you  a  Scripture  metaphorical  phrase,)  put 
my  hand  to  the  plough,  not  to  look  back  ;  and  it  is  not  the  smallest  encouragement 
that  I  have  found  in  you  a  fellow  traveller,  who,  if  at  any  time  through  inattention, 
inability,  or  ignorance,  I  should  stop  short,  or  deviate,  can,  and  I  doubt  not  will, 
kindly  lend  a  helping  hand  and  set  me  right. 

Your  account  of  Mr.  Blackstone's  Lectures  is  entirely  new  to  me,  but  I  am 
greatly  pleased  with  it.  The  embellishments  of  historical  and  critical  learning, 
as  well  as  the  alluring  ornaments  of  language,  (too  much  neglected  by  law 
writers,)  would  undoubtedly  render  much  more  agreeable  the  study  of  the  laws 
of  England,  in  their  present  system  too  abstracted  and  dry.  I  could  wish  Mr. 
Blackstone,  or  some  other  friend  to  this  invaluable  branch  of  knowledge,  would 
undertake  to  abridge  the  Reports,  that  we  might  not  be  forced  to  throw  away  so 
much  of  our  time  upon  needless  repetitions. 


jEt.  24.]  DIARY.  81 

each  may  reflect  light  upon  the  other,  and  that  I  may  advance 
my  knowledge  of  civil  and  common  law  at  the  same  time. 
1760.     May  26.  Monday.     Spent  the  evening  at  Mr.  Edmund 


Quincy's,  with  Mr.  Wibird  and  my  cousin  Zab.  Mr.  Quincy 
told  a  remarkable  instance  of  Mr.  Benjamin  Franklin's  activity 
and  resolution  to  improve  the  productions  of  his  own  country ; 
for  from  that  source  it  must  have  sprung,  or  else  from  an  unheard 
of  stretch  of  benevolence  to  a  stranger.  Mr.  Franklin  happening, 
upon  a  visit  to  his  Germantown  friends,  to  be  at  Mr.  Wibird's 
meeting,  was  asked  after  meeting  in  the  afternoon  to  drink  tea 
at  Mr.  Quincy's.  The  conversation  turned  upon  the  qualities 
of  American  soil,  and  the  different  commodities  raised  in  these 
provinces.  Among  the  rest,  Mr.  Franklin  mentioned  that  the 
Rhenish  grape  vines  had  been  introduced  into  Pennsylvania, 
and  that  some  had  been  lately  planted  in  Philadelphia,  and 
succeeded  very  well.  Mr.  Quincy  said,  upon  it,  "  I  wish  I  could 
get  some  into  my  garden ;  I  doubt  not  they  would  do  very  well 
in  this  province."  Mr.  Franklin  replied,  "  sir,  if  I  can  supply  you 
with  some  of  the  cuttings,  I  shall  be  glad  to."  Quincy  thanked 
him  and  said,  "  I  don't  know  but  some  time  or  other  I  shall 
presume  to  trouble  you."  And  so  the  conversation  passed  off. 
Within  a  few  weeks,  Mr.  Quincy  was  surprised  with  a  letter 
from  some  of  Franklin's  friends  in  Boston,  that  a  bundle  of  these 
Rhenish  slips  were  ready  for  him ;  these  came  by  water.  Well, 
soon  afterwards  he  had  another  message  that  another  parcel  of 
slips  were  left  for  him  by  the  post.  The  next  time  Mr.  Franklin 
was  in  Boston,  Mr.  Quincy  waited  on  him  to  thank  him  for  his 
slips ;  "  but  I  am  sorry,  sir,  to  give  you  so  much  trouble."  "  O, 
sir,"  says  Franklin,  "the  trouble  is  nothing  to  me,  if  the  vines 
do  but  succeed  in  your  province.  However,  I  was  obliged 
to  take  more  pains  than  I  expected,  when  I  saw  you.  I  had 
been  told  that  the  vines  were  in  the  city,  but  I  found  none,  and 
was  obliged  to  send  up  to  a  village,  seventy  miles  from  the  city, 
for  them."  Thus,  he  took  the  trouble  to  hunt  over  the  city,  and 
not  finding  vines  there,  he  sends  seventy  miles  into  the  country, 
and  then  sends  one  bundle  by  water,  and,  lest  they  should  mis- 
carry, another  by  land,  to  a  gentleman  whom  he  owed  nothing 
and  was  but  little  acquainted  with,  purely  for  the  sake  of  doing 
good  in  the  world  by  propagating  the  Rhenish  vines  through 
these  provinces.     And  Mr.  Quincy  has  some  of  them  now  grow- 

F 


82  WAUY.  [17C0. 

ing  in  his  garden.  This  is  an  instance,  too,  of  his  amazing 
capacity  for  business,  his  memory  and  resolution  amidst  so  much 
business  ;  as  counsellor,  postmaster,  printer,  so  many  private 
studies,  and  so  many  public  avocations  too,  to  remember  such  a 
transient  hint  and  exert  himself  so  in  answer  to  it,  is  surprising.1 

1  Among  the  papers  of  Mr.  Adams  is  found  an  original  letter  of  Dr.  Franklin, 
addressed  to  the  same  Mr.  Quincy,  in  the  following  year,  upon  this  subject. 
Unfortunately,  it  is  not  complete,  one  piece  of  it  having  been  worn  away  and 
lost.  Yet,  as  it  does  not  seem  to  have  been  printed,  and  as  every  thing  con- 
nected with  the  writer  is  interesting  at  this  day,  it  is  here  appended  in  its 
fragmentary  state. 

TO     EDMUND    QUINCY. 

London,   10  December,  1761. 

Sir  :  —  I  should  sooner  have  answered  your  obliging  letter  of  January  9,  but 
that  I  hoped  from  time  to  time  I  might  be  able  to  obtain  some  satisfactory  answer 
to  your  queries.     As  yet,  I  have  done  little,  that  kind  of  information  being  looked 
upon  as  a  part  of  the  mysteries  of  trade,  which  the  professors  are  very  shy  of 
communicating.     But  I  think  I  am  now  in  a  train  of  obtaining  more,  of  which  I 
hope  soon  to  give  you  a  good  account.     In  the  mean  time  I  may  inform  you  that 
great  quantities  of  wine  are  made,  both  here  and  at  Bristol,  from  raisins,  not  by 
private  families  only,  for  their  particular  use,  but,  in  the  great  way,  by  large 
dealers  for  the  country  consumption.     As  New  England  trades  to  Spain  with 
their  fish,  it  would,  I  imagine,  be  easy  for  you  to  furnish  yourself,  at  the  best 
hand,  with  plenty  of  raisins,  and  from  thence  produce  a  genuine  wine  of  real 
worth,  that  might  be  sold  with  you  for  good  profit.     Being  lately  at  a  friend's 
house,  where  I  drank  some  old  raisin  wine  that  I  found  to  be  very  good,  I 
requested  the         ........... 

sound  and  good.  It  is  thought  here,  that  by  far  the  greatest  part  of 
the  wine  drank  in  England  is  made  in  England.  Fine  cider  or  perry  is  said  to 
be  the  basis.  Sloes  afford  roughness ;  elder  berries,  color  ;  and  brandy,  a  little 
more  strength ;  but  of  this  I  have  no  certain  account. 

The  porter  now  so  universally  drank  here,  is,  I  am  assured,  fined  down  with 
isinglass  or  fish-glue,  for  which  sixty  thousand  pounds  sterling,  per  annum,  is  paid 
to  Russia.  Of  late,  it  has  been  discovered  that  this  fish-glue  is  nothing  more  than 
the  sounds  of  cod  or  other  fish,  extended  and  dried  in  the  sun,  without  any  other 
preparation.  So  you  may  make  what  quantity  you  please  of  it,  and  cheap,  fish 
being  with  you  so  plenty. 

I  heartily  wish  you  success  in  your  attempts  to  make  wine  from  American 
grapes.     None  has  yet  been  imported  here  for  the  premium. 
With  great  esteem,  I  am,  sir, 

Your  most  obedient,  humble  servant,  B.  Franklin. 

P.  S.  The  negotiations  for  a  peace,  in  which  Canada  was  to  be  forever  ceded 
to  England,  are  at  present  broken  off.  But,  whenever  they  are  resumed,  I  am 
persuaded  that  will  be  made  a  point         .... 

N.  B.  One  Ezekiel  Hatch,  near  Greenwood's  mast-yard,  tells  me  that  the 
cod  sounds  or  other,  may  be  saved  by  slinging  up  and  drying ;  that,  under  this 
circumstance,  they  will  not  dissolve  in  any  liquor,  hot  nor  cold ;  but  that,  taken 
and  wrapped  up  in  clean  linen  cloth  or  other  cloths,  and  covered  up  in  embers, 
so  as  to  roast  them,  they  will  then  dissolve,  and  that  they  will  answer  the  end  of 
glue  ;  but  not  so  well  of  cod  as  the  sounds  of  hake,  which  is  caught  in  or  near 
the  fall.  Those,  many  joiners,  at  distant  places,  use  as  glue  for  their  cabinet 
work  ;  roasted  first,  in  order  to  dissolve,  as  glue. 


JEt.  24.]  DIARY.  83 

This  Rhenish  wine  is  made  of  a  grape  that  grows  in  Germany, 
upon  the  river  Rhine,  from  which  it  receives  its  name,  and  is 
very  famous  all  over  Europe.  Let  me  remember  to  look  in 
Chambers,  under  Rhenish,  and  in  Salmon's  Geography,  under 
the  produce  of  the  countries  upon  the  Rhine,  for  more  particulars 
of  this  vine,  and  grape,  and  wine ;  the  soil  it  delights  in,  the 
method  of  cultivation,  what  digging,  what  manure,  what  pruning, 
&c.  Let  me  ask  Mr.  Quincy  whether  the  soil  of  his  garden 
suits  them,  and  what  sorts  and  how  many  sorts  of  grapes  he 
has  ?  Don't  they  require  more  heat  than  we  have  for  them  ? 
where  he  got  his  other  slips  ?  where  he  got  his  lime  trees  ?  &c. 

28.  Wednesday.  Loitered  the  forenoon  away  upon  this  ques- 
tion in  arithmetic.1 

In  the  afternoon  Zab  2  and  I  wandered  down  to  Germantown 
on  foot,  running  a  parallel  between  the  pleasures,  profits,  free- 
dom, ease,  and  uses  of  the  several  professions,  especially  physic 
and  divinity. 

29.  Thursday.  Rose  and  breakfasted.  Have  done  nothing 
yet  to-day,  and  God  only  knows  what  I  shall  do.  The  question 
of  the  pipe.3 

I  must  run  over  Fractions  again,  vulgar  and  decimal  as  well 
as  algebraical,  and  now  and  then  a  few  questions  in  Fenning 
and  Hammond  and  Ward,  or  else  I  shall  totally  forget  my 
numbers.  I  find  that  the  art  of  numbering  depends  upon  prac- 
tice, and  in  a  short  disuse  they  will  slip  from  the  memory.  A 
journal  scrawled  with  algebraical  signs,  and  interspersed  with 
questions  of  law,  husbandry,  natural  history,  &c,  will  be  a  useful 
tiring.  The  principal  uses,  however,  will  be  to  correct  my  style 
and  assist  my  memory,  give  me  a  true  compunction  for  the 
waste  of  time,  and  urge  me  of  course  to  a  better  improvement 
of  it.  Besides,  writing  is  one  of  the  greatest  pleasures,  and  it 
sooner  rouses  my  ambition,  warms  my  imagination,  and  fixes 
me  in  a  train  of  thinking,  than  any  other  thing  that  I  can  do ; 
than  sitting  still  with  my  eyes  shut,  or  than  holding  a  book  to 

1  This  question,  worked  out  by  algebra,  is  omitted. 

2  The  Rev.  Zabdiel  Adams,  already  once  alluded  to,  was  a  cousin  of  the 
author,  afterwards  pastor  of  the  church  at  Lunenburgh  in  Massachusetts.  A 
biographical  sketch  of  him  may  be  found  in  Doctor  Eliot's  Collection.  He  used 
to  say  that  by  nature  his  kinsman  and  he  should  have  exchanged  callings.  The 
two  had  many  qualities  of  character  in  common. 

3  Another  demonstration. 


84  DIARY.  [1760. 

read.  Mem.  Last  Sunday,  after  meeting,  Mr.  Cranch  explained 
to  us,  at  Doctor  Tufts's,  the  machines  that  are  used  in  the  mines 
of  coal  in  Newcastle,  and  of  tin  in  Cornwall,  to  convey  up  water 
from  the  bottom  of  the  mine.  They  go  upon  the  principles 
of  elastic  air  and  rarefied  vapor.  They  have  hollow  globes  of 
plaited  iron  or  of  copper  which  will  hold  some  barrels,  which 
they  heat  with  great  fires,  and  have  tubes  and  cocks,  and  can 
cast  up  great  quantities  of  water,  many  hogsheads  in  a  minute. 
But  I  have  forgot  the  construction  of  the  machines  as  well  as 
the  method  of  working  them.  Here  is  my  failing,  or  one  of  my 
failings.  My  attention  has  not  been  keen  enough  to  under- 
stand and  fix  in  my  memory  the  explications  of  many  of  these 
machines.  Etter  explained  to  me  his  stocking  looms,  but  I  could 
not,  when  I  left  him,  have  run  from  the  first  motion  to  the  com- 
plete formation  of  a  stocking ;  I  did  not  see  through  it.  Cranch 
once  explained  to  me  the  machine  that  draws  water  from  the 
Thames  into  the  canals  under  the  city  of  London,  and  that 
sends  water  up  into  their  garrets,  chambers,  rooms,  and  cellars, 
so  that  by  opening  a  cock  you  may  draw  a  pail  of  water  from 
the  Thames  in  any  house  in  the  city  almost ;  but  I  do  not  remem- 
ber the  construction  of  it.  Let  me  remember  to  inquire  of  him 
about  the  construction  of  these  two,  that  for  water  from  the 
Thames,  and  that  for  water  from  the  mines,  and  to  go  once 
more  to  see  the  stocking  looms. 


Few  things,  I  believe,  have  deviated  so  far  from  the  first 
design  of  their  institution,  are  so  fruitful  of  destructive  evils,  or 
so  needful  of  a  speedy  regulation,  as  licensed  houses.  The  ac- 
commodation of  strangers,  and,  perhaps,  of  town  inhabitants 
on  public  occasions,  are  the  only  warrantable  intentions  of  a 
tavern ;  and  the  supply  of  the  neighborhood  with  necessary 
liquors  in  small  quantities,1  and  at  the  cheapest  rates,  are  the  only 
excusable  designs  of  a  retailer ;  and  that  these  purposes  may  be 
effected,  it  is  necessary  that  both  should  be  selected  from  the 
most  virtuous  and  wealthy  people,  who  will  accept  the  trust, 
and  so  few  of  each  should  be  erected  that  the  profits  may  enable 
them  to  make  the  best  provision  at  a  moderate  price.     But  at 

1 "  To  be  consumed  at  home,"  written  and  erased. 


jEt.  24.]  DIARY.  85 

the  present  day,  such  houses  are  become  the  eternal  haunt  of 
loose,  disorderly  people  of  the  same  town,  which  renders  them 
offensive  and  unfit  for  the  entertainment  of  a  traveller  of  the 
least  delicacy ;  and  it  seems  that  poverty  and  distressed  circum- 
stances are  become  the  strongest  arguments  to  procure  an  appro- 
bation ;  and  for  these  assigned  reasons,  such  multitudes  have 
been  lately  licensed  that  none  can  afford  to  make  provision  for 
any  but  the  tippling,  nasty,  vicious  crew  that  most  frequent  them. 
The  consequences  of  these  abuses  are  obvious.  Young  people 
are  tempted  to  waste  their  time  and  money,  and  to  acquire 
habits  of  intemperance  and  idleness,  that  we  often  see  reduce 
many  to  beggary  and  vice,  and  lead  some  of  them,  at  last,  to 
prisons  and  the  gallows.  The  reputation  of  our  county  is  ruined 
among  strangers,  who  are  apt  to  infer  the  character  of  a  place 
from  that  of  the  taverns  and  the  people  they  see  there.  But  the 
worst  effect  of  all,  and  which  ought  to  make  every  man  who 
has  the  least  sense  of  his  privileges  tremble,  these  houses  are 
become  in  many  places  the  nurseries  of  our  legislators.  An  art- 
ful man,  who  has  neither  sense  nor  sentiment,  may  by  gaining 
a  little  sway  among  the  rabble  of  a  town,  multiply  taverns  and 
dram  shops,  and  thereby  secure  the  votes  of  taverner  and  retailer, 
and  of  all;  and  the  multiplication  of  taverns  will  make  many 
who  may  be  induced  by  flip  and  rum  to  vote  for  any  man  what- 
ever. I  dare  not  presume  to  point  out  any  method  to  suppress 
or  restrain  these  increasing  evils,  but  I  think  for  these  reasons, 
it  would  be  well  worth  the  attention  of  our  legislature  to  con- 
fine the  number  of,  and  retrieve  the  character  of  licensed  houses, 
lest  that  impiety  and  profaneness,  that  abandoned  intemperance 
and  prodigality,  that  impudence  and  brawling  temper,  which 
these  abominable  nurseries  daily  propagate,  should  arise  at  length 
to  a  degree  of  strength  that  even  the  legislature  will  not  be  able 
to  control. 

Pownal's  remark,  every  other  house  a  tavern.  Twelve  in  this 
town.  Call  upon  the  selectmen  not  to  grant  approbation ;  upon 
the  grand  jurors  to  present  all  bad  houses,  &c. 

30.  Friday.  Rose  early.  Several  country  towns,  within  my 
observation,  have  at  least  a  dozen  taverns  and  retailers.  Here 
the  time,  the  money,  the  health,  and  the  modesty,  of  most  that 
are  young  and  of  many  old,  are  wasted;  here  diseases,  vicious 
habits,  bastards,  and  legislators,  are  frequently  begotten.     N 

VOL.    II.  8 


86  DIARY.  [1760. 

would  vote  for  any  man  for  a  little  flip  or  a  drain.  B.,  &c,  voted 
for  T.,  for  other  reasons. 

31.  Saturday.  Read  in  Naval  Trade  and  Commerce,  concern- 
ing factors,  consuls,  ambassadors,  &c,  and  the  South  Sea  Com- 
pany, &c.  Talked  with  William  Veasey  about  church,  &c.  He 
will  not  allow  that  Dr.  Mayhew  has  any  uncommon  parts ;  he 
had  haughty  spirits  and  vanity,  &c.  How  the  judgment  is 
darkened  and  perverted  by  party  passions!  Drank  tea  with 
Zab ;  ran  over  the  past  passages  of  my  life ;  —  little  boats,  water- 
mills,  windmills,  whirligigs,  birds'  eggs,  bows  and  arrows,  guns, 
singing,  pricking  tunes,  girls,  &c. ;  ignorance  of  parents,  masters 
Cleverly,  Marsh,  tutors  Mayhew,  &c.  By  a  constant  dissipation 
among  amusements  in  my  childhood,  and  by  the  ignorance  of 
my  instructors  in  the  more  advanced  years  of  my  youth,  my 
mind  has  laid  uncultivated  ;  so  that,  at  twenty-five,  I  am  obliged 
to  study  Horace  and  Homer !  — proh  dolor  ! 

June  1.  Sunday.  Read  two  Odes  in  Horace.  Spent  the 
evening  at  the  Colonel's. 

2.  Monday.  Wasted  the  day  with  a  magazine  in  my  hand. 
As  it  was  artillery  election,  it  seemed  absurd  to  study ;  and  I 
had  no  conveniences  or  companions  for  pleasure,  either  in  walk- 
ing, riding,  chinking,  hustling,  or  any  thing  else. 

3.  Tuesday.  This  day  has  been  lost  in  much  the  same  spirit- 
less manner. 

4.  Wednesday.  Read  nothing  but  magazines,  as,  indeed,  an 
indisposition  rendered  me  unfit  for  any  application.  Discharged 
my  venom  to  Billy  Veasey  against  the  multitude,  poverty,  ill 
government,  and  ill  effects  of  licensed  houses ;  and  the  timorous 
temper,  as  well  as  criminal  design  of  the  selectmen,  who  grant 
them  approbations.1  Then  spent  the  evening  with  Zab  at  Mr. 
Wibird's. 

5.  Thursday.  Arose  late ;  feel  disordered.  Eight  o'clock, 
three  and  a  half  hours  after  sunrise,  is  a  sluggard's  rising  time ; 
it  is  a  stupid  waste  of  so  much  time ;  it  is  getting  a  habit  hard 
to  conquer,  and  it  is  very  hurtful  to  one's  health  ;  three  and  a 
half,  one-seventh  of  the  twenty-four,  is  thus  spiritlessly  dozed 
away.     God  grant  me  an  attention  to  remark  and  a  resolution 

1  These  thoughts  upon  licensed  houses  appear  to  have  fructified  into  the 
roceedings  at  the  town  meeting  of  May  in  the  following  year,  as  will  hereafter 
e  seen. 


iET.  24.]  DIARY.  87 

to  pursue  every  opportunity  for  the  improvement  of  my  mind,  and 
to  save,  with  the  parsimony  of  a  miser,  every  moment  of  my  time. 

6.  Friday.  Arose  very  late.  A  cold,  rainy,  north-easterly 
storm,  of  several  days  continuance.  Read  Timon  of  Athens, 
the  man-hater,  in  the  evening,  at  the  Doctor's. 

7.  Saturday.  Arose  late  again.  When  shall  I  shake  off  the 
shackles  of  morning  slumbers,  and  arise  with  the  sun  ?  Between 
sunrise  and  breakfast  I  might  write,  or  read,  or  contemplate  a 
good  deal.  I  might,  before  breakfast,  entirely  shake  off  the 
drowsiness  of  the  morning  and  get  my  thoughts  into  a  steady 
train,  my  imagination  raised,  my  ambition  inflamed,  in  short, 
every  thing  within  me  and  without  into  a  preparation  for 
improvement.     I  have  some  points  of  law  to  examine  to-day. 

8.  Sunday.  Spent  the  evening  and  night  at  the  Colonel's,  in 
ill-natured,  invidious  remarks  upon  Eb.  Thayer  and  morals  and 
General  Courts,  &c. 

9.  Monday.  Attended  Major  Crosby's  court,  where  Captains 
T.  and  H.  made  their  appearance.  T.  had  taken  two  accounts 
of  Nathan  Spear,  in  his  own  handwriting,  and  got  the  writs 
drawn  by  Niles.  But,  upon  my  making  a  defence  for  Hunt, 
Spear  was  afraid  to  enter,  and  so  agreed  to  pay  costs  and  drop. 
But  poor  T.  had  to  say,  several  times,  "  I  told  him  so,  but  he 
would  have  his  own  way."  This  little  dirty  pettifogging  trade 
T.  carries  on  yet. 

10.  Tuesday.  Although  my  spirits  were  wasted  yesterday 
by  sitting  so  late  the  night  before,  (till  one  o'clock,  I  believe,) 
and  rising  so  early  yesterday  morning,  (by  sunrise,)  and  walking 
in  the  dewy  grass  and  damp  air  home  to  my  father's,  and  then 
down  to  Major  Crosby's,  yet  the  thoughts  of  being  employed, 
and  of  opposing  Captain  T.,  and  punishing  Nathan  Spear, 
and  spreading  a  reputation,  roused  my  faculties,  and  rolled  out 
thoughts  and  expressions  with  a  strength  and  rapidity  that  I 
never  expected.  I  remember  something  of  the  same  sort  when 
I  first  waited  on  Mr.  Gridley.  The  awe  of  his  presence,  a  desire 
of  his  esteem  and  of  an  introduction  to  practice,  quickened  my 
attention  and  memory,  and  sharpened  my  penetration.  In  short, 
I  never  shall  shine  till  some  animating  occasion  calls  forth  all 
my  powers.1     I  find  that  the  mind  must  be  agitated  with  some 

1  Mr.  Jefferson's  description  of  his  efforts  in  the  Congress  of  1776,  will  natu- 
rally occur  to  the  reader. 


88  -  DIARY.  [1760; 

passion,  either  love,  fear,  hope,  &c,  before  she  will  do  her  best. 
I  rambled  this  afternoon,  with  the  Doctor,  over  the  Commons, 
and  amused  myself  by  clearing  the  spring  and  climbing  the 
ledges  of  rocks,  through  the  apertures  of  which  large  trees  had 
grown.  But  I  spend  too  much  time  in  these  walks,  these  amus- 
ing rambles.     I  should  be  more  confined  to  my  chamber,  should 

read  and  muse  more ;  running  to  Dr. ,  to  the  barn,  down  to 

meals,  and  for  pipes,  and  coals,  and  tobacco,  &c,  take  up  much 
of  my  time.  I  have  grown  habitually  indolent  and  thoughtless. 
I  have  scarcely  felt  a  glow,  a  pang,  a  transport  of  ambition,  since 
I  left  Worcester;  since  I  left  my  school,  indeed,  for  there  the 
mischievous  tricks,  the  perpetual,  invincible  prate,  and  the  stupid 
dulness  of  my  scholars,  roused  my  passions,  and,  with  them  my 
views  and  impatience  of  ambition.  Let  me  remember  to  keep 
my  chamber,  not  run  abroad ;  my  books,  —  Naval  Trade,  Coke, 
Andrews,  Locke,  Homer,  —  not  fields,  and  groves,  and  springs, 
and  rocks,  should  be  the  objects  of  my  attention.  Law,  and  not 
poetry,  is  to  be  the  business  of  my  life. 

14.  Saturday.  This  week  has  been  spent  in  business ;  that  i.s, 
filling  writs,  and  journeys  to  Boston,  Scadding,1  Weymouth, 
Abington.  The  other  night  Cranch  explained  to  Zab  and  me 
the  fire-engine,  with  which  they  throw  up  water  from  the  bottoms 
of  their  tin  mines  in  Cornwall,  and  coal  mines  in  New  Castle.2 

In  my  journey  to  Abington,  my  mind  seemed  to  be  confused 
with  the  dust,  and  heat,  and  fatigue.  I  had  not  spirit  and  atten- 
tion to  make  any  observations  upon  the  land,  corn,  grass,  grain, 
fences,  orchards,  houses,  &c.  I  dined  at  Norton's,  where  the 
two  military  companies  of  the  town  were  assembled  to  raise 
volunteers,  recruits ;  but  I  had  not  spirits  to  make  observations  on 
the  landlord  or  lady,  or  officers  or  soldiers,  or  house,  or  any  thing. 

15.  Sunday.  Rose  early,  five  o'clock  ;  a  pleasant  morning. 
The  more  I  write  the  better.  Writing  is  a  most  useful,  improv- 
ing exercise.  Yesterday  morning,  before  breakfast,  I  wrought 
my  mind  into  a  course  of  thinking,  by  my  pen,  which  I  should 
not  have  fallen  into  the  whole  day  without  it ;  and,  indeed,  not 
resuming  my  pen  after  breakfast,  I  insensibly  lost  my  attention. 
Let  me  aim  at  perspicuity  and  correctness,  more  than  ornament, 
in  these  papers. 

1  The  common  name  given  to  what  is  now  the  town  of  Randolph. 

2  Here  follows  a  long  explanation. 


Mt.  24.]  DIARY.  39 

16.  Monday.  Arose  before  the  sun.  Now  I  am  ignorant  of 
my  future  fortune,  —  what  business,  what  reputation  1  may  get, 
which  is  now  far  from  my  expectations.  How  many  actions 
shall  I  secure  this  day  ?  and  what  new  client  shall  I  have  ? 

I  found  at  evening  I  had  secured  six  actions,  but  not  one  new 
client  that  I  know  of. 

17.  Tuesday.  Arose  before  the  sun  again ;  this  is  the  last 
day.1  What  and  who  to-day?  Ebenezer  Hayden  was  alto- 
gether new  and  unexpected;  H.  himself  was  altogether  new 
and  unexpected ;  and  John  Hayward  was  altogether  new  and 
unexpected ;  —  three  entirely  new  clients,  all  from  Captain 
Thayer's  own  parish,  one  of  whom  is  himself  a  pretender  to 
the  practice,  are  a  considerable  acquisition.  I  believe  the  writ 
and  advice  I  gave  Hayden,  and  the  writ  and  advice  and  the 
lecture  concerning  idleness  and  pettifogging,  given  H.  before 
Hayward,  will  spread  me.  H.  is  very  near  to  beggary  and 
imprisonment.  His  oxen  are  attached,  and  his  cows,  and  pew ; 
and  a  number  of  writs  and  executions  are  out  against  him,  not 
yet  extended.  He  owes  more  than  his  estate  can  pay,  I  believe ; 
and  I  told  him  that,  by  neglecting  his  own  proper  business  and 
meddling  with  law,  which  he  did  not  understand,  he  had  ruined 
himself — and  it  is  true  ;  for,  if  he  had  diligently  followed  his 
trade  of  making  shoes,  and  lived  prudently,  he  might  at  this  day 
have  been  clear  of  debt  and  worth  an  handsome  estate.  But 
shoemaking,  I  suppose,  was  too  mean  and  diminutive  an  occu- 
pation for  Mr.  T.  H.,  as  wigmaking  was  to  Mr.  N.  G.,  or  house- 
building to  Mr.  Daniel  W. ;  and  he,  like  them,  in  order  to  rise 
in  the  world,  procured  deputations  from  the  sheriff,  and,  after 
serving  long  enough  in  that  office  to  get  a  few  copies  of  common 
writs  and  a  most  litigious  disposition,  left  the  sheriff2  and  com- 
menced the  writ-drawer.  But  poor  H.  is  like  to  be  stripped  of 
all  he  has,  if  he  should  escape  the  jail,  which  D.  W.  was  obliged 
to  enter,  and  if  he  should  not  be  forced  to  fly  like  N,  G.  These 
sudden  transitions  from  shoemaking,  wigmaking,  and  house- 
building, to  the  deputy  sheriffwick,  and  from  thence  to  the  prac- 
tice  of  law,   commonly   hurry   men  rapidly  to  destruction,  to 

1  That  is,  of  service. 

2  The  practice  of  filling  writs,  by  sheriffs  and  their  deputies,  was  one  of  the 
grievances  of  this  period.  It  became  so  fruitful  of  abuses  that  it  was  finally 
prohibited  by  a  law  passed  through  the  agency,  as  it  is  said,  of  Timothy  Ruggles. 
Supplement  to  Cur  wens  Journal. 

8* 


90  DIARY.  [1760. 

beggary,  and  jails.  Yet  Colonel  White  has  risen  the  same  way ; 
that  is,  by  a  deputation  from  the  sheriff.  But  White  had  the 
advantage  of  a  liberal  education,  and  had  no  rival,  no  com- 
petitor to  oppose  him,  so  that  he  got  quickly  sworn.  E.  Taylor, 
too,  was  naturally  smart,  and  had  been  long  a  sheriff,  and  had 
the  patronage  and  encouragement  of  Mr.  Trowbridge,  who  was 
his  brother-in-law.  Applin  and  Ruggles  are  in  a  higher  class, 
men  of  genius  and  great  resolution  to  combat  the  world,  both 
by  violence  and  stratagem.  T.,  by  his  own  abject  slavery  to 
Colonel  P.,  got  his  affections,  and  he  did  every  thing  to  encour- 
age him.  Dana  has  given  him  great  numbers  of  writs  to  be 
served  on  people  in  this  town ;  he  takes  seven  shillings  for  the 
writ,  and  four  shillings  always,  and  some  five,  for  the  service ; 
of  this  he  gives  Dana  one  shilling  for  his  blank,  and  reserves  ten 
or  eleven  to  himself;  great  numbers  of  writs  he  has  filled  himself, 
and  those  which  he  durst  not  fill,  he  got  Niles  to  fill  for  three 
shillings  ;  so  that  he  takes  three  and  four  are  seven  and,  often- 
times, eight  shillings  to  himself.  Thus,  from  Colonel  P.,  from 
Mr.  Dana,  and  Elisha  Niles,  he  has  got  his  estate,  as  his  legisla- 
tive authority.  As  basely  got  as  "  Bestia's  from  the  throne."  A 
little  longer  experience  will  enable  me  to  trace  out  the  whole 
system  of  his  policy  and  iniquity. 

The  office  of  a  sheriff  has  dangers  and  temptations  around  it. 
Most  of  them  decline  in  morals  or  estates,  or  both.     P.  is  one. 

18.  Wednesday.  Read  but  little,  thought  but  little  ;  for  the 
north-east  storm  unstrung  me. 

19.  Thursday.1  I  have  been  the  longer  in  the  argument  of 
this  cause,  not  for  the  importance  of  the  cause  itself,  for  in  itself 
it  is  infinitely  little  and  contemptible,  but  for  the  importance  of 
its  consequences.  These  dirty  and  ridiculous  litigations  have 
been  multiplied,  in  this  town,  till  the  very  earth  groans  and  the 
stones  cry  out.  The  town  is  become  infamous  for  them  through- 
out the  county.  I  have  absolutely  heard  it  used  as  a  proverb 
in  several  parts  of  the  province,  — "  As  litigious  as  Braintree." 
This  multiplicity  is  owing  to  the  multiplicity  of  pettifoggers, 
among  whom  Captain  H.  is  one,  who  has  given  out  that  he  is 

1  Apparently  a  draught  of  the  close  of  an  argument,  made  three  days  later, 
in  one  of  the  trifling  and  vexatious  suits  which  seem  to  have  been  commonly 
indulged  in,  at  this  period,  by  persons  offended  with  each  other  in  the  country 
towns. 


iE-r.  -24.]  DIARY.  91 

a  sworn  attorney,  till  nine  tenths  of  this  town  really  believe  it. 
But  I  take  this  opportunity,  publicly,  to  confront  him  and  unde- 
ceive the  town.  He  knows,  in  his  conscience,  that  he  never  took 
the  oath  of  an  attorney,  and  that  he  dare  not  assume  the  impu- 
dence to  ask  to  be  admitted.  He  knows  that  the  notion  of  his 
being  a  sworn  attorney  is  an  imposture,  is  an  imposition  upon 
this  town.  And  I  take  this  opportunity,  publicly,  to  declare  that 
I  will  take  all  legal  advantages  against  every  action  brought 
by  him,  or  by  Captain  T.,  or  by  any  other  pettifogger  in  this 
town.  For  I  am  determined,  if  I  live  in  this  town,  to  break  up 
this  scene  of  strife,  vexation,  and  immorality.  (Such  suits  as 
this,  and  most  others  that  ever  I  have  seen  before  a  justice  in 
this  town,  have  a  tendency  to  vex  and  embitter  the  minds  of 
the  people,  to  propagate  an  idle,  brawling,  wrangling  temper ; 
in  short,  such  suits  are  an  inlet  to  all  manner  of  evils.) 

And  one  of  these  suit  managers,  when  I  first  came  to  this 
town,  hearing  that  I  had  been  through  a  regular  course  of  study 
with  a  regular  practitioner,  and  that  I  was  recommended  to  the 
court  in  Boston  by  one  of  the  greatest  lawyers  in  America,  con- 
cluded that  I  should  be  enabled  by  these  advantages,  and 
prompted  by  my  own  interest,  if  by  no  higher  motive,  to  put 
an  end  to  the  illegal  course  of  dirty,  quacking  practice  in  this 
town  which  he  had  been  in,  and  thereby  enslaved  the  minds  and 
bodies  and  estates  of  his  neighbors.  And,  to  prevent  this,  he  set 
himself  to  work  to  destroy  my  reputation,  and  prevent  my  getting 
business,  by  such  stratagems  as  no  honest  mind  can  think  of 
without  horror ;  such  stratagems  as  I  always  will  resent,  and 
never  will  forgive  till  he  has  made  atonement  by  his  future 
repentance  and  reformation.  I  thank  God  his  malice  has  been 
defeated  ;  he  has  not  been  able  to  enslave  me,  nor  to  drive  me  out 
of  town.  But  people's  eyes  begin  to  open,  and  I  hope  they  will 
open  wider  and  wider,  till  they  can  see  like  other  towns.  Happy 
shall  I  be  if  I  can  rescue  the  souls  and  bodies,  and  estates  of 
this  town  from  that  thraldom  and  slavery  to  which  these  petti- 
foggers have  contributed  to  depress  them ;  and  if  I  can  revive  in 
them  a  generous  love  of  liberty  and  sense  of  honor.  After  this 
long  digression,  your  Honor  will  let  me  return  to  this  cause ;  and 
I  rely  upon  it,  it  is  a  vexatious  one ;  I  rely  upon  it,  that  many  of 
these  articles  were  borrowed  and  not  bought,  and  that,  therefore, 
this  action  cannot  be  maintained  for  them ;  I  rely  upon  it,  that 


92  DIARY.  [17G0. 

the  affair  of  the  hat  is  a  litigious  thing ;  that  it  was  a  mere  piece 
of  tavern  amusement,  and,  if  there  was  any  thing  like  bargain 
and  sale  in  it,  the  bargain  was  completed,  the  hat  delivered,  and 
the  money  paid ;  and,  with  regard  to  the  other  articles,  we  have 
filed  an  account  that  more  than  balances  them,  and,  therefore,  I 
pray  your  Honor's  judgment  for  costs. 

20.  Friday.  I  must  not  say  so  much  about  myself,  nor  so 
much  about  H.  and  T.  by  name.  I  may  declaim  against  strife 
and  a  litigious  spirit,  and  about  the  dirty  dabblers  in  the  law. 

I  have  a  very  good  regard  for  Lieutenant  W.,  but  he  must 
allow  me  to  have  a  much  greater  veneration  for  the  law.  To 
see  the  forms  and  processes  of  law  and  justice  thus  prostituted 
(I  must  say  prostituted)  to  revenge  an  imaginary  indignity  offered 
in  a  tavern,  over  a  cheerful  bowl  or  enlivening  mug ;  to  have  a 
mere  piece  of  jocular  amusement  thus  hitched  into  an  action  at 
law,  a  mere  frolic  converted  into  a  lawsuit,  is  a  degree  of  mean- 
ness that  deserves  no  mercy,  and  shall  have  none  from  me.  I 
don't  think  Lieutenant  W.  considered  the  nature  and  the  conse- 
quences of  this  action  before  he  brought  it ;  if  he  had,  he  never 
would  have  brought  it ;  he  has  too  much  honor  to  have  brought 
it.  But  I  suppose  the  case  was  this :  Lieutenant  W.  was  a 
little  chagrined  that  my  client  had  for  once  outwitted  him,  and 
in  a  miff  or  a  bravado,  I  say  a  miff  or  a  bravado,  sees  H.  and 
asks  his  opinion ;  and  H.,  glad  of  an  opportunity  to  draw  a 
writ,  instantly  encourages  the  suit,  and  the  suit  was  brought, 
and  when  once  brought  it  was  too  late  to  repent.  But  I  dare 
say  he  has  been  severely  sorry  that  he  ever  brought  it,  and  will 
have  still  further  occasion  to  be  sorry  before  it  ends. 

23.  Monday.  A  long,  obstinate  trial  before  Major  Crosby,  of 
the  most  litigious,  vexatious  suit,  I  think,  that  ever  I  heard. 
Such  disputes  begin  with  ill  humor  and  scurrilous  language, 
and  end  in  a  boxing  bout  or  a  lawsuit. 

24.  Tuesday.  Arose  early,  a  very  beautiful  morning.  Zab 
seems  to  make  insufficient  distinctions  between  the  vowels  ;  he 
eeems  to  swallow  his  own  voice ;  he  neither  sounds  the  vowels 
nor  articulates  distinctly.  The  story  of  yesterday's  trial  spreads ; 
Salisbury  told  my  uncle,  and  my  uncle  told  Colonel  Quincy. 
They  say  I  was  saucy;  that  I  whipped  the  old  Major,  &c;  that 
I  ripped  about  the  lawsuits  of  this  town  and  of  that  house,  and 
that  I  reminded  the  Major  of  his  oath  to  be  of  counsel  to  neither 


/Et.  24.]  DIARY.  93 

party,  and  to  do  justice  equally  between  the  parties  according  to 
law. 

26.  Thursday.  I  have  began  to  read  the  Spirit  of  Laws,  and 
have  resolved  to  read  that  work  through  in  order  and  with 
attention.  I  have  hit  upon  a  project  that  will  secure  my  atten- 
tion to  it,  which  is  to  write,  in  the  margin,  a  sort  of  index  to 
every  paragraph.1 

27.  Friday.  Read  one  hundred  pages  in  the  Spirit  of  Laws. 
Rambled  away  to  a  fine  spring  in  my  cousin  Adams's  land, 
which  gushes  through  a  crack  in  a  large  flat  rock,  and  gurgles 
down  in  a  pretty  rill.  The  water  is  clear,  sweet,  and  cool,  and 
is  supposed  to  have  a  very  wholesome  quality,  because  it  issues 
from  a  mountain  and  runs  towards  the  north.  What  physical 
quality  its  northern  direction  may  give  it,  I  know  not.  By  its 
sweetness,  it  flows  through  clean  earth,  and  not  minerals  ;  its 
coolness  may  be  owing  to  its  rise  from  the  bowels  of  the  hill. 

Zab's  mind  is  taken  up  with  arithmetical  and  geometrical 
problems,  questions,  paradoxes,  and  riddles.  He  studies  these 
things  that  he  may  be  able  to  gratify  his  vanity  by  puzzling  all 
the  vain  pretenders  to  expertness  in  numbers,  and  that  he  may 
be  too  expert  to  be  puzzled  by  any  such  questions  from  others. 
There  is  a  set  of  people  whose  glory,  pride,  &c,  it  is  to  puzzle 
every  man  they  meet  with  some  question  in  the  rule-of-three, 
or  fractions,  or  some  other  branch  of  arithmetic. 

July  5.  Saturday.  Cowen,  and  young  Thayer  the  market- 
man,  are  full  of  W.  and  B.  Cowen  heard  I  tore  W.'s  account 
all  to  pieces,  and  Thayer  thought  that  W.  had  a  dirty  case  ;  — 
few  justices'  causes  have  been  more  famous  than  that.  Isaac 
Tirrell  had  the  story  too,  but  he  thought  B.  was  to  blame,  was 
abusive. 

6.  Sunday.     Heard  Mr.  Mayhew  of  Martha's  Vineyard. 

9.  Wednesday.     Gould  has  got  the  story  of  W.  and  B. 

August  9.  Saturday.  Drank  tea  at  Colonel  Quincy's,  with 
Colonel  Gooch  and  Dr.  Gardiner.     I  see  Gooch's2  fiery  spirit,  his 

1  A  practice  to  which  the  author  adhered  ever  after,  as  the  volumes  in  his 
library  abundantly  show. 

2  Of  Colonel  Gooch,  one  of  the  singular  characters  of  this  period,  Mr.  Adams 
long  afterwards,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Jonathan  Mason,  a  gentleman  once  his 
law  pupil,  gave  the  following  curious  account :  — 

"Joseph  Gooch,  a  native,  I  believe,  of  Boston.  He  had  considerable  property, 
and  was  reported  and  reputed  to  be  very  rich.  He  had  been  educated  at  tin- 
Temple  in  England,  and  returned  to  Boston  to  practise  law ;  he  had  very  little 


94  DIAR1.  [1760. 

unguarded  temper.  He  swears  freely,  boldly.  He  is  a  widower, 
and  delights  to  dwell,  in  his  conversation,  upon  courtship  and 

success.  He  had  been  a  man  of  pleasure,  and  bore  the  indelible  marks  of  it  on 
his  face  to  the  grave.  He  was  extremely  ambitious,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Niles  of 
the  second  parish  in  Braintree,  who  was  well  acquainted  with  him,  told  me  he 
was  the  most  passionate  man  he  ever  knew.  Not  succeeding  much  at  the  bar  in 
Boston,  he  had  recourse  to  religion  to  assist  him;  joined  the  Old  South  Church, 
to  avail  himself  of  the  influence  of  the  sisterhood,  and  set  up  for  representative 
for  the  town  of  Boston ;  but  failed,  and  disappointed  of  his  hopes  in  law  and 
politics,  he  renounced  the  city,  came  up  to  Quincy,  hired  a  house,  turned  Church- 
man, and  set  himself  to  intriguing  for  promotion,  both  in  the  military  and  civil 
departments.  He  interceded  with  the  favorites  of  Governor  Shirley,  in  this 
place,  to  procure  him  the  commission  of  Colonel  in  the  regiment  of  militia,  and 
an  election  for  representative  of  the  town  in  the  General  Court.  He  promised 
to  build  a  steeple  to  their  church,  at  his  own  expense. 

"  Assiduous  importunity  was  employed  with  Governor  Shirley  to  procure  him 
the  command  of  the  regiment ;  but  this  could  not  be  obtained  without  cashiering 
the  Colonel  then  in  possession,  and  who  had  long  been  in  possession  of  that  office 
and  given  universal  satisfaction  in  it. 

"  Colonel  John  Quincy  had  been  in  public  life  from  his  early  youth.  He  had 
been  near  twenty  years  speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  many  years 
a  member  of  his  Majesty's  Council ;  and  was  as  much  esteemed  and  respected  as 
any  man  in  the  province.  He  was  not  only  an  experienced  and  venerated  states- 
man, but  a  man  of  letters,  taste,  and  sense.  Shirley  was,  with  great  difficulty, 
prevailed  on  to  perform  the  operation  of  dismissing  so  faithful  a  servant  of  the 
public,  and  adopting  one  of  so  equivocal  a  character ;  and  he  said,  some  years 
afterwards,  that  nothing  he  had  ever  done  in  his  administration  had  given  him 
so  much  pain,  as  removing  so  venerable  a  magistrate  and  officer  as  Colonel 
Quincy.  But  the  church  party  had  insisted  upon  it  so  peremptorily,  that  he 
could  not  avoid  it.  Probably  he  dreaded  their  remonstrances  to  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury. 

"  These  facts  were  currently  reported  and  universally  believed,  and  never  con- 
tradicted. 

"  Gooch  was  appointed  Colonel,  and  Quincy  dismissed.  The  next  thing  to  be 
done,  was  to  new-model  the  subOTuTnate  officers  in  the  regiment  Application 
was  made  to  all  the  captains,  lieutenants,  and  ensigns,  in  that  part  of  the  regi- 
ment which  lies  within  three  parishes  of  the  ancient  town  of  Braintree,  to  see  if 
they  would  accept  commissions  under  Colonel  Gooch,  and  agree  to  vote  for  him 
as  representative  for  the  town.  The  then  present  officers  were  men  among  the 
most  respectable  of  the  inhabitants,  in  poiut  of  property,  understanding,  and 
character.     They  rejected  the  proposition  with  scorn. 

"My  father  was  among  them;  he  was  offered  a  captain's  commission.  He 
spurned  the  offer  with  disdain ;  would  serve  in  the  militia  under  no  Colonel  but 
Quincy.  Almost,  or  quite  an  entire  set  of  new  officers  were  appointed  through 
the  whole  town.  These  were  of  a  very  different  character  from  those  who  were 
dismissed.  Men  of  little  property  or  no  property  at  all ;  men  of  frivolous  charac- 
ters in  understanding  and  morals. 

"  It  was  at  this  time  the  corrupt  practice  of  treating,  as  they  called  it,  at  train- 
ings and  at  elections  was  introduced,  which  so  long  prevailed  in  the  town  of 
Braintree.  All  Jhis  corruption,  young  as  I  was,  I  attributed  to  the  King  of 
Great  Britain  and  his  Governor  and  their  bigoted  Episcopal  party ;  and,  young 
as  I  was,  I  was  thoroughly  disgusted  before  I  was  ten  years  of  age. 

"  Gooch,  under  the  influence  of  all  this  machinery,  obtained  an  election  as 
representative  ;  but  the  next  year  all  the  substantial  people  of  the  town  aroused 
themselves  and  turned  him  out,  which  so  enraged  him  that  he  swore  he  would 
no  longer  live  in  Braintree  ;  renounced  the  church,  refused  to  build  their  steeple, 
built  him  a  house  on  Milton  hill,  and  there  passed  the  remainder  of  his  days." 


yEt.  24.]  DIARY.  95 

marriage.  Has  a  violent  aversion  to  long  courtship.  "  He 's  a 
fool  that  spends  more  than  a  week,"  &c.,  &c. 

A  malignant  wit ;  a  fiery,  fierce,  outrageous  enemy.  He 
quarrels  with  all  men.  He  quarrelled  with  Colonel  Quincy,  and 
intrigued  to  dispossess  him  of  his  regiment,  by  means  of  Dr. 
Miller  and  Mr.  Apthorp.  He  now  quarrels  with  Colonel  Miller 
and  Dr.  Miller  and  Eb.  Thayer.  He  curses  all  Governors.  Pow- 
nal  was  a  servant,  door-keeper,  pimp  to  Lord  Halifax,  and  he 
contracted  with  Lord  Halifax  to  give  him  fifteen  shillings  out 
of  every  pound  of  his  salary ;  so  that  Pownal  had  twenty-five 
per  cent,  commissions,  for  his  agency  under  Lord  Halifax. 

Thersites  in  Homer,  was 

"  Awed  by  no  shame,  by  no  respect  controlled, 
In  scandal  busy,  in  reproaches  bold ; 
With  witty  malice,  studious  to  defame  ; 
Scorn  all  his  joy,  and  laughter  all  his  aim. 
But  chief  he  gloried  with  licentious  style, 
To  lash  the  great,  and  monarchs  to  revile." 

Thus,  we  see  that  Gooches  lived  as  long  ago  as  the  siege  of 

Troy. 

"  Spleen  to  mankind  his  envious  heart  possessed, 
And  much  he  hated  all,  but  most  the  best. 
Long  had  he  lived  the  scorn  of  every  Greek, 
Vext  when  he  spoke,  yet  still  they  heard  him  speak." 

His  daughters  have  the  same  fiery  temper,  the  same  witty 
malice.  They  have  all,  to  speak  decently,  very  smart  tempers, 
quick,  sharp,  and  keen. 

An  insinuation  of  Mr.  Pownal's  giving  three  fourths  of  his 
salary  for  his  commission. 
This  is, 

"  with  licentious  style, 
Governors  to  revile." 

"  Colonel  Miller  can  serve  the  devil  with  as  much  cunning  as 

any  man  I  know  of,  but  for  no  other  purpose  is  he  fit." 

This  is, 

"  In  scandal  busy,  in  reproaches  bold." 

"  Gardiner  has  a  thin,  grasshopper  voice,  and  an  affected 
squeak;  a  meagre  visage,  and  an  awkward,  unnatural  complais- 
ance.    He  is  fribble." 


96  DIARY.  [17G0. 

Q.  Is  this  a  generous  practice,  to  perpetuate  the  shrugs  of  wit 
and  the  grimaces  of  affectation  ? 

12.  Tuesday.     Remonstrated  at  the  Sessions  against  licensing 
Lambard ;  because  the  selectmen  had  refused  to  approbate  him  ; 
because  he  never  was  approbated  by  the  selectmen  to  keep  a  tavern 
in  the  house  he  now  lives  in ;  because  there  are  already  three,  and 
his  would  make  four  taverns,  besides  retailers,  within  three  quar- 
ters of  a  mile ;  and  because  he  obtained  a  license  from  that  court 
at  April  Sessions  by  artfully  concealing  his  removal  from  the . 
place  where  he  formerly  kept,  and  so  by  an  imposition  on  the 
court.     These  reasons  prevailed.     Major  Miller,  Colonel  Miller, 
and  Ruddock  were  the  only  justices  on  Lambard's  side ;  while 
I  had  eight  or  nine,  Wendells,  Colonel  Phillips,  Mr.  Dana,  Mr. 
Storer,  &c,  &c,  &c.     Mr.  Dana  inquired,  whether  those  landing 
places  at  Braintree  and  Weymouth,  or  the  road  where  these 
four  taverns   stand  was    not  a   great   stage   for   travellers.      I 
answered  no,  and  rightly ;  for  the  greatest  stage  that  I  knew  of 
from  Boston  to  Plymouth,  is  in  the  north  precinct  of  Braintree, 
where  Mr.  Bracket,  but  especially  where  Mr.  Bass  now  keeps. 
Where  Mr.  Bass  now  keeps  there  has  been  a  tavern   always 
since  my  remembrance,  and  long  before.     It  is  exactly  ten  miles 
from  town,  and  therefore,  a  very  proper  stage   for  gentlemen 
who   are   going  from   Boston   down   to   Plymouth   and  to  the 
Cape,  and  for  people  who  come  from  the  Cape  towards  this 
town  ;  and  there  are  very  few  travellers,  either  bound  to  or  from 
Boston  but  what  stop  here  ;    but  this   stage  is  two   or  three 
miles  from  the  place  in  question.     These  things  I  should  have 
said,  but  they  did  not  then   occur.      Dana  asked  next,  what 
number  of  carters,  boatmen,  ship-builders,  &c,  were  ever  em- 
ployed at  a  time  at  that  landing  place?      I  answered,  half  a 
dozen  carters,  perhaps.     But  my  answer  should  have  been  this : 
at  some  times  there  are  three  or  four  or  half  a  dozen  ship  car- 
penters, and  it  is  possible  there  may  have  been  two  or  three 
boats  at  that  wharf  at  a  time,  which  will  require  half  a  dozen 
boatmen,  and  there  have  been  perhaps  forty  carts  in  a  day  with 
stones,  and  wood,  and  lumber;  but  these  carts  are  coming  and 
going  all  day  long,  so  that  it  is  a  rare  thing  to  see  half  a  dozen 
carts  there  at  a  time ;  in  short,  there  is  so  much  business  done 
there  as  to  render  one  tavern  necessary,  but  there  is  not  so  much 
business,  there  is  no  such  concourse  of  travellers,  no  such  multi- 


-Ex.  24.]  DIARY.  97 

tude  of  busy  people  at  that  landing  as  to  need  all  this  cluster  of 
taverns.  One  tavern  and  one  retailer  was  thought  by  the  select- 
men quite  sufficient  for  that  place.  They  have  licensed  one  of 
each,  and  pray  that  your  Honors  would  recognize  no  more. 

19.  Tuesday.  I  began  Pope's  Homer,  last  Saturday  night 
was  a  week,  and  last  night,  which  was  Monday  night,  I  finished 
it.  Thus  I  found  that  in  seven  days  I  could  have  easily  read 
the  six  volumes,  notes,  preface,  essays  —  that  on  Homer,  and 
that  on  Homer's  battles,  and  that  on  the  funeral  games  of  Homel- 
and Virgil,  &c.  Therefore,  I  will  be  bound  that  in  six  months  I 
would  conquer  him  in  Greek,  and  make  myself  able  to  translate 
every  line  in  him  elegantly. 


Pratt.  "  It  is  a  very  happy  thing  to  have  people  superstitious. 
They  should  believe  exactly  as  their  minister  believes ;  they 
should  have  no  creeds  and  confessions ;  they  should  not  so  much 
as  know  what  they  believe.  The  people  ought  to  be  ignorant ; 
and  our  free  schools  are  the  very  bane  of  society ;  they  make 
the  lowest  of  the  people  infinitely  conceited." 

These  words  I  heard  Pratt  utter  ;  they  would  come  naturally 
enough  from  the  mouth  of  a  tyrant,  or  of  a  king  or  ministry 
about  introducing  an  arbitrary  power,  or  from  the  mouth  of  an 
ambitious  ecclesiastic ;  but  they  are  base,  detestable  principles 
of  slavery.  He  would  have  ninety-nine  hundredths  of  the  world 
as  ignorant  as  the  wild  beasts  of  the  forest,  and  as  servile  as  the 
slaves  in  a  galley,  or  as  oxen  yoked  in  a  team.  He,  a  friend  to 
liberty  !  He  an  enemy  to  slavery !  He  has  the  very  principles 
of  a  Frenchman — worse  principles  than  a  Frenchman;  for  they 
know  their  belief  and  can  give  reasons  for  it. 

Pratt.  "  It  grieves  me  to  see  any  sect  of  religion  extinguished. 
I  should  be  very  sorry  to  have  the  Tract  Society  dissolved ;  so  I 
should  be  sorry  to  have  Condy's  Anabaptist  Society  dissolved. 
I  love  to  see  a  variety.  A  variety  of  religions  has  the  same 
beaiity  in  the  moral  world,  that  a  variety  of  flowers  has  in  a 
garden,  or  a  variety  of  trees  in  a  forest." 

This  fine  speech  was  Pratt's ;  yet  he  is  sometimes  of  opinion 
that  all  these  sectaries  ought  to  turn  Churchmen,  and  that  a 
uniform  establishment  ought  to  take  place  through  the  whole 
nation.     I  have  heard  him  say  that  we  had  better,  all  of  us,  come 

VOL.    II.  9  G 


98  DIARY.  [1760. 

into  the  church  than  pretend  to  overturn  it,  &c.  Thus  it  is,  that 
fine  speech-makers  are  sometimes  for  uniformity,  sometimes  for 
variety  and  toleration.  They  don't  speak  for  the  truth  or  weight, 
but  for  the  smartness,  novelty  and  singularity  of  the  speech. 
However,  I  heard  him  make  two  observations  that  pleased  me 
much  more;  —  one  was,  that  "  people  in  years  never  suppose  that 
young  people  have  any  judgment."  Another  was,  (when  a  depo- 
sition was  produced,  taken  by  Parson  Wells  with  a  very  incorrect 
caption ;  a  caption  without  mention  of  the  cause  in  which  it  was 
to  be  used,  or  certifying  that  the  adverse  party  was  present  or 
notified,)  he  observed  that  "  the  Parson  could  not  take  a  caption 
to  save  his  life ;  and  that  he  knew  too  much  to  learn  any  thing." 
_  October  7.  Tuesday.  Waited  on  Mr.  Gridley  for  his  opinion 
of  my  declaration,  Lambard  versus  Tirrell,  and  for  his  advice 
whether  to  enter  the  action  or  not.  He  says  the  declaration  is 
bad,  and  the  writ,  if  advantage  is  taken,  will  abate.  For  it  is  a 
declaration  on  a  parol  lease,  not  on  a  deed ;  and,  therefore,  the 
lessee's  occupancy  ought  to  be  set  forth  very  exactly ;  for  it  is 
his  occupancy,  not  any  contract,  that  supports  the  action.1 

9.  Thursday.  In  support  of  complaint,  in  case  Neal's  action 
is  not  entered.2 

I  do  not  know,  nor  is  it  possible  for  your  Honors  to  determine, 
what  reason  induced  the  plaintiff  to  renounce  this  suit.  Whether 
it  was  because  the  estate  is  insolvent,  or  because  he  had  no  cause 
of  action,  or  because  his  action  was  mislaid,  or  because  his  writ 
was  bad  —  which  by  the  way  is  very  probable,  considering  who 
drew  it  —  that  determined  the  plaintiff  not  to  enter  this  action,  I 
cannot  say,  and  your  Honors  cannot  determine.  It  appears  to 
your  Honors  that  the  defendant  has  been  vexed  and  distressed 
by  this  summons;  that  she  has  been  obliged  to  take  a  journey 
to  this  town  and  to  attend  upon  this  court,  when  it  appears 
there  is  nothing  for  her  to  answer  to  ;  —  all  this  appears.  What 
motive  induced  the  plaintiff  to  drop  his  action,  does  not  appear ; 
and,  therefore,  we  have  a  right  to  costs.  As  things  are  circum- 
stanced, I  will  own,  that,  had  this  action  been  commenced  by  any 
gentleman  at  this  bar,  I  would  have  dispensed  with  this  com- 
plaint ;  but  it  was  drawn  by  a  pettifogging  deputy  sheriff,  against 
whom  I  know  it  is  my  duty,  and  I  think  it  is  my  interest,  to 

1  Here  follows  a  legal  opinion  of  Mr.  Gridley,  which  is  omitted. 

2  That  is,  a  sketch  of  what  he  intended  to  say. 


JEt.  25.]  DIARY.      .  99 

take  all  legal  advantages ;  and  he  himself  cannot  think  it  hard, 
as  he  has  taken  both  illegal  and  iniquitous  advantages  against 
me.  Therefore  I  pray  your  Honor's  judgment  for  costs.  Q.  If 
this  action  should  be  entered,  what  must  be  done  with  it  ?  —  con- 
tinued or  dismissed  ?  A  motion  must  be  made  for  a  continuance 
or  a  dismission. 

11.  Saturday.  Neal's  action  is  entered,  so  that  I  have  two 
actions  to  defend  by  pleas  in  bar,  and  three  of  the  actions  I 
entered  are  to  be  defended.  Clark  is  to  plead  in  abatement, 
and  Tirrell  and  Thayer  are,  I  suppose,  to  plead  to  issue. 

November  5.     Wednesday.     Messrs.  I  presume,1  upon 

the  common  sense  of  the  world,  that  no  offence  will  be  taken 
at  the  freedom  of  the  following  sentiments,  while  the  utmost 
deference  for  authority  and  decency  of  language  is  preserved. 
As  persons  of  obscure  birth  and  station  and  narrow  fortunes, 
have  no  other  way  but  through  the  press  to  communicate  their 
thoughts  abroad,  either  to  the  high  or  the  low. 

The  vacancy  in  the  highest  seat  of  justice  in  the  province,  occa- 
sioned by  the  death  of  Judge  Sewall,  naturally  stirs  the  minds  of 
all  who  know  the  importance  of  a  wise,  steady,  and  legal  admin- 
istration of  justice,  to  inquire  for  a  fit  person  to  fill  that  place. 

Such  persons  know  that  the  rules  of  the  common  law  are 
extremely  numerous ;  the  acts  of  parliament  are  numerous ;  — 
some  taken  from,  or  at  least  in  spirit,  from  the  civil  law,  others 
from  the  canon  and  feudal  law.  Such  persons  know  that  the 
histories  of  cases  and  resolutions  of  judges  have  been  preserved 
from  a  very  great  antiquity ;  and  they  know  also,  that  every 
possible  case  being  thus  preserved  in  writing  and  settled  in  a 
precedent,  leaves  nothing,  or  but  little,  to  the  arbitrary  will  or 
uninformed  reason  of  prince  or  judge. 

And  it  will  be  easy  for  any  man  to  conclude  what  opportuni- 
ties, industry,  and  genius  employed  from  early  youth,  will  be 
necessary  to  gain  a  knowledge  from  all  these  sources  sufficient 
to  decide  the  lives,  liberties,  and  fortunes  of  mankind  with  safety 
to  the  people's  liberties  as  well  as  the  king's  prerogative ;  that 

1  This  appears  to  be  the  rough  draft  of  an  article  designed  for  publication  in 
the  newspapers.  It  is  retained  on  account  of  its  bearing  upon  the  question  of 
the  appointment  to  fill  the  vacancy  in  the  post  of  Chief  Justice  ;  a  question,  the 
decision  of  which  in  favor  of  Hutchinson,  largely  contributed  to  bring  on  the 
Revolution.  The  allusions  to  his  former  life  make  it  plain  that  the  writer  did 
not,  even  at  this  period,  favor  him. 


100  DIARY.  [1760. 

happy  union  in  which  the  excellence  of  British  government  con- 
sists, and  which  has  often  been  preserved  by  the  deep  discern- 
ment and  noble  spirit  of  English  judges. 

It  will  be  easy  for  any  man  to  conclude  that  a  man  whose 
youth  and  spirits  and  strength  have  been  spent  in  husbandry, 
merchandise,  politics,  nay,  in  science  or  literature,  will  never 
master  so  immense  and  involved  a  science ;  for  it  may  be  taken 
for  a  never-failing  maxim,  that  youth  is  the  only  time  for  laying 
the  foundation  of  a  great  improvement  in  any  science  or  profes- 
sion, and  that  an  application  in  advanced  years,  after  the  mind 
is  crowded,  the  attention  divided  or  dissipated,  and  the  memory 
in  part  lost,  will  make  but  a  tolerable  artist  at  best. 

14.  Friday.  Another  year  is  now  gone,  and  upon  recollection 
I  find  I  have  executed  none  of  my  plans  of  study.  I  cannot  satisfy 
myself  that  I  am  much  more  knowing,  either  from  books  or  men, 
from  this  chamber  or  the  world,  than  I  was  at  least  a  year  ago, 
when  I  wrote  the  foregoing  letter  to  Sewall.1  Most  of  my  time 
has  been  spent  in  rambling  and  dissipation.  Riding  and  walk- 
ing, smoking  pipes  and  spending  evenings,  consume  a  vast 
proportion  of  my  time ;  and  the  cares  and  anxieties  of  business 
damp  my  ardor  and  scatter  my  attention.  But  I  must  stay 
more  at  home,  and  commit  more  to  writing.  A  pen  is  certainly 
an  excellent  instrument  to  fix  a  man's  attention  and  to  inflame 
his  ambition.  I  am,  therefore,  beginning  a  new  literary  year  in 
the  twenty-sixth  of  my  life. 

I  am  just  entered  on  the  fifth  year  of  my  studies  in  law ;  and 
I  think  it  is  high  time  for  a  reformation,  both  in  the  man  and 
the  lawyer.  Twenty-five  years  of  the  animal  life  is  a  great 
proportion  to  be  spent  to  so  little  purpose ;  and  four  years,  the 
space  that  we  spend  at  college,  is  a  great  deal  of  time  to  spend 
for  no  more  knowledge  in  the  science  and  no  more  employment 
in  the  practice  of  law.  Let  me  keep  an  exact  journal,  therefore, 
of  the  authors  I  read,  in  this  paper.  This  day  I  am  beginning 
my  Lord  Hale's  History  of  the  Common  Law,  a  book  borrowed 
of  Mr.  Otis  and  read  once  already,  analysis  and  all,  with  great 
satisfaction.  I  wish  I  had  Mr.  Blackstone's  Analysis,  that  I 
might  compare  and  see  what  improvements  he  has  made  upon 
Hale's.     But  what  principally  pleased  me  in  the  first  reading 

1  See  page  79. 


yEr.  25.]  DIARY.  101 

of  Hale's  History,  was  his  Dissertation  upon  Descents  and  upon 
Trials  by  a  Jury.  Hale's  Analysis,  as  Mr.  Gridley  tells  me,  is 
an  improvement  of  one  first  planned  and  sketched  by  Noy,  an 
attorney-general  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I. ;  and  Mr.  Blackstone's 
is  an  improvement  upon  Hale's.  The  title  is  "  The  History  of 
the  Common  Law  of  England."  The  frontispiece  I  cannot 
comprehend ; l  it  is  this  : 

'l&xvpov  6  NOMOS  €<tt\v  apxovra. 

His  great  distribution  of  the  laws  of  England  is,  into  Leges 
Scriptce  and  Leges  non  Scripta.  The  first  are  acts  of  Parliament, 
which  are  originally  reduced  to  writing  before  they  are  enacted 
or  receive  any  binding  power,  every  such  law  being  in  the  first 
instance  formally  drawn  up  in  writing,  and  made  as  it  were  a 
tripartite  indenture  between  the  king,  the  lords,  and  commons. 
The  Leges  non  Scriptce,  although  there  may  be  some  monument 
or  memorial  of  them  in  writing  (as  there  is  of  all  of  them,)  yet 
all  of  them  have  not  their  original  in  writing,  but  have  obtained 
their  force  by  immemorial  usage  or  custom. 

15.  Saturday.  Spent  last  evening  at  Colonel  Quincy's,  with 
Colonel  Lincoln.  Several  instances  were  mentioned  when  the 
independency  and  superiority  of  the  law  in  general  over  partic- 
ular departments  of  officers,  civil  and  military,  have  been  asserted 
and  maintained  by  the  Judges  at  home: — Lord  Coke's  resolution 

in  the  case  of ,  in  opposition  to  the  opinion,  and  even  to  the 

orders  and  passionate  threatenings  of  the  king ;  Lord  Holt's 
refusal  to  give  the  house  of  lords  his  reasons  for  his  judgment  in 

the  case  of in  an  extra-judicial  manner,  that  is,  without 

being  legally  and  constitutionally  called  before  them  by  a  writ 
of  error,  certiorari  or  false  judgment ;  and  C.  J.  Willes's  resolute, 
spirited  assertion  of  the  rights  of  common  law  in  opposition 
to  the  court  martial,  against  the  intercession  of  powerful  friends 
and  even  of  the  ministry,  if  not  the  king  himself.2 

1  The  frontispiece  has  been  omitted  from  the  later  editions.  Stephanus  quotes 
the  following  as  a  proverb,  — 

Io/vq'ov  6  r&uog  iorlr,  rtv  aQ/ovr'  e;f»|. 

which  he  translates,  —  The  law  is  powerful  if  it  have  an  executor. 

2  The  first  of  the  cases  mentioned  is  the  noted  one  touching  the  force  of 
royal  proclamations  to  set  aside  the  law.  The  second  is  the  case  of  the  king 
against  Knowllys.  Both  are  suitably  dwelt  upon  in  the  volumes  lately  pub- 
lished by  Lord  Campbell,  of  Lives  of  the  Chief  Justices  of  England ;  vol.  i.  p. 
275;  vol.  ii.  p.  148. 

9* 


102  DIARY.  [1760. 

21.  Friday.  This  day  has  been  spent  to  little  purpose.  I 
must  confine  my  body,  or  I  never  shall  confine  my  thoughts : 

The  third  case,  though  it  constitutes  the  most  remarkable  event  in  the  judicial 
life  of  Sir  John  AVilles,  appears  to  have  escaped  the  attention  of  the  same  author, 
who  shows  clearly  enough  in  other  ways  the  feeble  interest  he  takes  in  this 
part  of  his  work.  An  account  of  it  seems  necessary  to  explain  the  allusion  in  the 
text,  even  though  it  have  no  immediate  connection  with  the  purpose  of  the  present 
volumes.  This  conversation,  held  in  1760,  in  which  instances  of  the  assertion  of 
the  supremacy  of  the  law  over  arbitrary  power  in  the  hands  of  the  monarch  are 
so  carefully  recounted,  is  not  without  its  influence  upon  what  comes  afterwards. 

A  lieutenant  of  marines,  by  the  name  of  Frye,  whilst  serving  in  the  West  Indies 
in  1744,  was  accused  of  some  offences,  for  which  he  was  tried  by  a  court  martial, 
condemned  and  sentenced  to  imprisonment  for  fifteen  years  besides  the  loss  of 
his  commission.  Being  remanded  home  with  the  proceedings  in  the  case,  for 
ratification  by  the  admiralty,  the  sentence,  so  far  from  proving  satisfactory,  was 
annulled,  and  Frye  fully  and  honorably  reinstated.  Not  content  with  this 
tardy  reparation  for  the  sufferings  which  he  had  been  compelled  to  endure  in 
the  course  of  his  trial,  Frye  immediately  brought  an  action  for  false  imprisonment 
against  Sir  Chaloner  Ogle,  the  presiding  officer.  The  cause  came  up  before 
Chief  Justice  Willes,  and  such  was  the  nature  of  the  evidence,  that  the  jury  at 
once  brought  in  a  verdict  for  the  plaintiff  with  damages  of  a  thousand  pounds 
sterling.  Taking  advantage  of  an  intimation  thrown  out  bv  the  court,  Frye 
followed  up  this  verdict  with  suits  against  two  more  of  his  unjust  judges.  One 
of  them,  Admiral  Mayne,  was  arrested  at  the  moment  when  he  was  presiding 
over  another  court  martial  assembled  at  Deptford  to  decide  upon  the  mutual 
grievances  of  Admirals  Matthews  and  Lestock,  which  had  destroyed  the  efficiency 
of  the  Mediterranean  squadron  when  in  presence  of  the  enemy  the  year  before. 

The  officers  sitting  on  this  trial  took  fire  at  what  they  deemed  a  gross  insult  to 
their  head,  and  rashly  adopted  some  resolutions  which  they  sent  to  the  Secretary 
of  the  Admiralty,  together  with  a  letter  containing  formal  charges  of  misconduct 
against  Chief  Justice  Willes  and  his  court.  The  judge  was  not  a  man  to  suffer 
the  dignity  of  his  court  to  be  thus  infringed,  and  his  authority  called  in  question. 
No  sooner  did  he  hear  of  the  resolutions  that  had  been  sent  to  the  King,  than 
he  caused  warrants  to  be  issued  to  take  each  individual  of  the  twenty-eight 
constituting  the  court  martial  into  custody. 

The  King  and  the  ministry  sympathized  with  the  officers.  The  former  went 
so  far  in  his  answer  as  to  express  "  great  displeasure  at  the  insult  offered  to  the 
court  martial,  by  which  the  military  discipline  of  the  navy  was  so  much  affected, 
and  to  promise  that  he  would  consider  what  steps  it  might  be  advisable  to  take 
on  the  occasion."  In  spite  of  this  royal  language,  the  officers  soon  felt  their 
situation  uncomfortable.  Yet  they  could  extricate  themselves  only  by  signing 
a  most  humble  recantation  of  all  their  offensive  language.  This  was  publicly 
presented  in  form  to  the  Chief  Justice,  who  thereupon  sealed  his  triumph  with 
the  following  remarks.  The  intimation  thrown  out  in  the  first  sentence  will  at 
this  day  be  considered  not  the  least  singular  portion  of  the  whole  affair. 

"  Although  the  injury  I  have  received  might  have  required  a  private  satisfac- 
tion, yet  as  the  offence  was  of  a  public  nature,  and  offered  to  the  whole  court  of 
common  pleas  as  well  as  myself,  I  thought  it  more  consistent  with  my  character 
and  the  dignity  of  the  post  I  have  the  honor  to  fill,  to  have  satisfaction  in  this 
public  manner ;  and  desire,  with  the  concurrence  of  my  brothers,  that  it  may  be 
registered  in  the  remembrance  office,  as  a  memorial  to  the  present  and  future 
ages,  that  whoever  set  themselves  above  the  law  will  in  the  end  find  themselves 
mistaken ;  for  we  may  with  propriety  say  of  the  law  as  of  truth,  '  Magna  est  et 
prcevalebit.' "  London  Magazine  for  1 746.  Barrotv's  Life  of  Lord  Anson,  p.  1 26. 
Corresp.  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  vol.  i.  pp.  107-1 10-163. 


^Et.  25.]  DIARY.  103 

running  to  Doctors,  cutting  wood,  blowing  fire,  cutting  tobacco 
—  waste  my  time,  scatter  my  thoughts,  and  divert  my  ambition. 
A  train  of  thought  is  hard  to  procure ;  trifles  light  as  air  break 
the  chain,  interrupt  the  series. 

Finished  the  History  of  the  Common  Law,  the  second  time. 
The  Dissertation  on  Hereditary  Descents,  and  that  on  Trials  by 
Juries,  are  really  very  excellent  performances,  and  well  worth 
repeated  attentive  reading. 

26.  Wednesday.  Ten  days  are  now  elapsed  since  I  began 
Hale  the  second  time ;  and  all  the  law  I  have  read  for  ten  days, 
is  that  book  once  through.  I  read  Wood's  Institute  through 
the  first  time  with  Mr.  Putnam,  in  twice  that  time,  that  is,  in 
three  weeks,  and  kept  a  school  every  day.  My  present  inatten- 
tion to  law  is  intolerable  and  ruinous. 

Night  before  Thanksgiving.  I  have  read  a  multitude  of  law- 
books ;  mastered  but  few.  Wood,  Coke,  two  volumes  Lilly's 
Abridgment,  two  volumes  Salkeld's  Reports,  Swinburne,  Haw- 
kins's Pleas  of  the  Crown,  Fortescue,  Fitz-Gibbon,  ten  volumes 
in  folio  I  read,  at  Worcester,  quite  through,  besides  octavos  and 
lesser  volumes,  and  many  others  of  all  sizes  that  I  consulted 
occasionally  without  reading  in  course,  as  dictionaries,  report- 
ers, entries,  and  abridgments,  &c. 

I  cannot  give  so  good  an  account  of  the  improvement  of  my 
two  last  years  spent  in  Braintree.  However,  I  have  read  no 
small  number  of  volumes  upon  the  law  the  last  two  years ;  — 
Justinian's  Institutes  I  have  read  through  in  Latin,  with  Vinni- 
us's  perpetual  notes ;  Van  Muyden's  Tractatio  Institutionum 
Justiniani  I  read  through  and  translated  mostly  into  English, 
from  the  same  language.  Wood's  Institute  of  the  Civil  Law,  I 
read  through.  These  on  the  Civil  Law.  On  the  Law  of  England 
I  read  Cowell's  Institute  of  the  Laws  of  England,  in  imitation 
of  Justinian,  Doctor  and  Student,  Finch's  Discourse  of  Law, 
Hale's  History,  and  some  Reporters,  Cases  in  Chancery,  Andrews, 
&c,  besides  occasional  searches  for  business ;  also  a  General 
Treatise  of  Naval  Trade  and  Commerce,  as  founded  on  the  laws 
and  statutes.  All  this  series  of  reading  has  left  but  faint  impres- 
sions and  a  very  imperfect  system  of  law  in  my  head.  I  must 
form  a  serious  resolution  of  beginning  and  pursuing,  quite 
through,  the  plans  of  my  Lords  Hale  and  Reeve.  Wood's 
Institutes  of  Common   Law  I  never  read  but  once,  and  my 


104  DIARY.  [1760. 

Lord  Coke's  Commentary  on  Littleton  I  never  read  but  once ; 
these  two  authors  I  must  get  and  read  over  and  over  again,  and 
I  wall  get  them,  too,  and  break  through,  as  Mr.  Gridley  expressed 
it,  all  obstructions. 

Besides,  I  am  but  a  novice  in  natural  law  and  civil  law. 
There  are  multitudes  of  excellent  authors  on  natural  law  that  I 
have  never  read  ;  indeed,  I  never  read  any  part  of  the  best 
authors,  Puffendorf  and  Grotius.  In  the  civil  law  there  are 
Hoppius  and  Vinnius,  commentators  on  Justinian,  Domat,  &c, 
beside  Institutes  of  Canon  and  Feudal  Law  that  I  have  to  read. 
Much  may  be  done  in  two  years,  I  have  found  already ;  and  let 
it  be  my  care  that  at  the  end  of  the  next  two  years  I  be  better 
able  to  show  that  no  time  has  been  lost,  than  I  ever  have  been  yet. 

Let  me  practise  the  rule  of  Pythagoras :  — 

MjjS'  vttvov  fjLaXaKolcnv  en   op-paui  7rpocr8e£a<7#at, 
Upiv  tcov  rjfiepivwv  epycov  rpts  eKaurov  eneXdetv  • 
TIrj  napejBTfv  ;  t'l  S'  epf£a  ;   t'i  p.oc  hiov  ovk  eYeAeV^q  ; 

Thus  let  me,  every  night  before  I  go  to  bed,  write  down  in 
this  book  what  book  of  law  I  have  read. 

28.  Friday.  I  have  not  read  one  word  of  law  this  day ;  but 
several  points  and  queries  have  been  suggested  to  me  by  the 
consultors.  In  whom  is  the  fee  and  freehold  of  our  burying 
yard  ?  What  right  has  any  man  to  erect  a  monument,  or  sink 
a  tomb  there,  without  the  consent  of  the  proprietors  ?  x 

29.  Saturday.  There  is  an  anecdote  in  the  Spectator  of 
De  Witt,  the  famous  Dutch  politician.  Somebody  asked  him 
how  he  could  rid  his  hands  of  that  endless  multiplicity  and 
variety  of  business  that  passed  through  them  without  confusion  ? 
He  answered,  "  By  doing  one  thing  at  once."  When  he  began 
any  thing,  he  applied  his  whole  attention  to  it  till  he  had  finished 
it.  This  rule  should  be  observed  in  law.  If  any  point  is  to  be 
examined,  every  book  should  be  consulted,  and  every  light  should 
be  considered  before  you  proceed  to  any  other  business  or  study. 
If  any  book  is  to  be  read,  no  other  book  should  be  taken  up  to 
divert  or  interrupt  your  attention  till  that  book  is  finished. 

Order,  method,  regularity  in  business  or  study,  have  excellent 

1  The  examination  of  this  point,  at  length,  here  follows  in  the  Diary.  It  is 
omitted,  as  without  interest  at  the  present  day. 


JEt.  25.]  DIARY.  105 

effects,  both  in  saving  of  time  and  in  bettering  and  improving 
performance.     Business  done  in  order,  is  done  sooner  and  better. 

30.  Sunday.     Read  no  law ;  read  Bolingbroke. 

December  1.  Monday.  I  am  beginning  a  week  and  a  month, 
and  I  arose  by  the  dawning  of  the  day,  and  by  sunrise  had  made 
my  fire  and  read  a  number  of  pages  in  Bolingbroke.  Tuesday 
and  Wednesday  passed  without  reading  any  law. 

6.  Saturday.  Talked  with  Zab  about  Newton,  Bacon,  Locke, 
Martin  and  Chambers,  Rowning,  Desaguliers,  S '  Gravesande,  &c. 
I  told  him  I  had  a  low  opinion  of  the  compilers,  abridgers,  and 
abstract  makers ;  we  had  better  draw  science  from  its  fountain 
in  original  authors.  These  writers,  the  hirelings  of  the  book- 
sellers, only  vend  us  the  discoveries  of  other  philosophers,  in 
another  form  and  under  another  title,  in  order  to  get  bread  to 
eat  and  raiment  to  put  on.  Zab  says  that  Martin  has  made 
several  discoveries,  has  invented  new  machines,  improved  and 
perfected  old  ones  ;  nay,  has  even  detected  errors  in  Newton : 
e.  g.  Newton  always  thought  the  moon  was  surrounded  by  an 
atmosphere,  but  Martin  proves  it  is  not,  because  the  stars  that 
appear  all  round  it,  above,  below,  and  on  each  side  of  it,  are  not 
diminished  in  their  lustre,  as  they  would  appear  if  the  rays 
passed  from  them  through  an  atmosphere. 

Then  we  transided  to  Dr.  Simpson,  Euclid,  &c,  and  he  asked 
me  to  demonstrate  that  the  three  angles  of  a  triangle  are  equal 
to  two  right.  I  undertook  it.1  Then  we  attempted  to  demon- 
strate the  forty-seventh  of  the  first  book. 

I  am  astonished  at  my  own  ignorance  in  the  French  tongue ; 
I  find  I  can  neither  express  my  own  thoughts  in  it,  nor  under- 
stand others  who  express  theirs  readily  in  it.  I  can  neither  give 
nor  receive  thoughts  by  that  instrument. 

14.  Sunday.  Hunt  v.  White ;  —  complaint  to  Colonel  Quincy 
of  a  scandalous  lie  made  and  published  to  Hunt's  damage.2 

16.  Tuesday.  Attended  the  trial  all  day  between  Hunt  and 
White,  before  Colonel  Quincy,  at  James  Bracket's.  What  will 
be  the  consequence  of  this  trial,  —  to  me,  to  Hunt,  and  to  White  ? 
White  has  been  punished  for  his  licentious  tittletattle ;  but  Hunt 
has  gained  neither  recompense  nor  credit.  Benjamin  Thayer  is 
enraged,  and  Pratt  and  Pitty  were  enraged  at  me  for  abusing 

1  Here  follows,  in  the  original,  a  diagram  with  a  demonstration. 

2  Here  follows  a  report  of  the  proceedings  and  argument  in  this  case. 


I 


106  DIARY.  [1760. 

thorn  by  asking  them  their  thoughts.  Ben  Thayer  continues  so, 
for  aught  I  know  or  care.  I  fear  this  unsuccessful  prosecution, 
connected  with  that  of  Lovell  and  Reed,  wall  occasion  squibs, 
and  injure  my  reputation  in  Weymouth.  However,  in  both  I 
am  well  assured  I  had  good  cause  of  action.  The  circum- 
stances of  suspicion  against  Hunt  have  taken  such  hold  of  men's 
minds,  that  no  conviction  of  White  would  have  retrieved  Hunt's 
character  at  all.  It  would  have  been  much  better  never  to  have 
stirred  in  this  affair.  A  prosecution  commenced  with  so  much 
temper,  pursued  with  so  much  resolution,  then  supported  by  so 
little  evidence,  and  terminated  by  agreement,  though  in  his  favor, 
yet  with  so  small  advantage,  will  give  occasion  for  Weymouth 
tongues  to  wanton  in  oblocmy,  and  for  their  sides  to  riot  in 
laughter. 

Virtues,  ambition,  generosity,  indulged  to  excess,  degenerate 
into  extravagance,  which  plunges  headlong  into  villany  and  folly. 

18.  Thursday.  Yesterday  spent  in  Weymouth  in  settling 
the  disputes  between  old  W.  and  young  F.  W.  has  the  remain- 
der of  his  habitual  trickish,  lying,  cheating  disposition,  strongly 
working  to  this  day;  —  an  infinity  of  Jesuitical  distinctions  and 
mental  reservations.  He  told  me  he  never  lost  a  cause  at  court 
in  his  life ;  —  which  W.  and  W.  say  is  a  downright  lie. 

He  owned  to  me  that  his  character  had  been  that  of  a  knave 
and  a  villain,  and  says,  "  every  man  of  wit  and  sense  will  be 
called  a  villain  ;  —  my  principle  has  been,  to  deal  upon  honor  with 
all  men  so  long  as  they  deal  upon  honor  with  me ;  but  as  soon 
as  they  begin  to  trick  me,  I  think  I  ought  to  trick  them." 

Thus,  every  knave  thinks  others  as  knavish  or  more  knavish 
than  himself.  What  an  intrenchment  against  the  attack  of  his 
conscience  is  this ;  —  "  the  knavery  of  my  neighbor  is  superior  to 
mine."  An  old,  withered,  decrepit  person,  eighty-seven  years  of 
age,  with  a  head  full  of  all  the  wiles  and  guile  and  artifice  of  the 
infernal  serpent,  is  really  a  melancholy  sight.  Ambition  of  ap- 
pearing sprightly,  cunning,  smart,  capable  of  outwitting  younger 
men.  In  short,  I  never  saw  that  guile  and  subtlety  in  any  man 
of  that  age.  Father  Mies  has  a  little  of  that  same  serpentine 
guile.  I  never  felt  the  meaning  of  the  words,  stratagem,  guile, 
subtlety,  cunning  wiles,  &c,  that  Milton  applies  to  the  devil, 
as  his  plan  to  effect  the  ruin  of  our  first  parents,  so  forcibly,  as 
since  I  knew  that  old  man  and  his  grandson,  who  seems  to  have 


iET.  25.]  DIARY.  107 

the  same  subtlety,  and  a  worse  temper,  under  a  total  secrecy  and 
dissembled  intention.  He  has  a  smiling  face  and  a  nattering 
tongue,  with  a  total  concealment  of  his  designs ;  though  a  devil- 
ish, malignant,  fiery  temper  appears  in  his  eyes.  He  is  a  Cassius, 
like  B.  T. ;  sees  through  the  characters  of  men  much  further  and 
clearer  than  ordinary ;  never  laughs ;  now  and  then  smiles,  or  half 
smiles.  Father  W.,  with  all  his  subtlety  and  guile,  may  be  easily 
overreached  by  men  like  himself.  He  is  too  open,  too  ostentatious 
of  his  cunning,  and,  therefore,  is  generally  outwitted  and  worsted. 

Five  strange  characters  I  have  had  concerns  with  very  lately ! 
Two  fools  and  two  knaves,  besides  Daniel  N.,  a  lunatic.  F.'s  joy, 
like  that  of  the  devil  when  he  had  completed  the  temptation  and 
fall  of  man,  was  extravagant ;  but  he  broke  out  into  too  violent 
a  passion ;  he  broke  his  own  seal  of  secrecy,  and  betrayed  his 
villanous  designs  to  me.  On  my  resenting  his  declared  inten- 
tion, he  grew  sensible  of  his  error,  and  attempted,  by  soothing, 
to  retrieve  it.  "  He  was  sorry  he  had  broke  out  so."  "  The 
treatment  he  had  suffered  made  him  in  a  passion."  "  I  raised 
your  temper  too,  prodigiously." 

Justice  Dyer  says  there  is  more  occasion  for  justices  than  for 
lawyers.  Lawyers  live  upon  the  sins  of  the  people.  If  all  men 
were  just,  and  honest,  and  pious,  and  religious,  &c,  there  would 
be  no  need  of  lawyers.  But  justices  are  necessary  to  keep  men 
just,  and  honest,  and  pious,  and  religious.  —  Oh,  sagacity !  But 
it  may  be  said,  with  equal  truth,  that  all  magistrates,  and  all 
civil  officers,  and  all  civil  government,  are  founded  and  maintained 
by  the  sins  of  the  people.  All  armies  would  be  needless  if  men 
were  universally  virtuous.  Most  manufacturers  and  tradesmen 
would  be  needless ;  nay,  some  of  the  natural  passions  and  senti- 
ments of  human  minds  would  be  needless,  upon  that  supposition. 
For  example,  resentment,  which  has  for  its  objects  wrong  and 
injury.  No  man,  upon  that  supposition,  would  ever  give  another 
a  just  provocation ;  and  no  just  resentment  would  take  place 
without  a  just  provocation.  Thus,  our  natural  resentments  are 
founded  on  the  sins  of  the  people,  as  much  as  the  profession  of  the 
law,  or  that  of  arms,  or  that  of  divinity.  In  short,  vice  and  folly  are 
so  interwoven  in  all  human  affairs,  that  they  could  not,  possibly, 
be  wholly  separated  from  them  without  tearing  and  rending  the 
whole  system  of  human  nature  and  state ;  nothing  would  remain 
as  it  is. 


108  DIARY.  [1760. 

22.  Monday.     This  day  and  to-morrow  are  the  last.     I  have 
but  one  blank  left  that  I  can  use. 


27.  Saturday.  Governor  Bernard's  speech  to  the  two  houses 
at  the  opening  of  the  present  sessions,  has  several  inaccuracies 
in  it.  "  The  glorious  conclusion  of  the  North  American  War." 
The  North  American  War  is  not  yet  concluded;  it  continues 
obstinate  and  bloody  with  the  Cherokees,  and  will  be  renewed, 
probably,  against  the  French  in  Louisiana.  However,  with 
regard  to  this  province,  whose  legislature  the  Governor  was 
congratulating,  it  may,  not  very  improperly,  be  called  a  conclu- 
sion. "  The  fair  prospect  of  the  security  of  your  country  being 
settled  upon  the  most  sure  and  lasting  foundations."  Is  not  this 
sentence  filled  with  tautology  ?  The  security  being  secured 
upon  secure  foundations.  Emendation,  "  and  the  fair  prospect  that 
now  presents  itself  of  tranquillity,  established  on  lasting  founda- 
tions." But  it  is  not  tranquillity,  nor  safety,  nor  preservation, 
nor  peace,  nor  happiness ;  but  it  is  "  security."  Then  it  is  not 
established,  fixed,  placed,  but  it  is  "  settled ; "  and  then  it  is  not 
stable,  permanent,  but  "  sure."  Here  are,  certainly,  words  used 
merely  for  sound. 

"  This  great  contest,"  &c.  Q.  What  does  he  mean ;  the  war, 
or  the  conclusion  of  the  war?  If  the  latter,  conquest  should 
have  been  his  word.  If  the  former,  what  follows  is  not  true : 
namely,  that  "  we  may  date  the  firm  establishment  of  the  British 
Empire  in  North  America."  From  our  late  successes  and 
acquisitions  we  may  date  that  establishment,  but  not  from  our 
misfortunes  and  losses,  which  make  no  unmemorable  part  of 
this  great  contest. 

"  We  form  these  pleasing  assurances,  not  only  from  the  more 
striking  instances  of  the  superiority  of  its  power,  but  also,  from 
the  less  obvioiis  observation  of  the  improvement  of  its  policy." 
Its  power ;  that  is,  the  British  Empire's  power.  Instances ;  that 
is,  particulars  in  which  it  has  appeared.  Obvious  observation 
has  a  good  meaning,  but  an  inelegant  and  inartificial  sound.  A 
defect  of  elegance,  variety,  harmony,  at  least. 

"  The  improving  a  country  is  a  more  pleasing  task  than  the 
defending  it."  Improving  and  defending,  participles,  used  as 
substantives  with  the  article  the  before  them,  will  never  be  used 


Mrs.  25.]  DIARY.  109 

by  a  grammarian,  much  less  by  a  rhetorician !  I  never  could  bear 
such  expressions  in  others,  and  never  could  use  them  myself, 
unless  in  case  of  absolute  necessity,  where  there  is  no  substan- 
tive to  express  the  same  idea. 

"  As  I  have  consulted  your  convenience  in  deferring  calling 
you  together  until  this,  the  most  leisure  time  of  your  whole 
year,"  &c.  "  In  deferring  calling,"  would  never  have  been  used 
together  by  a  discerning  ear.  He  might  have  said  "  In  deferring 
this  session,  until,  &c."  "  Your  whole  year!  "  Why  yours  any 
more  than  mine  or  others  ?  Am.  It  is  not  the  most  leisure  time 
of  every  man's  whole  year ;  it  is  the  most  busy  time  of  some 
men's  year. 

Deacon  Palmer's  observation  upon  this  speech,  that  "  he  talks 
like  a  weak,  honest  man,"  is  childish;  'tis  superficial ;  'tis  preju- 
dice ;  't  is  a  silly,  thoughtless  repetition  of  what  he  has  heard 
others  say.  For  though  there  are  no  marks  of  knavery  in  it, 
there  are  marks  of  good  sense,  I  think.  Grammatical  and  rhe- 
torical inaccuracies  are  by  no  means  proofs  of  weakness  or 
ignorance.     They  may  be  found  in  Bacon,  Locke,  Newton,  &c. 

1761.     January  2.  Friday.     The  representatives,  in  their  ad- 


dress to  the  Governor,  have  told  him  that  "  Great  Britain  is  the 
leading  and  most  respectable  power  in  the  whole  world."  Let 
us  examine  this.  Is  she  the  leading  power  either  in  war  or 
negotiation  ?  In  war  ?  She  has  no  army,  not  more  than  fifty 
or  sixty  thousand  men,  whereas  France  has  a  standing  army  of 
two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  in  camp  and  in  garrison, 
and  their  officers  are  as  gallant  and  skilful,  their  gunners  and 
engineers  the  most  accomplished  of  any  in  Europe. 

Then  navy,  indeed,  is  now  inconsiderable,  and  our  navy  alone 
has  given  us  the  advantage.  But  our  navy  alone  will  not  make 
us  the  leading  power.  How  we  can  be  called  the  leading  power, 
I  cannot  see.  Holland,  Spain,  Portugal,  Denmark,  and  all  Italy 
have  refused  to  follow  us,  and  Austria,  Russia,  Sweden,  and 
indeed  almost  all  the  States  of  Germany,  the  Prince  of  Hesse 
excepted,  have  followed  France.  The  only  power,  independent 
power,  that  has  consented  to  follow  us,  is  Prussia;  and  indeed, 
upon  recollection,  it  seems  to  me  we  followed  Prussia,  too,  rather 
than  the  contrary.  Thus,  we  are  the  leading  power  without 
followers. 

And  if  we  are  not  the  leading  power  in  war,  we  never  have 

VOL.    II.  10 


110  DIARY.  [1761. 

been  the  leading  power  in  negotiation.  It  is  a  common-place 
observation  that  the  French  have  regained  by  treaty  all  the 
advantages  which  we  had  gained  by  arms.  Now,  whether  this 
arose  from  the  superior  dexterity  of  the  French  plenipotentiaries, 
or  from  the  universal  complaisance  of  the  other  plenipotentiaries 
of  Europe  to  France  and  Frenchmen,  it  equally  proves  that 
England  is  not  the  leading  power  in  councils. 

How,  then,  are  we  the  most  respectable  ?  The  most  respected 
I  am  sure  we  are  not!  Else  how  came  all  Europe  to  remain 
neuters,  or  else  take  arms  against  us?  How  came  foreigners 
from  all  countries  to  resort  to  France  to  learn  their  policy,  mili- 
tary discipline,  fortification,  manufactures,  language,  letters,  sci- 
ence, politeness,  &c,  so  much  more  than  to  England?  How 
comes  the  French  language  to  be  studied  and  spoken  as  a  polite 
accomplishment  all  over  Europe  ?  And  how  come  all  negotia- 
tions to  be  held  in  French  ? 

And  if  we  consider  every  thing,  the  religion,  government, 
freedom,  navy,  merchandise,  army,  manufactures,  policy,  arts, 
sciences,  numbers  of  inhabitants,  and  their  virtues,  it  seems  to 
me  that  England  falls  short  in  more  and  more  important  parti- 
culars than  it  exceeds  the  kingdom  of  France. 

To  determine  the  character  of  "  leading  and  respectable,"  as 
Doctor  Savil  does,  from  a  few  victories  and  successes, — by  which 
rules  he  makes  Charles  XII.  to  have  been  in  his  day  the  leading 
and  most  respectable  power,  and  Oliver  Cromwell  in  his,  and 
the  king  of  Prussia  in  this,  —  is  most  ignorant  and  silly. 

In  short,  "  leading  and  respectable  "  is  not  to  be  determined 
either  by  the  prince,  the  policy,  the  army,  navy,  arts,  sciences, 
commerce,  nor  by  any  other  national  advantage,  taken  singly, 
and  abstracted  from  the  rest.  But  that  power  is  to  be  denomi- 
nated so,  whose  aggregate  of  component  parts  is  most. 

8.  Thursday.  Last  Monday  had  a  passionate  wrangle  with 
Eben  Thayer,  before  Major  Crosby.  He  called  me  a  petty 
lawyer.     This  I  resented. 


JEt.  25.]  DIARY.  Ml 


Messrs.  ■ 


I  am  an  old  man,  seventy  odd ;  and  as  I  had  my  educa- 
tion, so  I  have  spent  my  whole  life,  a  few  weeks  in  a  year  ex- 
cepted, when  I  commonly  took  a  journey,  in  the  country.  I  was 
naturally  inquisitive  and  a  little  too  talkative  in  my  youth,  which 
qualities  have,  perhaps,  increased  with  my  age,  but  as  I  remem- 
ber I  used  to  sneer  at  the  vanity  and  impertinence  of  old  Nestor, 
whose  speeches  I  have  often  read  formerly  in  Pope's  Homer,  (a 
book,  of  which  I  was  then,  and  am  still  very  fond,)  I  expect  that 
younger  men  will  laugh  at  the  like  vanity  and  impertinence  in 
me,  which  it  shall  be  my  care  therefore,  in  this  paper  at  least,  to 
avoid,  because  I  would  have  the  subject  of  it  candidly  weighed. 

Indeed,  scarcely  any  thing  that  I  have  observed  in  the  course 
of  a  long  life  has  a  greater  influence  on  the  religion,  morals, 
health,  property,  liberties,  and  tranquillity  of  the  world; — I  mean 
public  houses. 

The  temper  and  passions,  the  profaneness  and  brutal  behavior 
inspired  by  the  low  sort  of  company  that  frequent  such  houses, 
and  by  the  liquors  they  drink  there,  are  not  very  compatible 
with  the  pure  and  undefiled  religion  of  Jesus  —  that  religion, 
whose  first  principle  is  to  renounce  all  filthiness  and  superflu- 
ity of  naughtiness.  That  inattention  to  the  public  ordinances 
of  religion,  as  well  as  to  private  devotion,  which  I  have  reasons 
to  think  so  prevalent  in  these  times,  is  no  unnatural  conse- 
quence of  the  very  general  resort  to  those  licentious  houses. 
The  plentiful  use  of  spirituous  liquors  begins  with  producing  a 
strange  confusion  of  mind,  appetites  and  passions  too  violent 
for  the  government  of  reason ;  proceeds  to  involve  men  in  debts, 
and  of  consequence,  in  lying,  cheating,  stealing,  and  sometimes 
in  greater  crimes ;  and  ends  in  total  and  incurable  dissolution  of 
manners. 

The  effects  of  such  intemperance  upon  health  are  of  two 
kinds.  It  either  throws  them  into  some  acute  and  inflammatory 
fever,  which  carries  them  from  the  midst  of  their  vices  and  their 
follies,  the  mischiefs  they  do,  and  the  distresses  they  suffer,  at 

1  Here  follows  the  draught  of  an  article  written  in  the  character  of  an  elderly 
man,  and  evidently  intended  for  a  newspaper,  although  it  does  not  appear  ever 
to  have  been  printed.  As  it  touches  an  existing  abuse,  to  remedy  which,  at  that 
time,  the  author  made  strenuous  efforts  for  several  years,  and  which  has,  of  late 
years,  again  strongly  roused  the  public  attention,  it  is  retained  entire. 


112  DIARY.  [1761. 

once  into  their  graves,  or  else  it  leads  them  by  insensible  degrees 
through  all  the  gloom  and  languor  of  a  chronical  distemper,  de- 
spised by  many,  hated  by  more,  and  pitied  by  a  few,  to  a  long 
expected  and  desired  death. 

Thousands  and  thousands  are  every  year  expiring  in  Europe, 
and  proportionable  numbers  in  America,  the  miserable  victims 
of  their  own  imprudence,  and  the  ill  policy  of  rulers  in  permit- 
ting the  causes  of  their  ruin  to  exist  Allured  by  the  smell  of 
these  infernal  liquors,  like  the  ghosts  in  romances  allured  by  the 
scent  of  human  blood,  they  resort  to  these  houses,  waste  their 
time,  their  strength,  and  their  money,  which  ought  to  be  em- 
ployed in  the  management  of  their  own  affairs  and  families,  till 
by  degrees,  much  expended,  little  earned,  they  contract  habits 
of  carelessness,  idleness,  and  intemperance ;  their  creditors  de- 
mand, they  promise  to  pay,  but  fail ;  writs  issue,  charges  are 
multiplied  for  the  maintenance  of  others  as  idle  as  themselves, 
and  executions  strip  them  of  all  they  have,  and  cast  their  mis- 
erable bodies  into  loathsome  prisons. 

The  number  of  these  houses  have  been  lately  so  much 
augmented  and  the  fortunes  of  their  owners  so  much  increased, 
that  an  artful  man  has  little  else  to  do  but  secure  the  favor  of 
taverners,  in  order  to  secure  the  suffrages  of  the  rabble  that 
attend  these  houses,  which  in  many  towns  within  my  observa- 
tion makes  a  very  large,  perhaps  the  largest  number  of  voters. 

The  consequence  is,  that  these  offices  and  elections,  which  all 
the  wisest  legislators  of  the  world,  in  humble  imitation  of  God 
and  nature,  have  allotted  to  probity  and  understanding,  may  in 
time,  I  dare  not  say  have  already,  become  the  gratuity  of  tip- 
plers for  drams  and  slops.  Good  God !  Where  are  the  rights 
of  Englishmen !  Where  is  the  spirit  that  once  exalted  the  souls 
of  Britons,  and  emboldened  their  faces  to  look  even  Princes  and 
Monarchs  in  the  face!  But,  perhaps,  I  am  too  anxious,  and  in 
truth  I  must  own  I  so  revere  the  true  constitution  of  our  govern- 
ment, founded  in  those  great  principles  that  accomplished  in  a 
great  antiquity  the  destruction  of  Troy,  that  extended  in  a  later 
period  the  bounds  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  that  produced  in 
the  English  history  so  many  events  for  the  universe  to  admire, 
that  I  cannot  think  of  its  evaporating  and  passing  from  human 
breasts  with  flip  and  rum,  of  which  event  there  is  great  danger, 
without  rage. 


JEt.  25.]  DIARY.  113 

Last  of  all,  innumerable  violations  of  the  peace  and  order  of 
society  are  every  day  occurring,  that  spring  originally  from  the 
same  sources.  Quarrels,  boxing,  duels,  oaths,  curses,  affrays, 
and  riots,  are  daily  hatching  from  eggs  and  spawns  deposited  in 
the  same  nests.  In  short,  these  houses,  like  so  many  boxes  of 
Pandora,  are  sending  forth  every  day  innumerable  plagues  of 
every  kind,  natural,  moral,  and  political,  that  increase  and  mul- 
tiply fast  enough  to  lay  waste  in  a  little  while  the  whole  world. 
How  different  is  this  from  the  state  of  things  in  my  youth. 
Instead  of  an  unmanly  retreat  to  the  chimney-corner  of  a  tavern, 
the  young  fellows  of  my  age  were  out  in  the  air  improving  their 
strength  and  activity  by  wrestling,  running,  leaping,  lifting,  and 
the  like  vigorous  diversions,  and  when  satisfied  with  these, 
resorted  every  one  to  his  mistress  or  his  wife.  Love,  that  divine 
passion  which  nature  has  implanted  for  the  renovation  of  the 
species,  and  the  greatest  solace  of  our  lives  —  virtuous  love,  I 
mean  —  from  whence  the  greatest  part  of  human  happiness  ori- 
ginates, and  which  these  modern  seminaries  have  almost  extin- 
guished, or  at  least  changed  into  filthiness  and  brutal  debauch, 
was  then  considered  as  God  intended  it,  both  a  duty  of  our 
nature  and  the  greatest  source  of  our  bliss.  But  it  is  melan- 
choly to  think  that  the  present  prevalent  debauchery  which  tends 
so  much  to  shorten  the  lives  of  the  present  generation,  tends 
also  to  prevent  the  propagation  of  a  succeeding  one.  I  really 
am  afraid  that  in  another  century,  unless  some  wise  precaution 
should  intervene,  a  man  of  my  age  will  be  the  rarest  phenomenon. 

I  should  be  called  talkative  indeed,  if  I  should  attempt  to 
develop  the  causes  of  that  strange  multiplication  of  such 
houses,  that  is  lately  grown  up.  But  I  fear  that  some  selectmen 
are  induced  by.  a  foolish  complaisance,  and  others  by  designs 
of  ambition,  to  give  their  approbation  to  too  many  persons  who 
are  improper,  and,  perhaps,  too  many  that  are  proper  for  that 
trust.  I  am  afraid  that  some  justices  may  be  induced  by  lucra- 
tive motives,  by  mercantile  principles,  to  augment  the  manufac- 
tory or  the  importation  of  rum  or  molasses,  without  attending 
to  the  other  consequences,  which  are  plainly  pernicious. 

But  let  this  paper  be  considered  as  a  warning,  from  one  who 
has  seen  better  days,  to  magistrates,  to  suppress  rather  than 
increase  within  their  department;  to  selectmen,  to  discounte- 
nance  rather   than    encourage    pretenders,  in  their  sphere ;    to 

10*  H 


114  DIARY.  [1761. 

parents  and  masters,  to  restrain  their  children  and  servants 
from  frequenting.  And  in  short,  let  every  man  endeavor  to 
keep  one  from  suffering  any  injury  from  them  in  any  respect. 


I  was  too  incautious  and  unartful  in  my  proceeding;  but 
practice  makes  perfect.1  I  should  have  first  taken  all  the  sum- 
monses into  my  own  hands,  or  powers  of  attorney  from  the 
defendants.  Then  I  should  have  moved  that  the  sheriff  should 
be  directed  to  return  his  writs,  that  against  White,  and  that 
against  Hayden.  Then  I  should  have  drawn  a  complaint  on 
each  of  them  and  filed  them  all.  Then  I  should  have  desired 
the  justice  to  make  a  record  of  his  judgment.  This  would  have 
been  regular,  masterly  management;  but  I  had  no  time  to  think 
and  prepare. 

This  is  the  third  time  I  have  been  before  Major  Crosby  with 
T.  The  first  time,  he  was  for  John  Spear;  that  action  was 
demolished.  The  next  time  he  appeared  for  Nathan  Spear 
against  Eph.  Hunt  and  John  Vinton.  Those  actions  were 
demolished.  The  last  time  he  appeared  for  Bayley  against 
Niles,  White,  Hayden,  &c.  These  actions  were  all  demolished. 
Thus  I  have  come  off  pretty  triumphantly  every  time,  and  he 
pretty  foolishly.  Yet  I  have  managed  none  of  these  cases  in 
the  most  masterly  manner.  I  see  several  inadvertent  mistakes 
and  omissions.  But  I  grow  more  expert,  less  diffident,  &c.  I 
feel  my  own  strength.  I  see  the  complacent  countenances  of  the 
crowd,  and  I  see  the  respectful  face  of  the  justice,  and  the  fearful 
faces  of  pettifoggers,  more  than  I  did. 


To   Chardon? 

Lest  a  maiden  nicety  should  prevent  the  correspondence  pro- 
posed last  week,  I  have  taken  my  pen  to  open  it  upon  the  lofty 
subject  of  law.  We  shall  be  called  silly  and  tasteless,  &c,  for 
aught  I  know  or  care.  For,  let  the  smart  sayings  of  the  gay, 
and  the  grave  satires  even  of  the  wise  and  learned,  be  what  they 

1  This  alludes  to  several  causes  tried  in  December. 

2  This  is  the  draught  of  a  letter  to  Peter  Chardon,  the  person  spoken  of,  as  of 
so  great  promise,  in  page  39.  The  date  of  it  is  uncertain,  although  it  follows  in 
this  connection.     Possibly  it  may  have  been  written  a  year  or  two  earlier. 


JEr.  25.]  DIARY.  115 

will,  I  have,  for  my  own  part,  and  I  thank  God  for  it,  no  bad 
opinion  of  the  law,  either  as  a  science  or  a  profession. 

Why  the  minute  arteries  and  tendons  of  the  human  body,  the 
organization  of  the  human  voice  and  mouth,  and  numberless 
other  subjects  of  the  like  sort,  should  be  thought  worthy  of  the 
attention  of  a  liberal  mind,  and  the  no  less  wonderful  and  much 
more  important  combination  of  passions,  appetites,  affections, 
in  the  human  breast,  that  operate  on  society,  too  futile  or  too 
disagreeable  for  a  wise  man's  examination,  I  cannot  imagine. 
Nay,  if  we  proceed  to  the  positive  institutions  of  the  law,  I 
cannot  think  them  so  extremely  dull,  uncouth,  and  unentertain- 
ing,  as  you  and  I  have  heard  them  represented  by  some  whom 
we  love  and  honor.  Multitudes  of  needless  matters,  and  some 
that  are  nonsensical,  it  must  be  confessed,  have  in  the  course  of 
ages  crept  into  the  law.  But  I  beg  to  know  what  art  or  science 
can  be  found  in  the  whole  circle,  that  has  not  been  taught  by 
silly,  senseless  pedants,  and  is  not  stuffed  with  their  crudities 
and  jargon. 

The  man  who  intends  to  become  skilful  in  any  science,  must 
be  content  to  study  such  authors  as  have  written  upon  it. 

No  man  will  be  an  adept  in  grammar  or  rhetoric,  or  poetry,  or 
music,  or  architecture,  without  laboring  through  a  vast  deal  of 
nonsense  and  impertinence;  in  short,  nonsense  seems  an  una- 
lienable property  of  human  affairs ;  and  it  is  as  idle  to  expect 
that  any  author  should  write  well  upon  any  subject,  without 
intermingling  some  proportion  of  it,  as  it  is  to  expect  that  a 
rapid  torrent  should  descend  from  the  mountains  without  wash- 
ing some  dirt  and  earth  along  with  it. 

But,  if  the  grandeur  and  importance  of  a  subject  have  any  share 
in  the  pleasure  it  communicates,  I  am  sure  the  law  has  by  far 
the  advantage  of  most  other  sciences.  Nothing  less  than  the 
preservation  of  the  health  and  properties,  lives  and  tranquillity, 
morals  and  liberties  of  millions  of  the  human  species,  is  the 
object  and  design  of  the  law ;  and  a  comparison  of  several 
constitutions  of  government  invented  for  those  purposes,  an 
examination  of  the  great  causes  of  their  danger,  as  well  as  those 
of  their  safety,  must  be  as  agreeable  an  employment  as  can 
exercise  the  mind. 

But  it  is  a  science  that  comprises  a  multitude ;  and  great 
industry,  as  well  as  many  helps,  are  needful  to  subdue  it. 


116  DIARY.  [1761. 

And,  in  truth,  I  do  not  know  a  more  agreeable  help  than  the 
correspondence  of  a  friend.  Exchange  of  observation,  propos- 
ing difficulties,  stating  cases,  repeating  arguments,  examining 
sophisms,  will  both  arouse  and  support  our  ambition,  and  wear 
by  easy  degrees  a  system  of  law  into  the  mind. 

The  plan  that  I  would  propose,  then,  is  this ;  —  for  you  to  write 
me  a  report  of  any  case  you  hear  argued  before  the  courts  of 
admiralty,  court  of  probate,  governor  and  council,  court  of 
sessions,  justice  of  the  peace,  &c,  that  you  think  curious ; 
propose  questions  for  examination ;  and  write  me  answers  to 
letters  from  me  on  all  the  foregoing  subjects.  And  if  we  will 
secrete  each  other's  letters,  we  shall  at  least  avoid  the  ridicule  of 
others.  But,  if  we  should  be  detected,  we  can  say  that  Tully 
and  Atticus  held  some  such  correspondence  before,  that  never 
raised  a  laugh  in  the  world. 


27.  Tuesday.  Last  Friday  I  borrowed  of  Mr.  Gridley  the 
second  volume  of  the  Corpus  Juris  Canonici,  notis  illustratum, 
Gregorii  XIII.  Jussu  editum :  complectens,  Decretum  Gratiani ; 
Decretales  Gregorii  Papae  IX. ;  Sextum  Decretalium  Bonifacii 
Papae  VIII. ;  Clementinas ;  Extravagantes  Joannis  Papae  XXII. ; 
Extravagantes  Communes. 

Accesserunt  Constitutiones  novae  summorum  Pontificum 
nunquam  antea  editae,  quae  7  Decretalium  loco  esse  possint : 
Annotationes  Ant.  Naldi,  cum  addit.  novis :  Et  quae  in  plerisque 
Editionibus  desiderabantur,  Petri  Lancelotti  Institutiones  Juris 
Canonici ;  Regulae  cancellariae  Apostolicae  cum  Indicibus,  &c. 

Mr.  Gridley,  about  fifteen  months  since,  advised  me  to  read 
an  Institute  of  the  Canon  Law ;  and  that  advice  lay  broiling  in 
my  head  till  last  week,  when  I  borrowed  the  book.  I  am  very 
glad  that  he  gave  and  I  took  the  advice,  for  it  will  explain  many 
things  in  ecclesiastical  history,  and  open  that  system  of  fraud, 
bigotry,  nonsense,  impudence,  and  superstition,  on  which  the 
papal  usurpations  are  founded,  besides  increasing  my  skill  in 
the  Latin  tongue,  and  my  acquaintance  with  civil  law ;  for,  in 
many  respects  the  canon  is  grafted  on  the  civil. 

February  6.  Friday.  I  have  now  almost  finished  the  first 
book  of  Peter  Lancelott's  Institutes ;  which  first  book  is  taken 


JEt.  25.]  DIARY.  117 

up  de  Jure  Personarum,  and  is  well  analyzed  in  the  twenty-ninth 
title  de  Clericis  non  residentibus. 

9.  Monday.  This  morning,  as  I  lay  abed,  I  recollected  my 
last  week's  work.  I  find  I  was  extremely  diligent ;  —  constantly 
in  my  chamber ;  spent  no  evenings  abroad,  not  more  than  one 
at  the  Doctor's ;  have  taken  no  walks ;  never  on  horseback  the 
whole  week  excepting  once,  which  was  on  Tuesday,  when  I 
went  to  Boston.  Yet,  how  has  this  retirement  and  solitude  been 
spent  ?  In  too  much  rambling  and  straggling  from  one  book  to 
another  ;  from  the  Corpus  Juris  Canonici  to  Bolingbroke  ;  from 
hirrT  to  Pope ;  from  him  to  Addison ;  from  him  to  Yorick's 
Sermons,  &c.  In  fine,  the  whole  week  and  all  my  diligence  have 
been  lost,  for  want  of  observing  De  Witt's  maxim,  "  One  thing 
at  once." 

This  reflection  raised  a  determination  to  reassume  the  Corpus 
Juris,  or  rather  Lancelott's  Institutes ;  read  nothing  else,  and 
think  of  nothing  else,  —  till  sometime. 

With  the  week,  then,  I  begin  the  second  book  Institutionum 
Juris  Canonici.  De  Rerum  Divisione,  atque  illarum  Administra- 
tione.  Titulus  Primus.  Res  Ecclesiasticee  sunt  aut  spirituales 
aut  temporales. 

Res  spirituales  sunt  aut  incorporates  aut  corporales ;  et  corpo- 
rales  dividuntur  in  sacramenta,  in  res  sacras,  sanctas,  et  religiosas. 

This  Institute  is  a  curious  monument  of  priestly  ambition, 
avarice,  and  subtlety.     'Tis  a  system  of  sacerdotal  guile. 


His  Majesty  has  declared  himself,  by  his  speech  to  his  Parlia- 
ment, to  be  a  man  of  piety  and  candor  in  religion,  a  friend  of 
liberty  and  property  in  government,  and  a  patron  of  merit. 

"  The  blessing  of  heaven  I  devoutly  implore ;"  "  As  the  surest 
foundation  of  the  whole"  (that  is,  the  loyalty  and  affection 
of  his  people,  his  resolution  to  strengthen  the  constitution,  the 
civil,  &c,  rights  of  his  subjects  and  the  prerogatives  of  his 
crown,  &c.)  "  and  the  best  means  to  draw  down  the  Divine 
favor  on  my  reign,  it  is  my  fixed  purpose  to  countenance  and 
encourage  the  practice  of  true  religion  and  virtue."  These  are 
proofs  of  his  piety. 

He  promises  to  patronize  religion,  virtue,  the  British  name 
and  constitution,  in  church  and  state ;  the  subjects'  rights,  liberty, 


118  DIARY.  [1761. 

commerce,  military  merit.     These  are  sentiments  worthy  of  a 
king ;  —  a  patriot  king.1 

March  3.  Tuesday.  Mem.*  To  inquire  of  Tufts,  Gould, 
Whitmarsh,  Hunts,  Whites,  &c,  about  their  method  of  mending 
highways  by  a  rate ;  and  to  inquire  at  Worcester,  whenever  I 
shall  get  there,  of  Chandlers,  Putnam,  Willard,  Paine,  Swan, 
&c,  about  their  method.  They  mended  their  ways  by  a  rate,  I 
am  sure. 

Samuel  Clark,  Daniel  Nash; — myrmidons  of  Thayer.  Luke 
Lambard,  Ben  Hayden,  Samuel  Clark,  &c; — all  the  myrmidons 
of  Thayer,  &c.     Myrmidons,  bull  dogs,  hounds,  creatures,  tools. 

Weymouth  mends  her  ways  by  a  rate ;  —  each  man  is  rated 
so  much ;  and  a  day's  work  is  estimated  at  so  much ;  a  horse, 
a  cart,  yoke  of  oxen,  &c,  at  so  much  ;  so  each  man  has  his 
choice,  —  to  pay  his  money  or  to  work  it  out.  I  did  not  think 
to  ask  what  sum  they  expended  yearly  to  mend  ways.  Queer e  — 
How  they  mend  their  ways,  streets,  lanes,  alleys,  &c,  in  Boston  ? 
Whether  by  a  rate  ?  Is  not  the  town  taxed  for  pavement  of 
streets,  &c.  ?  Q.  Whether  they  ever  permit  those  who  choose 
it,  to  work  it  out  themselves  ? 

March  21.  Saturday.  Memorandum.  To  inquire  more  par- 
ticularly into  the  practice  in  Weymouth; — how  they  estimate  a 
day's  work  for  a  man,  horse,  yoke  of  oxen,  carts,  tools,  pickaxes, 
spades,  shovels,  &c.  ?  how  much  money,  or  what  a  sum  they  assess 

1  These  were  the  sentiments  of  the  writer  at  the  accession  of  the  new  and 
young  sovereign  George  the  Third,  in  the  very  same  year  and  within  a  few 
weeks  of  the  argument  in  the  cause  of  writs  of  assistance.     See  page  1 24,  note. 

*  [In  March,  when  I  had  no  suspicion,  I  heard  my  name  pronounced  in  a 
nomination  of  surveyors  of  highways.  I  was  very  wroth,  because  I  knew  no 
better,  but  said  nothing.  My  friend,  Dr.  Savil,  came  to  me  and  told  me  that  he 
had  nominated  me,  to  prevent  me  from  being  nominated  as  a  constable.  "  For," 
said  the  Doctor,  "  they  make  it  a  rule  to  compel  every  man  to  serve  either  as 
constable  or  surveyor,  or  to  pay  a  fine."  I  said, "  they  might  as  well  have  chosen 
any  boy  in  school,  for  I  knew  nothing  of  the  business ;  but  since  they  had  chosen 
me  at  a  venture,  I  would  accept  it  in  the  same  manner,  and  find  out  my  duty 
as  I  could."  Accordingly,  I  went  to  ploughing,  and  ditching,  and  blowing  rocks 
upon  Penn's  hill,  and  building  an  entire  new  bridge  of  stone  below  Dr.  Miller's 
and  above  Mr.  Wibird's.  The  best  workmen  in  town  were  employed  in  laying 
the  foundation  and  placing  the  bridge,  but  the  next  spring  brought  down  a  flood 
that  threw  my  bridge  all  into  ruins.  The  materials  remained,  and  were  after- 
wards relaid  in  a  more  durable  manner ;  and  the  blame  fell  upon  the  workmen, 
not  upon  me.  For  all  agreed  that  I  had  executed  my  office  with  impartiality, 
diligence,  and  spirit.] 


JEt.  25.]  DIARY.  U9 

upon  the  whole  town,  annually,  to  amend  their  ways  ?  whether 
the  assessment  is  committed  to  the  surveyor,  of  all  within  his 
district,  &c?  Inquire,  too,  at  Boston,  of  Cunningham,  how  they 
pave  and  repair  the  pavements  of  their  great  streets,  and  lanes, 
and  alleys,  &c.  ?  Whether  poor  people  are  left,  at  their  election, 
to  work  or  to  pay  ?  and  how  they  apportion  their  assessments  ? 
But  I  presume  it  is  not  according  to  the  poll  tax,  but  in  propor- 
tion to  the  province  tax  or  town  and  county ;  so  that  rich  men 
may  contribute,  in  proportion  to  their  wealth,  to  repairing,  as 
they  contribute  most,  by  their  equipages,  &c,  to  the  wearing 
and  spoiling  the  highways.  But  a  tax  upon  the  polls  and  real 
and  personal  estates  of  the  town,  will  not  bring  the  burthen  to 
equality.  We  will  suppose  that  John  Ruggles  and  Caleb  Hub- 
bard are  rated  equally  for  heads,  and  real  and  personal  estates. 
Caleb  Hubbard  carts  down  one  thousand  pounds'  worth  of  wood 
and  timber  to  the  landing-places,  and  so  reaps  three  or  four 
hundred  pounds  a  year  profit  by  improving  the  ways ;  and  by 
his  heavy  loads  and  wheels,  he  breaks,  and  cuts,  and  crushes  the 
ways  to  pieces.  But  Mr.  Ruggles,  on  the  other  hand,  confines 
himself  to  his  farm ;  and  he  neither  receives  benefit  from  any 
highways,  or  does  any  damage  to  them,  further  than  riding  to 
meeting  on  Sundays  and  town  meetings.  Now,  what-reason, 
what  propriety  can  there  be  in  taxing  Ruggles  and  Hubbard 
equally  to  the  highways  ?  One  gets  his  living  by  ruining  the 
ways,  the  other  neither  gets  a  farthing  by  them,  nor  does  them 
a  farthing's  damage.* 

The  power  of  a  town ;  the  proviso  in  the  eleventh  of  George, 
chapter  IV.,  —  "  That  this  act  shall  not  extend  to  the  preventing 
or  altering  the  practice,  in  any  town,  of  defraying  the  charge  of 
repairing  or  amending  the  highways  by  a  rate,  or  tax,  or  any  other 


*  [There  had  been  a  controversy  in  town,  for  many  years,  concerning  the 
mode  of  repairing  the  roads.  A  party  had  long  struggled  to  obtain  a  vote  that 
the  highways  should  be  repaired  by  a  tax,  but  never  had  been  able  to  carry 
their  point.  The  roads  were  very  bad  and  much  neglected,  and  I  thought  a 
tax  a  more  equitable  method  and  more  likely  to  be  effectual,  and,  therefore, 
joined  this  party  in  a  public  speech,  carried  a  vote  by  a  large  majority,  and  was 
appointed  to  prepare  a  by-law,  to  be  enacted  at  the  next  meeting.  Upon 
inquiry,  I  found  that  Roxbury,  and,  after  them,  AVeymouth,  had  adopted  this 
course.  I  procured  a  copy  of  their  law,  and  prepared  a  plan  for  Braintree,  as 
nearly  as  possible  conformable  to  their  model,  reported  it  to  the  town,  and  it 
was  adopted  Dy  a  great  majority.  Under  this  law  the  roads  have  been  repaired 
to  this  day,  and  the  effects  of  it  are  visible  to  every  eye.] 


120  DIARY.  •  [1761. 

method  they  have  or  shall  agree  upon ; "  the  words,  "  agreed 
upon,"  in  this  proviso,  I  presume,  signify  "  determined  by  the 
major  part  of  the  voters  ;"  for  the  same  words,  "  agreed  upon," 
are  used  in  several  other  acts,  where  their  meaning  must  be  so. 
Thus,  6  W.  &  M.,  chapter  V. — the  act  to  enable  towns,  villages, 
proprietors  in  common  and  undivided  lands,  to  sue  and  be  sued. 


Messrs.1 

I  am  an  old  man,  turned  of  seventy.  When  I  was  young, 
my  common  amusement  was  reading.  I  had  some  engagements 
in  business,  and  was  no  enemy  to  innocent  pleasure ;  but  as  my 
circumstances  were  easy,  I  gave  a  greater  indulgence  to  my 
curiosity  of  conversing  largely  with  the  world  than  most  persons 
of  my  age  and  rank.  In  this  course  of  life  I  soon  found  that 
human  nature,  the  dignity  of  which  I  heard  extolled  by  some 
and  debased  by  others,  was  far  from  deserving  that  reverence 
and  admiration  which  is  due  to  great  virtue  and  intelligence.  I 
found,  as  I  thought  in  that  day,  a  multitude  of  people  who  suf- 
fered themselves  to  be  caught  by  hooks  and  snares  covered  over 
with  such  bait  as  would  not  have  imposed  even  on  fishes  and 
birds ;  and  I  found,  as  I  thought,  a  few  others,  the  anglers  of 
that  day,  whose  constant  attention  and  pursuit  was  to  allure 
and  take  that  multitude. 

The  first  instances  of  this  sort  that  fell  under  my  observation 
raised  my  compassion  and  indignation  alternately.  I  pitied 
poor  deluded  simplicity  on  one  hand,  and  I  raged  against 
cruelty  and  wickedness  on  the  other ;  and  could  not  but  think 
that  to  rescue  the  lamb  from  the  jaws  of  the  wolf  would  be  a 
noble  adventure.  But  on  further  consideration,  the  design 
seemed  impracticable.  The  attempt  was  odious.  The  knaves 
would  arise  in  a  combination  to  ruin  the  reformer,  and  the  fools 
would  be  managed  in  no  other  way  than  that  of  their  appetites 
and  passions.  For  this  reason,  and  to  avoid  the  pungent  misery 
of  a  disappointed,  despised  patriot,  I  determined  to  make  a 
total  alteration  in  the  course  and  nature  of  my  ideas  and  senti- 
ments. Whenever  I  heard  or  saw  an  instance  of  atrocious 
treachery,  fraud,  hypocrisy,  injustice,  and  cruelty,  the  common 
effects  of  excessive  ambition,  avarice,  and  lust,  instead  of  indulg- 

• 
1  Another  article  written  for  the  newspapers. 


Mr.  25.]  DIARY.  121 

ing  the  sentiments  of  nature,  which  I  found  were  a  resentment 
bordering  on  rage,  I  resolved  instantly  to  set  up  a  laugh,  and 
make  myself  merry.  Whenever  I  saw  a  simple  deluded  crea- 
ture brought  by  the  craft  of  others  to  brutal  debauchery,  sickness, 
cold,  hunger,  prison,  whipping-post,  pillory,  or  gallows,  instead 
of  indulging  sympathy  and  feeling,  I  set  myself  to  laughing. 
I  must  own  I  found  a  good  deal  of  difficulty  to  command  myself 
at  first  in  this  bold  attempt  to  alter  the  whole  system  of  morality; 
and  in  spite  of  my  attention,  a  flash  of  vengeance,  or  a  thrill  of 
pity,  would  sometimes  escape  me  before  I  could  bring  my  mus- 
cles into  a  risible  posture. 

But  by  long  practice  I  have  at  last  obtained  a  settled  habit  of 
making  myself  merry  at  all  the  wickedness  and  misery  of  the 
world.  And  the  causes  of  ridicule  have  been  every  hour  increas- 
ing and  multiplying  from  the  twenty-fifth  year  of  my  age,  when 
I  first  attempted  the  alteration  of  my  mind,  to  the  present  hour. 
And  now,  in  spite  of  all  the  infirmities  of  old  age,  I  am  the 
most  tittering,  giggling  mortal  you  ever  saw.  But  the  amplest 
source  of  my  merriment,  through  the  whole  course  of  my  life, 
has  been  the  affair  of  English  privileges,  British  liberty,  and  all 
that. 

I  have  heard  men  every  day  for  fifty  years  boasting,  "  Our  con- 
stitution is  the  first  under  heaven.  We  are  governed  by  our 
own  laws.  No  tyrant  can  lord  it  over  us.  The  king  is  as  ac- 
countable for  his  conduct  as  the  subject.  No  government  that 
ever  existed  was  so  essentially  free ;  every  man  is  his  own  mon- 
arch; his  will  or  the  will  of  his  agent,  and  no  other,  can  bind  him." 
All  these  gallant,  blustering  speeches  I  have  heard  in  words,  and 
I  never  failed  to  raise  a  horse  laugh ;  for  observe  the  pleasant 
course  of  these  things. 

The  few  who  have  real  honor,  temperance,  and  understanding, 
who  are  desirous  of  getting  their  bread  and  paying  their  debts 
by  their  own  industry,  apply  their  attention  to  their  own  business, 
and  leave  the  affairs  of  towns  and  provinces  to  others.  But  a 
young  fellow,  who  happens  to  be  by  nature,  or  by  habit,  indolent, 
and  perhaps  profligate,  begins  by  laying  schemes  by  himself  or 
his  friends,  to  live  and  get  money  without  labor  or  care.  His 
first  step  is,  to  procure  a  deputation  from  some  sheriff.  By  the 
help  of  writs  and  executions,  and  drawing  writs,  or  employing 
some  child,  &c.  to  draw  them  for  a  share,  one  third  or  one  fourth 

VOL.    II.  11 


122  DIARY.  [1761. 

of  the  fee,  then  serving  them  and  executions,  carrying  tales  and 
intelligence  from  one  party  to  the  other,  and  then  settling  dis- 
putes, vastly  compassionating  the  party  by  taking  twice  lawful 
fees,  he  wheedles  himself  into  some  connection  with  the  people, 
and  considerable  sums  of  money  into  his  own  pockets.  He 
presently  grows  a  capable  man,  very  expert  at  calculations, 
and  well  acquainted  with  the  real  and  personal  estates  of  the 
town,  and  so,  very  fit  for  selectman ;  and  after  two  or  three 
years  opposition  from  the  most  virtuous  and  independent  part 
of  a  town,  he  obtains  an  election.  After  this  his  reputation 
increases  very  fast.  He  becomes,  to  those  not  already  grappled 
to  his  interest  by  fear  or  affection,  very  assiduous  and  obliging. 
And  when  the  season  of  the  year  approaches,  a  swarm  of  can- 
didates for  approbation  to  keep  taverns  or  dram-shops  surround 
him  for  his  favor.  For  one,  he  will  use  his  utmost  interest ;  for 
another,  he  really  thinks  there  is  occasion  for  a  public  house 
where  he  lives ;  for  a  third,  his  circumstances  are  so  needy,  he 
really  thinks  he  ought  to  be  assisted;  for  a  fourth,  he  is  so 
unable  to  work  that  he  needs  to  be  assisted ;  and  to  a  fifth,  he 
likes  it  very  well,  for  he  thinks  the  more  there  are,  the  better, 
the  more  obliging  they  will  be,  and  the  cheaper  they  will  sell. 
Taverns  and  dram-shops  are  therefore  placed  in  every  corner 
of  the  town,  where  poor  mankind,  allured  by  the  smell  of  brandy 
and  rum,  resort  and  carouse,  waste  their  time,  spend  their  money, 
run  in  debt  to  tavern  and  others,  grow  attached  to  the  taverner, 
who  is  attached  to  his  patron  both  by  gratitude  and  expectation. 
The  hero  of  this  romance  is  presently  extolled  as  a  public  bles- 
sing, as  the  most  useful  man  in  town,  as  a  very  understanding 
man ;  and  is,  at  the  next  May  meeting,  set  up  for  a  candidate 
as  representative.  The  same  body  of  wealthy  and  virtuous 
persons  who  opposed  the  first  step  of  his  exaltation,  are  still 
resolute  to  oppose  the  second,  and  for  the  first  few  years  he  fails. 
But  by  assiduity  and  impudence,  by  extending  and  fortifying 
the  parts  of  the  same  system,  he  increases  his  interest,  and  the 
virtuous  few  begin  to  dread  the  consequences ;  they  resolve  not 
to  be  present  and  witnesses  of  the  disgrace  of  the  town.  They 
stay  at  home,  and  the  news  is  brought  them  that  the  person 
they  despised,  &c,  &c,  has  obtained  his  election. 

In  this  manner,  men,  who  are  totally  ignorant  of  all  law, 
human  and  divine,  natural,  civil,  ecclesiastical,  and  common,  are 


Mr.  25.]  DIARY.  123 

employed  to  make  laws  for  their  country,  while  others  who  have 
been  led  by  their  education  to  search  to  the  bottom  of  human 
nature,  and  to  examine  the  effect  of  all  laws  upon  human  affairs 


It  would  be  worth  while  to  describe  all  the  transformations 

of 's  flattery ;  yet  there  is  always  a  salvo,  which  shows  his 

deceit  and  insincerity. 

"  If  Mr.  Adams  should  become,  in  two  or  three  years,  one  of 
the  most  eminent  lawyers  in  the  county,  and  remove  to  Boston, 
there  you  would  find  persons  who  have  daughters  to  dispose  of, 
who  have  knowledge  of  the  world,  and  prudence  enough  to  look 
out  the  best  characters  for  matches  to  their  daughters.  Twenty 
such  men  would  have  their  eyes  upon  you;  would  dress  out 
their  daughters  to  the  best  advantage,  contrive  interviews,  lay 
schemes  ;  and,  presently,  some  one  more  beautiful,  or  sensible, 
or  witty,  or  artful  than  the  rest,  will  take  you  in.  We  shall  see 
you,  in  spite  of  your  philosophy,  and  contempt  for  wife  and 
mistress,  and  all  that,  sighing  and  dying  with  love."  Here, 
under  a  specious  pretext  of  raillery  for  my  boasted  and  affected 
indifference  to  ladies,  he  is  insinuating,  or  would  make  me  believe 
that  he  designed  to  insinuate,  that  I  am  likely  to  be  the  ablest 
lawyer  on  the  stage  in  two  or  three  years ;  that  twenty  gentle- 
men will  eye  me  for  a  match  to  their  daughters,  and  all  that. 
This  is  the  flattery.  Yet,  in  truth,  he  only  said,  if  Mr.  Adams 
should  become,  &c. ;  so  that  if  his  consequences  should  never 
take  place,  —  "  Oh !  I  never  expected  they  would,  for  I  did  not 
expect  you  would  be  eminent."  Besides,  if  he  was  to  speak  his 
real  sentiments,  —  "  I  am  so  ill-bred,  unpolished,  &c,  that  I  never 
shall  succeed  with  ladies,  or  the  world,  &c,  &c." 

The  same  evening  I  showed  him  my  draught  of  our  licensed 
houses,  and  the  remarks  upon  it.1     Oh!  he  was  transported!  he 

1  This  draught  consists  of  a  rough  plan  of  the  principal  roads  in  the  town,  with 
the  position  of  every  licensed  house  marked  upon  it,  and  certain  remarks  made 
upon  each.  It  has  a  local  interest  at  this  day,  for  more  reasons  than  one.  The 
following  note  is  all  that  is  worth  inserting  here  :  — 

N.  B.  Place  one  foot  of  your  dividers  at  Eb.  Thayer's  house,  and  extend  the 
other  about  one  mile  and  a  half,  and  then  sweep  a  circle ;  you  will  surround 
eight  public  houses,  besides  one  in  the  centre.  There  is  vastly  more  travelling 
and  little  less  business  in  Milton,  Dorchester,  and  Roxbury,  where  public  houses 
are  thinly  scattered,  than  there  is  in  Braintree ;  and  why  poor  Braintree  men, 


124  DIARY.  [1761. 

was  ravished !  he  would  introduce  that  plan  at  the  sessions,  and 
read  the  remarks,  and  say  they  were  made,  as  well  as  the  plan, 
by  a  gentleman  to  whom  there  could  be  no  exception,  &c.  He 
saw  an  abstract  of  the  argument  for  and  against  writs  of  assist 
ants ; l   and  says,  "  did  you  take  this  from  those  gentlemen  as 

■who  have  no  virtue  to  boast  of,  should  be  solicited  with  more  temptations  than 
others,  I  can't  imagine.  This,  I  will  say,  that  whoever  is  in  fault,  or  whatever 
was  the  design,  taverns  and  dram-shops  have  been  systematically  and  scandalously 
multiplied  in  this  town ;  and,  like  so  many  boxes  of  Pandora,  they  are  hourly 
scattering  plagues  of  every  kind,  natural,  moral,  and  political,  through  the  whole 
town. 

1  Here  is  the  only  allusion,  in  the  Diary,  to  this  incident,  which,  according  to 
the  writer's  own  account,  had  so  great  an  influence  over  his  subsequent  career. 
The  Autobiography  speaks  of  it  more  fully,  as  follows :  — 

[The  king  sent  instructions  to  his  custom  house  officers  to  carry  the  acts  of 
trade  and  navigation  into  strict  execution.  An  inferior  officer  of  the  customs, 
in  Salem,  whose  name  Avas  Cockle,  petitioned  the  justices  of  the  superior  court, 
at  their  session  in  November  (1760)  for  the  county  of  Essex,  to  grant  him  writs 
of  assistants,  according  to  some  provision  in  one  of  the  acts  of  trade  which  had 
not  been  executed,  to  authorize  him  to  break  open  ships,  shops,  cellars,  houses, 
&c,  to  search  for  prohibited  goods  and  merchandises,  on  which  duties  had  not 
been  paid.  Some  objection  was  made  to  this  motion ;  and  Mr.  Stephen  Sewall, 
who  was  then  Chief  Justice  of  that  court,  and  a  zealous  friend  of  liberty,  expressed 
some  doubts  of  the  legality  and  constitutionality  of  the  writ,  and  of  the  power  of 
the  court  to  grant  it.  The  court  ordered  the  question  to  be  argued  at  Boston, 
in  February  Term,  1761.  In  the  mean  time  Mr.  Sewall  died;  and  Mr.  Hutch- 
inson, then  lieutenant-governor,  a  counsellor  and  judge  of  probate  for  the  county 
of  Suffolk,  &c,  was  appointed,  in  his  stead,  Chief  Justice.  The  first  vacancy  on 
that  bench  had  been  promised,  in  two  former  administrations,  to  Colonel  James 
Otis,  of  Barnstable.  This  event  produced  a  dissension  between  Hutchinson  and 
Otis,  which  had  consequences  of  great  moment. 

In  February,  Mr.  James  Otis,  junior,  a  lawyer  of  Boston,  and  a  son  of  Colonel 
Otis  of  Barnstable,  appeared,  at  the  request  of  the  merchants  in  Boston,  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  writ.  This  gentleman's  reputation  as  a  scholar,  a  lawyer,  a  reasoner, 
and  a  man  of  spirit,  was  then  very  high.  Mr.  Putnam,  while  I  was  with  him, 
had  often  said  to  me  that  Otis  was  by  far  the  most  able,  manly,  and  commanding 
character  of  his  age  at  the  bar ;  and  this  appeared  to  me,  in  Boston,  to  be  the 
unanimous  opinion  of  judges,  lawyers,  and  the  public.  Mr.  Oxenbridge  Thacher, 
whose  amiable  manners  and  pure  principles  united  to  a  very  easy  and  musical 
eloquence  made  him  very  popular,  was  united  with  Otis ;  and  Mr.  Gridley  alone 
appeared  for  Cockle,  the  petitioner,  in  support  of  the  writ.  The  argument  con- 
tinued several  days  in  the  council  chamber,  and  the  question  was  analyzed  with 
great  acuteness  and  all  the  learning  which  could  be  connected  with  the  subject. 
I  took  a  few  minutes  in  a  very  careless  manner,  which,  by  some  means,  fell  into 
the  hands  of  Mr.  Minot,  who  has  inserted  them  in  his  history.  I  was  much  more 
attentive  to  the  information  and  the  eloquence  of  the  speaker  than  to  my  minutes, 
and  too  much  alarmed  at  the  prospect  that  was  opened  before  me  to  care  much 
about  writing  a  report  of  the  controversy.  The  views  of  the  English  government 
towards  the  colonies,  and  the  views  of  the  colonies  towards  the  English  govern- 
ment, from  the  first  of  our  history  to  that  time,  appeared  to  me  to  have  been 
directly  in  opposition  to  each  other,  and  were  now,  by  the  imprudence  of  admin- 
istration, brought  to  a  collision.  England,  proud  of  its  power,  and  holding  us  in 
contempt,  would  never  give  up  its  pretensions.    The  Americans,  devoutly  attached 


Mr.  25.]  DIARY.  125 

they  delivered  it  ?  You  can  do  any  thing !  you  can  do  as  you 
please !  Gridley  did  not  use  that  language  ;  he  never  was 
master  of  such  a  style !     It  is  not  in  him,"  &c. 

"  I  will  lay  one  hundred  guineas  that,  before  twenty  years,  you 
will  raise  the  fees  of  the  bar  threefold.  If  your  eloquence  should 
turn  out  equal  to  your  understanding,  you  will,  I  know  you  will ! 
You  have  Lord  Bolingbroke  by  heart !  with  one  cursory  reading, 
you  have  a  deeper  understanding  of  him,  and  remember  more 
of  him,  than  I  do  after  three  or  four  readings,  or  than  I  should 
have  after  twenty  readings." 

"  With  all  your  merit,  and  learning,  and  wit,  and  sense,  and 
spirit,  and  vivacity,  and  all  that  — " 

These  are  the  bold,  gross,  barefaced  flatteries,  that  I  hear 
every  time  I  see  that  man.  Can  he  think  me  such  a  ninny  as 
to  be  allured  and  deceived  by  such  gross  arts  ?  He  must  think 
me  vastly  vain,  silly,  stupid,  if  he  thinks  to  impose  on  me ;  if  he 
thinks  I  can't  see  the  deceit.  It  must  be  deceit.  It  cannot  be 
any  thing  else. 

If  you  ride  over  this  whole  province,  you  will  find  that, 
although  taverns  are  generally  too  numerous,1  they  are  not  half 
so  numerous  in  any  one  county,  in  proportion  to  the  numbers 
of  people  and  the  necessity  of  business  and  travelling,  as  in  this. 
In  most  country  towns  in  this  county,  you  will  find  almost  every 
other  house  with  a  sign  of  entertainment  before  it. 

If  you  call,  you  will  find  dirt  enough,  very  miserable  accom- 
modations of  provision  and  lodging  for  yourself  and  your  horse. 
Yet,  if  you  sit  the  evening,  you  will  find  the  house  full  of  people 

to  their  liberties,  would  never  submit,  at  least  without  an  entire  devastation  of 
the  country  and  a  general  destruction  of  their  lives.  A  contest  appeared  to  me 
to  be  opened,  to  which  I  could  foresee  no  end,  and  which  would,  render  my  life 
a  burden,  and  property,  industry,  and  every  thing  insecure.  There  was  no 
alternative  left  but  to  take  the  side  which  appeared  to  be  just,  to  march  intrep- 
idlv  forward  in  the  right  path,  to  trust  in  Providence  for  the  protection  of  truth 
and  right,  and  to  die  with  a  good  conscience  and  a  decent  grace,  if  that  trial 
should  become  indispensable.] 

Among  the  papers  of  Mr.  Adams,  some  notes  remain  of  the  argument  in  the 
case  of  the  writs  of  assistance,  which  seem  to  be  the  foundation  of  the  sketch 
published  by  Minot.  As  the  smallest  particular  relating  to  this  commencement 
of  the  revolutionary  struggle  is  interesting,  they  are  placed  in  the  Appendix 
(A.)  to  this  volume. 

1  This  is  the  latter  part  of  a  long  paper  upon  licensed  houses,  which  seems  to 
have  been  intended  for  publication  at  the  time. 

11* 


126  DIARY.  [1761. 

drinking  drams,  flip,  toddy,  carousing,  swearing  ;  but  especially- 
plotting  with  the  landlord,  to  get  him,  at  the  next  town  meeting, 
an  election  either  for  selectman  or  representative.  Thus  the 
multiplicity  of  these  houses,  by  dividing  the  profits,  renders  the 
landlords  careless  of  travellers,  and  allures  the  poor  country  people, 
who  are  tired  with  labor,  and  hanker  after  company,  to  waste 
their  time  and  money,  contract  habits  of  intemperance  and  idle- 
ness, and,  by  degrees,  to  lose  the  natural  dignity  and  freedom  of 
English  minds,  and  confer  those  offices,  which  belong  by  nature 
and  the  spirit  of  all  government  to  probity  and  honesty,  on  the 
meanest,  and  weakest,  and  worst  of  human  characters. 

A  good  deal  of  this  has  happened,  as  I  believe,  partly  from 
what  I  have  seen,  and  partly  from  credible  information,  in  the 
country.  But  who  is  most  to  blame  ?  The  court  of  sessions 
has  made  such  rules  for  itself  that  the  country  justices  can  seldom 
attend.  The  selectmen  of  the  several  towns  have  been  so  often 
disappointed  that  they  are  discouraged.  Some  houses,  to  my 
knowledge,  have  been  licensed  which  never  had  any  approba- 
tion from  any  selectman.  Other  persons  have  been  licensed, 
whom  the  selectmen  have  found,  by  experience,  and  certified  to 
be  guilty  of  misrule,  and  therefore  unfit.  Others  have  been 
recognized  for  seven  years  together,  without  any  approbation 
from  the  selectmen  through  the  whole  time.  Nay,  a  man  has 
been  recognized,  though  the  selectmen  certified  good  reasons  for 
not  approbating  him;  —  that  he  was  very  intemperate,  had  poor 
accommodations,  and  was  subject  to  fits  of  caprice,  if  not  delir- 
ium, that  made  it  dangerous  to  come  near  him ;  and  although  it 
was  proved  that  the  same  man,  in  one  of  these  fits,  had,  but  a 
few  days  before,  stabbed  another  with  apparent  design  and  great 
danger  of  murder. 

Now  I  agree  that  ambitious  spirits  in  the  country,  who  have 
little  honor,  will  soon  see  that  such  houses  must  be  favored  and 
multiplied,  to  promote  their  own  designs  ;  and  therefore  retailers 
and  taverners  are  generally,  in  the  country,  assessors,  or  select- 
men, or  representatives,  or  esquires.  But  are  not  we  more  to 
blame  ?  Are  not  some  of  our  justices  importers  of  molasses  ?  Are 
not  others  distillers,  and  are  not  all  of  them  fond  of  a  lawful  fee  ? 
In  short,  is  it  owing  wholly  to  Boston  justices,  that  those  houses 
have  been  so  shamefully  multiplied  in  the  country ;  multiplied  so 
that  decent  entertainment  for  a  traveller  is  nowhere  to  be  had  ? 


JEr.  25.]  DIARY.  127 

The  freedom  of  censure  is  a  matter  of  very  great  consequence 
under  our  government.  There  are  certain  vices  and  follies, 
certain  indecencies  of  behavior,  beneath  the  inspection  and 
censure  of  law  and  magistracy,  which  must  be  restrained  and 
corrected  by  satire.  And,  for  this  reason,  every  piece  of  just 
ridicule,  in  public  or  private,  bestowed  on  any  wrong  or  foolish 
conduct,  gives  me  great  pleasure,  even  although  I  am  myself 
the  object.  From  the  same  principle,  I  was  glad  to  see  some 
animadversion  on  the  late  inconsistent  conduct  of  the  ministers 
of  this  town ; x  and  nothing  but  sacerdotal  impudence  and  eccle- 
siastical pride  can  account  for  the  surly,  revengeful  manner  in 
which  those  pieces  have  been  received.2 


1  Boston.  This  alludes  to  a  very  sharp  controversy,  carried  on  in  the  Gazette, 
upon  the  subject  of  feasts  at  ordinations.  In  that  paper,  of  the  2d  March  of  this 
year,  there  appeared  a  long  account  of  the  ceremonies  at  the  Ordination  of  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Cuming,  as  colleague  of  Dr.  Sewall,  in  the  Old  South  Church.  The 
public  solemnity  being  over,  this  account  goes  on  to  say,  —  "  there  was  a  very 
sumptuous  and  elegant  entertainment  for  the  elders  and  messengers  that  assisted  ; 
to  which  his  Excellency  the  Governor,  who  honored  the  ceremonial  of  the 
Instalment  with  his  presence,  was  also  invited,  together  with  a  considerable 
number  of  the  principal  gentlemen  of  the  town  and  some  of  the  country.  One 
house,  though  capacious,  not  being  sufficient  to  accommodate  so  large  a  number 
of  honorable  and  reverend  guests  on  such  an  occasion,  two  or  more  were  pro- 
vided for  the  occasion.  The  principal  entertainment,  however,  (which  is  said  to 
have  been  very  grand)  and  consequently  the  greatest  concourse  of  people,  was 
at  the  Rev.  Dr.  Sewall's  own  house." 

Such  being  the  newspaper  notice  of  the  2d,  there  appeared  in  the  next  week's 
paper,  some  well  written  but  severe  strictures  upon  the  proceedings,  as  not 
consistent  with  the  character  and  pledges  of  the  actors.  Such  an  attack, 
directed  against  the  most  powerful  class  of  the  day,  naturally  excited  resent- 
ment, which  showed  itself  in  harsh  and  violent  rejoinder.  This  led  to  retort, 
and  to  a  warm  controversy.  In  no  particular  are  opinions  and  customs  more 
changed,  than  in  this.  The  decline  of  ecclesiastical  influence  may  have  dimin- 
ished the  interest  taken  in  similar  ceremonies ;  but  the  doing  away  with  con- 
vivial entertainments,  upon  such  occasions,  has  a  deeper  and  more  creditable 
cause.  A  calm  reader  of  the  controversy,  at  this  day,  would  not  hesitate  on 
which  side  to  give  his  verdict. 

2  At  a  town  meeting  held  in  Braintree,  on  the  18th  May,  1761,  the  following 
article  appears  in  the  warrant :  — 

"  Secondly.  To  consider  and  determine  upon  some  effectual  method  whereby 
to  reduce  the  number  of  licensed  houses  in  this  town,  as  it  is  thought  the  present 
number  are  unnecessary." 

The  record  further  states,  — 

"  After  a  full  debate  upon  the  second  article,  it  was,  by  a  great  majority  of  the 
members  present, 

Voted,  That,  although  licensed  houses,  so  far  as  they  are  conveniently  situ- 
ated, well  accommodated,  and  under  due  regulation  for  the  relief  and  entertain- 
ment of  travellers  and  strangers,  may  be  a  useful  institution,  yet  there  is  reason 
to  apprehend  that  the  present  prevailing  depravity  of  manners,  through  the 
land  in  general,  and  in  this  town  in  particular,  and  the  shameful  neglect  of 


128  DIAKY.  [1761. 

June  11.  Thursday.*  I  have  been  for  a  week  or  fortnight 
engaged  in  a  project ;  have  remarkably  succeeded  hitherto.  Mr. 
Niles  approved  in  all  things.  Major  Crosby .  approved  in  all 
things.  Deacon  Palmer  approved  in  all  things.  They  have 
given,  under  their  hands,  a  very  full  and  handsome  character  and 
recommendation  of  my  brother;  —  much  more  ample  than  I 
expected.  They  have  really  spoken  in  hyperbole;  they  have 
expressed  themselves  with  warmth.  I  expected  only  a  significa- 
tion of  their  consent  and  approbation ;  but  they  have  expressed 
themselves  with  zeal.  I  ought  to  consider  these  credentials 
gratefully,  as  a  strong  instance  of  friendship,  and  take  the  first 
opportunity  of  making  some  return.  Mr.  N.  has  the  worst 
opinion  of  T.'s  morals.  He  detests  the  base  methods  of 
debauchery,  and  lying,  and  duplicity,  that  he  has  been  in. 
O.  despises  him. 

But  scheming  seldom  has  success.  I  expect  to  come  off 
but  second  best  after  all!  I  expect  that  T.  will  hear  of  my 
design,  and,  in  order  to  defeat  it,  continue  in  the  office  himself. 
If  he  should,  I  shall  be  pretty  cool.  Intrigue,  and  making 
interest,  and  asking  favors,  is  a  new  employment  to  me.  I 
am  unpractised  in  intrigues  for  power.  I  begin  to  feel  the 
passions  of  the  world ;  —  ambition,  avarice,  intrigue,  party,  all 
must  be  guarded. 

My  fears  of  failing  are  at  last  vanished.  The  scheme  suc- 
ceeded in  all  things,  and  is  completed.     Boylston  is  constituted, 

religious  and  civil  duties,  so  highly  offensive  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  injurious 
to  the  peace  and  welfare  of  society,  are  in  a  great  measure  owing  to  the 
unnecessary  increase  of  licensed  houses. 

Voted,  That,  for  the  future,  there  be  no  persons  in  this  town  licensed  for 
retailing  spirituous  liquors ;  and  that  there  be  three  persons  only  approbated  by 
the  selectmen  as  Innholders,  suitably  situated  in  each  precinct." 

It  is  not  unreasonable  to  infer  that  the  decision  of  the  town  was  the  result  of 
the  efforts  of  Mr.  Adams,  even  if,  as  is  altogether  probable,  the  votes  were  not 
drawn  up  by  him. 

*  [On  the  25th  of  May,  in  this  year,  my  venerable  father  died,  in  his  seventy- 
first  year,  beloved,  esteemed,  and  revered  by  all  who  knew  him.  Nothing  that 
I  can  say  or  do,  can  sufficiently  express  my  gratitude  tor  his  parental  kindness 
to  me,  or  the  exalted  opinion  I  have  of  his  wisdom  and  virtue.  It  was  a  melan- 
choly house.  My  father  and  mother  were  seized  at  the  same  time  with  the 
violent  fever,  a  kind  of  influenza  or  an  epidemic,  which  carried  off  seventeen 
aged  people  in  our  neighborhood.  My  mother  remained  ill  in  bed  at  my  father's 
funeral ;  but,  being  younger  than  my  father,  and  possessed  of  a  stronger  consti- 
tution, she  happily  recovered,  and  lived,  to  my  inexpressible  comfort,  till  the 
year  1797,  when  she  died  at  almost  ninety  years  of  age.] 


.Et.  2a.]  DIARY.  129 

commissioned,  sworn,  and  has  this  day  undertaken  to  officiate. 
Now,  a  new  train  of  anxieties  begins  to  take  place.  Fears  of 
imperfect  services,  imperfect  and  false  returns,  voluntary  and 
negligent  escapes,  miscalculations,  want  of  strength,  courage, 
celerity,  want  of  art  and  contrivance,  &c. ;  rashness,  indolence, 
timidity,  &c* 

The  project  was  so  well  planned,  that  success  seemed  certain ; 
all  the  justices  recommended;  two  other  gentlemen  of  his  ac- 
quaintance, men  of  honor  and  figure,  also  concurred  and  urged, 
and  dropped  hints,  if  not  anecdotes,  vs.  the  old  one.  Hints  were 
dropped,  to  him  by  others  that  I  should  employ  constables,  and 
so  deprive  him  of  his  profits ;  —  so  that  his  interest,  his  vanity, 
his  honor,  were  all  touched. 

It  cost  me  much  pains,  —  at  least  two  journeys  to  Boston, 
one  to  Mr.  Niles's,  one  to  Germantown,  one  to  Mr.  Bullard's 
and  Major  Crosby's  ;  the  writing  of  a  long  bond ;  the  solicitation 
of  credentials,  of  sureties,  and  of  the  office ;  mere  solicitation 
procured  it  and  although  it  was  not  much  disguised  or  con- 
cealed, yet  it  was  so  silently  conducted,  that  I  believe  the  adver- 
sary never  once  suspected  it.  All  the  wiles  and  malice  of  the 
old  serpent  would  have  been  employed  against  it,  if  it  had  been 
known  or  suspected.  But  there  was  one  particular,  of  mere 
luck,  to  which  we  were  much  indebted ;  namely,  the  complaint 
of  Cudworth  against  T.; — that  unfriendly,  unbrotherly,  unneigh- 
borly,  as  well  as  rash  and  unmannerly  spurning  of  the  execution, 
and  then  sending  it  to  Gould,  where  it  was  lost,  gave  the  great 
man  an  ill  opinion  of  his  sub.,  and  made  him  more  willing  and 
ready,  at  my  solicitation,  to  constitute,  another,  and  even  without 
consulting  T. 


20.  Saturday.  I  have  latterly  arisen  much  earlier  than  usual ; 
arose  at  five  and  at  six  o'clock,  instead  of  eight  and  nine.  The 
mornings  are  very  long,  and  fine  opportunities  for  study ;  they 

*  [In  pursuance  of  my  plan  of  reforming  the  practice  of  sheriffs  and  petti- 
foggers in  the  country,  I  procured  of  all  the  justices  in  Braintree,  —  John 
Quincy,  Edmund  Quincy,  Josiah  Quincy,  and  Joseph  Crosby,  —  a  recommen- 
dation of  my  brother  to  Stephen  Greenleaf,  sheriff  of  the  county,  and  a  certificate 
of  his  character ;  upon  receiving  which,  Mr.  Greenleaf  readilv  gave  him  a 
deputation.  He  was  young,  loved  riding,  and  discharged  his  duties  with  skill 
and  fidelity ;  but  his  disposition  was  so  tender,  that  he  often  assisted  his  debtors 
with  his  own  purse  and  credit,  and  upon  the  whole,  to  say  the  least,  was  nothing 
the  richer  for  his  office.] 


130  DIARY.  [1761. 

are  cool  and  pleasant.  But  I  have  not  improved  my  time 
properly.  I  have  dosed  and  sauntered  away  much  of  my  time. 
This  morning  is  very  fine  ;  the  clear  sky,  the  bright  sun,  the 
clean  groves  and  grass,  after  so  fine  a  rain,  are  very  pleasant. 
But  the  books  within  this  chamber  have  a  much  better  title  to 
my  attention  than  any  of  the  rural  scenes  and  objects  without 
it.  I  have  been  latterly  too  much  in  the  world,  and  too  little  in 
this  retreat.  Abroad,  my  appetites  are  solicited,  my  passions 
inflamed,  and  my  understanding  too  much  perverted,  to  judge 
wisely  of  men  or  things ;  but  in  this  retreat,  when  neither  my 
senses,  nor  appetites,  nor  passions  are  excited,  I  am  able  to 
consider  all  things  more  coolly  and  sensibly.  I  was  guilty  of 
rash  and  profane  swearing,  of  rash  virulence  against  the  charac- 


ters of  GofTe,  J.  Russell,  lieutenant-governor,  &c.     Not  but  that 
there  have  been  faults  in  their  characters  and  conduct  that  every 


honest  man  ought  to  resent. 


I  have  been  interrupted  from  reading  this  Institute,  ever  since 
February.  Amidst  the  dissipations  of  business,  pleasure,  con- 
versation, intrigue,  party,  &c,  what  mortal  can  give  attention  to 
an  old  Latin  Institute  of  the  canon  law?  But  it  is  certainly 
worth  while  to  proceed  and  finish  it,  as  I  have  already  been  two 
thirds  through  it. 

August  1.  Saturday.  I  am  creating  enemies  in  eveiy  quarter 
of  the  town.  The  Clarks  hate  ;  —  Mother  Hubbard,  Thayer, 
Lamb,  Tirrell,  J.  Brackett.  This  is  multiplying  and  propagat- 
ing enemies  fast.     I  shall  have  the  ill  will  of  the  whole  town. 

Daniel  White.     Moses  Adams.     This  will  not  do. 

Daniel  Pratt  vs.  Thomas  Colson.  This  action  was  brought 
by  plaintiff  against  Colson  as  administrator  on  the  estate  of 
Mr.  Bolter,  for  non-performance  of  a  covenant  of  indenture. 
Pratt  was  a  poor  fatherless  child,  and  his  mother,  unable  to 
provide  for  him,  bound  him  an  apprentice  to  Mr.  Bolter.  He 
was  then  under  ten  years  of  age,  and  so  was  bound  for  eleven 
years  and  some  odd  months.  In  consideration  of  this  very  long 
and  unusual  term  of  apprenticeship,  his  master  covenanted  to 
teach  him  to  read,  write,  and  cipher,  and  to  teach  him  the  trade 
of  a  weaver.  But  we  complain  that  he  never  taught  us  either  to 
read,  write,  or  cipher,  or  to  weave.     Call  the  proof. 


jEt.  25.]  DIARY.  131 

The  law,  gentlemen,  is  extremely  tender  and  indulgent  to  such 
actions  as  these.  For  such  is  the  benignity  and  humanity  of 
the  English  constitution,  that  all  the  weak  and  helpless  and 
friendless  part  of  our  species  are  taken  under  its  peculiar  care 
and  protection  —  women,  children,  and  especially  widows  and 
fatherless  children.  And  they  have  always,  from  the  compassion 
of  the  law,  peculiar  privileges  and  indulgences  allowed  them. 
Therefore,  as  a  poor,  fatherless,  and  friendless  child,  the  law 
would  allow  great  indulgence  and  lenity  to  this  plaintiff.  But 
he  is  to  be  favored  for  another  reason ;  because  the  English  law 
greatly  favors  education.  In  every  English  country,  some  sort 
of  education,  some  acquaintance  with  letters  is  necessary,  that 
a  man  may  fill  any  station  whatever.  In  the  countries  of 
slavery  and  Romish  superstition,  the  laity  must  not  learn  to 
read,  lest  they  should  detect  the  gross  impostures  of  the  priest- 
hood, and  shake  off  the  yoke  of  bondage.  But  in  Protestant 
countries,  and  especially  in  England  and  its  colonies,  freedom 
of  inquiry  is  allowed  to  be  not  only  the  privilege,  but  the  duty 
of  every  individual.  We  know  it  to  be  our  duty  to  read, 
examine,  and  judge  for  ourselves,  even  of  ourselves,  what  is 
right.  No  priest  nor  pope  has  any  right  to  say  what  I  shall 
believe,  and  I  will  not  believe  one  word  they  say,  if  I  think  it  is 
not  founded  in  reason  and  in  revelation.  Now,  how  can  I  judge 
what  my  Bible  justifies  unless  I  can  read  my  Bible  ? 

The  English  constitution  is  founded,  'tis  bottomed  and 
grounded,  on  the  knowledge  and  good  sense  of  the  people. 
The  very  ground  of  our  liberties  is  the  freedom  of  elections. 
Every  man  has  in  politics  as  well  as  religion,  a  right  to  think 
and  speak  and  act  for  himself.  No  man,  either  king  or  subject, 
clergyman  or  layman,  has  any  right  to  dictate  to  me  the  person 
I  shall  choose  for  my  legislator  and  ruler.  I  must  judge  for 
myself.  But  how  can  I  judge,  how  can  any  man  judge,  unless 
his  mind  has  been  opened  and  enlarged  by  reading  ?  A  man 
who  can  read  will  find  in  his  Bible,  in  his  common  sermon 
books  that  common  people  have  by  them,  and  even  in  the 
almanac,  and  the  newspapers,  rules  and  observations  that  will  en- 
large his  range  of  thought,  and  enable  him  the  better  to  judge 
who  has,  and  who  has  not  that  integrity  of  heart  and  that  com- 
pass of  knowledge  and  understanding  which  forms  the  states- 
man. 


L32  DIARY.  [1781. 

September  10.  Thursday.  Spent  the  evening  at  Zab's  with 
the  Parson. 

Wibird.  "  I  have  seen  a  picture  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  with 
this  motto  under  it : 

'  Careat  successibus  opto,1 
Quisquis  ab  eventu  facta  notanda  putat.' 

'  I  pray  that  he  may  want  success  who  thinks  that  deeds  are  to 
be  estimated  from  their  event,  their  success.'  Oliver  was  suc- 
cessful, but  not  prudent  nor  honest,  nor  laudable,  nor  imitable." 

October  17.  Saturday.  Read  in  Institute  and  Lancelott. 
Began  Lancelott's  Institute  last  January,  and  have  read  no 
further  than  lib.  3,  tit.  8,  De  Exceptionibus  et  Replicationibus. 

October  18.  Sunday.  Arose  at  six.  Read  in  Pope's  Satires. 
Nil  Admirari,  &c.  I  last  night  read  through  both  of  Dr. 
Donne's  Satires  versified  by  Pope.  Was  most  struck  with 
these  lines : 

"<Bear  me,  some  god  !     Oh  !  quickly  bear  me  hence, 
To  wholesome  solitude,  the  nurse  of  sense, 
Where  contemplation  prunes  her  ruffled  wings, 
And  the  free  soul  looks  down  to  pity  kings." 

"  Prayer."  A  posture ;  hands  uplifted,  and  eyes.  A  very  proper 
prayer  for  me  to  make  when  I  am  in  Boston.  "  Solitude  "  is  a 
personage  in  a  clean,  wholesome  dress,  the  "  nurse "  and  nour- 
isher  of  sense.  "  Contemplation,"  a  personage.  "  Prunes,"  picks, 
smooths.  Is  she  an  angel  or  a  bird  ?  —  "  ruffled,"  rumpled,  rug- 
ged, uneven,  tumbled ; —  "free  soul,"  not  enslaved,  unshackled, 
no  bondage,  no  subjection ;  "  looks  down,"  pities  George,  Louis, 
Frederick,  Philip,  Charles,  &c. 

November  10.  Tuesday.  2  Another  year  is  come  round,  and  I 
can  recollect  still  less  reading  than  I  could  last  November  ;  the 
increase  of  my  business  within  twelve  months  has  been  nothing; 
I  drew  fewer  writs  last  October  court  than  I  drew  the  October 
court  before,  though  I  drew  an  uncommon  number  at  both. 
Yet  I  have  advanced  a  few  steps ;  have  procured  my  brother 
his  office,  abated  Nathan  Spear's  writ,  battled  it  with  Captain 

1  Ovid's  Heroids  —  Phyllis  to  Demophoon.  1.  85. 

2  In  the  original  is  the  following  direction  :  "  Turn  back  five  leaves."  The 
entry  is  made  in  the  paper  book  which  begins  with  the  letter  to  Jonathan 
Sewall,  and  the  reference  is  to  the  record  of  14th  November.  X  7G0,  p,  100. 


.Et.  26.]  DIARY.  133 

Thayer  at  Major  Crosby's,  recovered  of  Jo.  Tirrell  for  Lambard, 
recovered  of  Lawrence  for  Tirrell,  abated  King's  writ,  conducted 
the.  petition  against  taverners.  All  these  things  have  been  done 
in  one  year.  Besides,  have  bought  some  books  &c,  but  have 
read  but  little  law. 

This  morning  I  have  been  reading  Archbishop  Sharp's  Ser- 
mon;— "To  the  upright  there  ariseth  light  in  the  darkness;"  his 
character  of  the  upright  man,  &c.  Same  day,  read  a  number 
of  his  sermons  in  his  first  volume.  He  is  a  moving,  affectionate 
preacher ;  devotional,  more  than  Tillotson,  but  not  so  moral. 

14.  Saturday.  Brother  Quincy  and  I  were  sworn  before  the 
Superior  Court.  It  is  now  more  than  five  years  since  I  began 
the  study  of  the  law ;  and  it  is  about  three  years  since  I  was 
sworn  at  the  Inferior  Court.* 

30.  Monday.  This  day  removed  to  my  chamber  and  made  a 
fire ;  the  forenoon  was  spent  in  conversation  with  Zab,  in  walk- 
ing to  Doctor  Turner's  and  up  Penn's  hill,  and  this  afternoon 
in  conversation  with  Grindal  Rawson  and  Zab  at  Mrs.  Marsh's. 
Yet  I  have  caught  several  snatches  of  reading  and  thinking  in 
Blackstone,  Gilbert,  &c.  But  I,  as  usual,  expect  great  things 
from  this  chamber,  and  this  winter.1 

1  At  this  place  it  seems  proper  to  introduce  the  following  note  on  account  of 
its  characteristic  postscript.  It  is  the  first  occasion  upon  which  any  allusion 
occurs  to  the  person  who  afterwards  became  Mrs.  Adams.  The  note  is  directed 
to  "Miss  Polly  Smith  in  Weymouth,"  and  is  written  by  Richard  Cranch,  to 
whom,  in  the  November  following,  she  was  married. 

Germantown,  30  December,  1761. 
Dear  Miss  Polly, — 

I  was  at  Boston  yesterday,  and  saw  your  brother  who  was  well.  I  have  but 
a  moment's  notice  of  an  opportunity  of  sending  to  you  the  inclosed,  which  I  took 
at  your  Uncle  Edward's. 

I  am,  with  compliments  to  your  family,  your  affectionate  humble  servant, 

R.  Ckancii. 
Dear  Ditto, — 

Here  we  are,  Dick  and  Jack,  as  happy  as  the  wickedness  and  folly  of  this 
world  will  allow  philosophers  to  be  ;  our  good  wishes  are  poured  forth  for  the 
felicity  of  you,  your  family  and  neighbors.  My  —  I  don't  know  what  —  to  Mrs. 
Nabby ;  tell  her  I  hear  she  's  about  commencing  a  most  loyal  subject  to  young 
George  ;  and  although  my  allegiance  has  been  hitherto  inviolate,  I  shall  endea- 
vor all  in  my  power  to  foment  rebellion.  J.  Adams. 

[*  About  this  time  the  project  was  conceived,  I  suppose  by  the  Chief  Justice, 
Mr.  Hutchinson,  of  clothing  the  judges  and  lawyers  with  robes.  Mr.  Quincy 
and  I  were  directed  to  prepare  our  gowns  and  bands,  and  tie  wigs,  and  were 
admitted  barristers,  having  practised  three  years  at  the  inferior  courts,  according 
to  one  of  our  new  roles. J 

VOL.    II.  12 


134  DIARY.  [1762 

1762.  June  5.  Saturday.  Rode  from  Bass's  to  Secretary 
Oliver's  in  company  with  Judge  Oliver.1  The  Judge  soon 
opened  upon  politics.  Says  he,  "  Major  Stockbridge  informs 
me  that  Colonel  Ruggles  makes  a  very  good  Speaker.  He  has 
behaved  to  universal  approbation." 

Soon  afterwards  the  Judge  said,  "  I  never  knew  so  easy  an 
election  in  my  life.  Some  of  the  bar  interest  themselves  very 
much  in  the  matter.  One  gentleman  has  interested  himself 
most  infamously ;  advanced  that  to  be  law  in  the  House,  which  is 
not  law.  That  the  judges  cannot  sit  in  the  House  of  Commons 
is  certain,  because  there  is  an  act  of  Parliament  against  it,  but 
the  judges  may  sit  and  vote  in  the  House  of  Lords,  that  is,  they 
may  if  they  are  peers.  Lord  Mansfield — think  he  don't  sit  and 
vote. 

How  can  the  bar  expect  protection  from  the  court,  if  the  bar 
endeavors  to  bring  the  court  into  contempt  ?  He  is  forever 
abusing  the  court.  He  said,  not  long  since  in  the  representa- 
tive's room,  that '  take  all  the  superior  judges  and  every  inferior 
judge  in  the  Province,  and  put  them  all  together,  and  they 
would  not  make  one  half  of  a  common  lawyer.'  I  said  upon 
this,  { that  was  a  distracted  speech.  It  is  a  pity  that  gentleman 
was  not  better  guided ;  he  has  many  fine  talents.'  The  judge 
replied  quick,  '  I  have  known  him  these  twenty  years,  and  I 
have  no  opinion  of  his  head  or  his  heart.  If  Bedlamism  is  a 
talent,  he  has  it  in  perfection.' 

He  will  one  time  say  of  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  that  he 
had  rather  have  him,  than  any  man  he  knows,  in  any  one  office ; 
and  the  next  hour  will  represent  him  as  the  greatest  tyrant  and 
most  despicable  creature  living. 

I  have  treated  him  with  as  much  friendship  as  ever  I  did  a 
stranger  in  my  life,  and  he  knows  very  well  how  he  has  treated 
me.  I  blush  even  to  think  of  what  he  has  said  to  me.  I  have 
him  in  the  utmost  contempt.     I  have  the  utmost  contempt  of 

1  Peter  Oliver,  afterwards  Chief  Justice  of  Massachusetts.  Dr.  Eliot  savs 
of  him  "that  when  raised  to  the  supreme  bench,  his  was  a  very  popular  appoint- 
ment, though  he  had  not  that  knowledge  of  the  law  which  others  had  who  were 
of  (lie  profession,  and  looked  up  to  the  place."  His  political  sentiments  are 
visible  enough  in  the  conversation  here  reported.  Like  so  many  others  of  those 
mentioned  in  the  early  portion  of  this  diary,  he  became  a  refugee  and  an  exile 
and  died  in  England,  in  1791. 


V 


JEr.  26.]  DIARY.  135 

him.  I  had  as  lief  say  it  to  him  as  not.  I  have  the  utmost 
contempt  of  him. 

I  have  been  twelve  years  concerned  in  the  executive  courts, 
and  I  never  knew  so  much  ill  usage  given  to  the  court  by  all 
the  lawyers  in  the  province,  put  it  all  together  for  all  that  time, 
as  I  have  known  him  give  in  one  term. 

The  origin  of  all  his  bustle  is  very  well  known.     I  heard  a 

gentleman  say  he  would  give  his  oath,  that  Otis  said  to  him,  if 

his  father  was  not  made  a  judge  he  would  throw  the  Province 

into  flames  if  it  cost  him  his  life.1     For  that  one  speech,  a  thou- 

_sand  other  persons  would  have  been  indicted." 

8.  Tuesday.  Went  to  Taunton  court  —  to  the  land  of  Leon- 
ards ; — three  judges  of  the  common  pleas  of  that  name,  each 
of  whom  has  a  son  who  was  bred  at  a  college.  The  Honorable 
George  Leonard,  the  first  Justice,  seems  to  me  arbitrary ;  he 
committed  two  old  gentlemen  who  were  near  eighty  years  old 
to  the  custody  of  an  officer,  only  for  speaking  loud,  when  they 
were  both  deaf,  and  not  conscious  that  they  did  speak  loud.  A 
check,  a  reproof,  an  admonition,  would  have  been  enough. 

He  was  unwilling  that  the  Sessions  should  adjourn  for  an 
hour  to  take  the  verdict  of  the  jury  in  a  trial  upon  a  presentment 
of  a  riot,  but  would  have  had  that  jury  kept  together  all  night, 
till  the  court  should  sit  again  next  morning.  No  other  court  in 
the  Province,  superior  and  inferior,  would  have  thought  of  keep- 
ing the  jury  up. 

He  broke  in  most  abruptly  upon  Bob  Paine,  '  He  did  not 
think  it  was  right  to  run  out  against  the  king's  witnesses.  For 
his  part,  he  did  not  love  to  hear  it,'  three  or  four  times  over,  &c. 
Thus  the  haughty  tyrant  treats  the  county. 

I  lodged  the  first  night  at  Crosman's,  the  second  at  Major 
Leonard's  of  Rainham,  and  the  third  at  Captain  Cobb's  with 
Paine.  I  dined  the  first  day  I  was  there,  Wednesday,  at  Captain 
Cobb's  with  Colonel  Otis  and  Paine,  and  the  second  at  Colonel 

1  This  was  the  favorite  charge  made  by  the  government  partisans  against  the 
younger  Otis.  It  is  of  course  repeated  by  Hutchinson,  and  it  has  found  its  way 
even  into  the  moderate  pages  of  Gordon  and  of  Eliot.  The  subject  is  well 
treated  in  the  Biography  by  Tudor,  page  55.  That  Otis  was  impulsive,  and 
not  uniform  or  steady  in  advocating  his  principles,  must  be  admitted.  But 
nobody  can  think  of  the  fiery  furnace  through  which  he  was  compelled  to  pass, 
without  comprehending  the  extent  of  his  mental  trials,  and  appreciating  the 
heroism  with  which  they  were  endured. 


136  DIARY.  [1762. 

White's.  Drank  tea  once  at  Colonel  White's  with  the  three 
young  Leonards,  George,  Zeph.,  and  Daniel,  and  I  spent  two 
evenings  at  Cobb's  with  Colonel  Otis  and  Paine;  and  I  rode  from 
Taunton  to  Milton  with  Colonel  Otis.1  He  is  vastly  easy  and 
steady  in  his  temper;  he  is  vastly  good-humored  and  sociable  and 
sensible ;  learned  he  is  not,  but  he  is  an  easy,  familiar  speaker. 
He  gave  me  many  anecdotes,  both  of  his  law  and  politics. 

August  15.  Sunday.  Reading,  thinking,  writing  —  have  I 
totally  renounced  all  three  ? 

"  Tempora  mutantur  et  nos  mutamur  in  illis." 

October  22.  Friday.  Spent  last  Monday  in  taking  pleasure 
with  Mr.  Wibird.  Met  him  in  the  morning  at  Mr.  Borland's, 
rode  with  him  to  Squantum,  to  the  very  lowest  point  of  the 
peninsula  ;  next  to  Thompson's  Island,  to  the  high  steep  rock, 
from  whence  the  squaw  threw  herself  who  gave  the  name  to  the 
place.  It  is  an  hideous,  craggy  precipice,  nodding  over  the 
ocean,  forty  feet  in  height ;  the  rocks  seem  to  be  a  vast  collection 
of  pebbles  as  big  as  hens'  eggs  thrown  into  melted  cement  and 
cooled  in.  You  may  pull  them  to  pieces  with  your  fingers  as 
fast  as  you  please.  Various  have  been  the  conjectures  of  the 
learned  concerning  this  sort  of  rocks.  Upon  this  part  of  the 
peninsula  is  a  number  of  trees  which  appear  very  much  like  the 
lime  tree2  of  Europe,  which  gentlemen  are  so  fond  of  planting  in 
their  gardens  for  their  beauty.  Returned  to  Mr.  Borland's,3  dined, 
and  afternoon  rode  to  Germantown,  where  we  spent  our  evening. 
Deacon  Palmer4  showed  us  his  lucern  growing  in  his  garden,  of 
which  he  has  cut,  as  he  tells  us,  four  crops  this  year.    The  Deacon 

*  James  Otis,  the  elder. 

2  The  American  nettle  tree.  One  of  these  is  still  to  be  seen  growing  out  of 
the  top  of  the  rock  at  this  place. 

3  This  is  the  mansion  afterwards  purchased  by  the  writer,  in  which  he  lived 
from  the  date  of  his  last  return  from  Europe  until  his  death,  in  1826. 

4  A  secluded  and  beautiful  spot  almost  surrounded  by  water,  in  which  Deacon, 
afterwards  called  General  Palmer,  well  known  at  this  time,  as  well  as  subse- 
quently, as  a  member  of  the  Committee  of  Safety  in  the  Revolution,  had  estab- 
lished himself  among  a  colony  of  glassblowers  from  Germany,  come  to  undertake 
the  manufacture  of  that  article  in  America.  Hence  the  name,  (Germantown,) 
which  has  remained  whilst  the  persons  have  either  removed  or  been  merged 
in  the  general  population.  A  pretty  full  and  interesting  account  of  the  life  and 
singular  misfortunes  of  General  Palmer,  the  materials  for  which  were  furnished 
by  his  great  grandson,  Mr.  C.  J.  Palmer,  is  found  in  the  New  Englander  for 
January,  1845. 


JEv.  26.]  DIARY.  I37 

had  his  lucern  seeds  of  Mr.  Greenleaf  of  Abington,  who  had  his 
of  Judge  Oliver.  The  Deacon  watered  his  but  twice  this  sum- 
mer, and  intends  to  expose  it  uncovered  to  all  the  weather  of  the 
winter  for  a  fair  trial,  whether  it  will  endure  our  winters  or  not. 
Each  of  his  four  crops  had  attained  a  good  length.  It  has  a 
rich  fragrance  for  a  grass.  He  showed  us  a  cut  of  it  in  "  Nature 
Displayed,"  and  another  of  St.  Foin,  and  another  of  trefoil. 
The  cut  of  the  lucern  was  exact  enough;  the  pod  in  which  the 
seeds  are  is  an  odd  thing,  a  kind  of  ram's-horn  or  straw. 

We  had  a  good  deal  of  conversation  upon  husbandry.  The 
Deacon  has  about  seventy  bushels  of  potatoes  this  year  on  about 
one  quarter  of  an  acre  of  ground.  Trees  of  several  sorts  con- 
sidered. The  wild  cherry  tree  bears  a  fruit  of  some  value ;  the 
wood  is  very  good  for  the  cabinet  maker,  and  is  not  bad  to  burn. 
It  is  a  tree  of  much  beauty  ;  its  leaves  and  bark  are  handsome, 
and  its  shape.  The  locust ;  good  timber,  fattening  to  soil  by  its 
leaves,  blossoms,  &c. ;  good  wood,  quick  growth,  &c.  The 
larch  tree ;  there  is  but  one  r  in  the  country,  that  in  the  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor's yard  at  Milton ;  it  looks  somewhat  like  an 
evergreen,  but  is  not ;  sheds  its  leaves. 

I  read  in  Thompson's  Travels  in  Turkey  in  Asia,  mention  of  | 
a  turpentine  called  by  the  name  of  the  turpentine  of  Venice,^ 
which  is  not  the  produce  of  Venice,  but  of  Dauphine,  and  flows 
from  the  larch  tree.     It  is  thick  and  balsamic,  and  used  in  several 
arts,  particularly  that  of  enamelling. 

24.  Sunday.  Before  sunrise.  My  thoughts  have  taken  a  sud- 
den turn  to  husbandry.  Have  contracted  with  Jo.  Field  to  clear 
my  swamp,  and  to  build  me  a  long  string  of  stone  wall,  and  with 
Isaac  to  build  me  sixteen  rods  more,  and  with  Jo.  Field  to  build 
me  six  rods  more.  And  my  thoughts  are  running  continually 
from  the  orchard  to  the  pasture,  and  from  thence  to  the  swamp, 
and  thence  to  the  house  and  barn  and  land  adjoining.  Some- 
times I  am  at  the  orchard  ploughing  up  acre  after  acre,  planting, 
pruning  apple-trees,  mending  fences,  carting  dung ;  sometimes 
in  the  pasture,  digging  stones,  clearing  bushes,  pruning  trees, 
building  wall  to  redeem  posts  and  rails  ;  and  sometimes  remov- 
ing button  trees  down  to  my  house ;  sometimes  I  am  at  the  old 
swamp,  burning  bushes,  digging  stumps  and  roots,  cutting  ditches 

1  This  tree  still  remains  in  fine  condition  on  Milton  hill. 
12  * 


138  DIARY.  [1762. 

across  the  meadows  and  against  my  uncle ;  and  am  sometimes 
at  the  other  end  of  the  town  buying  posts  and  rails  to  fence 
against  my  uncle,  and  against  the  brook ;  and  am  sometimes 
ploughing  the  upland  with  six  yoke  of  oxen,  and  planting  corn, 
potatoes,  &c,  and  digging  up  the  meadows  and  sowing  onions, 
planting  cabbages,  &c.  &c.  Sometimes  I  am  at  the  homestead, 
running  cross  fences,  and  planting  potatoes  by  the  acre,  and  corn 
by  the  two  acres,  and  running  a  ditch  along  the  line  between 
me  and  Field,  and  a  fence  along  the  brook  against  my  brother, 
and  another  ditch  in  the  middle  from  Field's  line  to  the  mead- 
ows. Sometimes  am  carting  gravel  from  the  neighboring  hills, 
and  sometimes  dust  from  the  streets  upon  the  fresh .  meadows, 
and  am  sometimes  ploughing,  sometimes  digging  those  meadows 
to  introduce  clover  and  other  English  grasses. 

November  5.  Friday.  The  cause  of  Jeffries,  town  treasurer  of 
Boston,  and  Sewall,  and  Edwards,  and  several  others;  —  being 
suits  for  the  penalties  arising  by  the  law  of  the  Province,  for 
building  and  covering  their  buildings  not  with  slate  nor  tile,  but 
with  shingles. 

Mr.  Gridley  made  a  motion  that  those  actions  should  be 
dismissed,  because  the  judges  were  all  interested  in  the  event 
of  them.  Two  of  the  judges,  to  wit,  Wells  and  Foster  Hutch- 
inson, being  inhabitants  of  Boston,  and  the  other  two,  to  wit, 
Eliakim  Hutchinson  and  Watts,  having  real  estates  in  that 
town,  to  the  poor  of  which  those  penalties  are  appropriated. 
After  a  long  wrangle,  as  usual  when  Trowbridge  is  in  a  case, 
the  court  determined  to  continue  the  action,  that  application 
might  be  made  to  the  Governor  and  council  for  special  judges. 
Wells  and  Foster  declining  to  sit,  and  Watts  too. 

The  case  of  a  witness  was  mentioned  in  the  argument  A 
witness  cannot  depose,  when  he  is  interested ;  a  juryman  may 
be  challenged  who  is  interested. 

But  persons  belonging  to  corporations  are  allowed,  for  the 
necessity,  to  testify  in  cases  where  those  corporations  are  inter- 
ested ;  and  jurymen  and  judges,  belonging  to  this  Province,  sat 
in  the  case  of  Gray  and  Paxton,  though  interested,  for  the  neces- 
sity. 

This  motion,  Mr.  G.  said,  could  not  be  reduced  to  a  written 
plea.  He  could  not  plead  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court,  The 
court  of  common  pleas  had  undoubted  jurisdiction  of  the  cause ; 


Mr.  27.]  DIARY.  J;J9 


I 


but  the  judges  could  not  sit,  because  interested.  Their  honors 
were  not  the  court  of  common  pleas,  but  the  justices  of  the  court 
of  common  pleas.  The  court  of  common  pleas  was  a  body 
politic,  an  invisible  system,  a  frame  in  the  mind,  a  fiction  of  the 
law.  The  president  and  fellows  of  Harvard  College,  are  not 
Harvard  College. 

The  case  in  Strange  was  produced,  in  which  Lord  Raymond 
went  off  the  bench ;  the  parish  of  Abbots  Langley,  in  which  his 
lordship  lived,  being  interested  ;  an  order  of  two  justices  for  the 
removal  of  a  pauper  confined  by  the  Sessions,  was  carried  to 
King's  Bench  by  certiorari. 

Authorities  from  Hobart's  and  Coke's  reports  were  produced, 
to  show  the  tenderness  of  the  law  for  this  maxim,  —  that  a  man 
shall  not  be  judge  in  his  own  cause,  and  that  an  act  of  Parlia- 
ment against  natural  equity,  as  that  a  man  should  be  judge  in 
his  own  cause,  would  be  void. 

Mem.  After  the  court  had  given  judgment,  Mr.  Gridley  moved 
for  a  minute  of  the  reasons  of  the  judgment.  Wells  said  the 
court  were  not  accountable  to  the  bar  for  their  reasons.  But 
Otis  said,  the  courts  at  home  never  refused  their  reasons  for  any 
judgment,  when  the  bar  requested  them;  because,  if  the  bar 
are  left  ignorant  of  the  reasons  the  court  go  upon,  they  will  not 
know  how  to  advise  and  direct  their  clients.  And,  after  some 
debate,  the  clerk  was  ordered  to  minute  the  reason  for  the  con- 
tinuance ;  which  was,  that  three  of  the  judges  apprehended 
themselves  interested,  and  so  not  a  court  competent  to  try  the 
cause. 

G contended  that,  if  the  court  should  continue  the  causes, 

they  could  not  refuse  sitting  on  the  trial,  because  an  imparlance 
was  a  judicial  act,  and  so  an  assumption  of  jurisdiction.  Foster 
Hutchinson  said,  that  dismissing  the  actions  would  be  a  judicial 
act,  as  much  as  continuing. 

Q.  The  humanity,  the  utility,  the  policy,  the  piety  of  the  san- 
guinary laws  against  robbery  and  stealing. 

Boston.  December  30.  Thursday.  At  Goldthwait's  '  office 
spent  one  quarter  of  an  hour  with  Lieutenant-Governor  Hutch- 

1  Ezekiel  Goldthwait  was  the  register  of  deeds  for  the  county  of  Suffolk. 
Although  at  first  inclining  to  the  opposition,  his  reverence  for  Hutchinson 
carried  the  day  in  the  end.  His  name  appears  attached  to  the  servile  address 
presented  to  that  officer  on  his  final  departure,  in  1774. 


140  DIARY.  [1762. 

inson.  The  first  thing  he  said,  was  a  question  to  Goldthwait, — 
what  was  the  date  of  the  earliest  records  of  the  county  court  ? 
Goldthwait  answered  1670.  His  Honor  replied,  there  were 
county  courts  for  forty  years  before  that ;  and  said,  he  wanted  to 
settle  something  in  his  own  mind  concerning  the  origin  and  con- 
stitution of  the  courts ;  that  adultery  was  punished  with  death 
by  the  first  settlers,  and  many  other  offences  were  made  capital, 
that  are  not  now  so ;  that  commissioners  were  sent  over  by  King 
Charles,  in  1665,  to  inquire  into  the  constitution  of  the  Colonies, 
though  their  authority  was  not  owned.  Goldthwait  said,  there 
were  a  great  many  odd  entries ;  one  of  a  prosecution  of  a  man 
for  taking  sixpence  for  an  horse,  (a  Braintree  man  too,)  as 
unjust  and  unrighteous.  His  Honor  told  of  a  record  of  a  woman 
condemned  for  adultery,  because  a  man  had  debauched  her  when 
she  was  drunk ;  and  of  another,  of  a  boy  imprisoned  for  a  capital 
trial  for  some  of  their  trifling  capital  crimes  —  stealing  from  his 
master  or  something  —  which  boy  was  liberated  by  the  commis- 
sioners of  1665.  The  story  of  Pratt's  death  was  told.  His 
Honor  said  it  would  be  a  loss  to  his  family ;  he  was  in  a  fair 
way  to  have  raised  it.  But  the  New  Yorkers  will  be  glad  of  it. 
This,  to  be  sure,  was  familiarity  and  affability !  But  Gold- 
thwait cringed  down,  and  put  on  the  timid,  fawning  face  and 
air  and  tone. 

1763.  Braintree.  February  1.  Tuesday.  Last  Thursday 
afternoon,  rode  to  Germantown  and  there  stayed  at  my  friend 
Cranch's  till  the  last  night,  —  four  nights  and  four  days.  Those 
two  families l  well  deserve  the  character  they  hold,  of  friendly, 
sensible,  and  social.  The  men,  women,  and  children,  are  all 
sensible  and  obliging. 

Mem.  The  anecdote  of  Mr.  Erving.  He  has  prophesied  so 
long,  and  with  so  much  confidence,  that  Canada  would  be 
restored  to  the  French,  that,  because  he  begins  to  see  his  predic- 
tion will  not  be  fulfilled,  he  is  now  straining  his  invention  for 
reasons  why  we  ought  not  to  hold  it.  He  says,  the  restoration 
of  that  province  can  alone  prevent  our  becoming  luxurious, 
effeminate,  inattentive  to  any  danger,  and  so  an  easy  prey  to  an 

1  The  two  families  referred  to,  were  thoft  of  General  Palmer  and  of  Judge 
Cranch,  whose  sister  the  former  had  married.  They  had  emigrated  from  England 
together,  in  1 746.  Judge  Cranch  was  just  married  to  one  of  the  daughters  of  the 
Rev.  W.  Smith,  of  Weymouth. 


,Er.   27.]  DIARY.  J4L 

invader.  He  was  so  soundly  bantered  the  other  day  in  the 
council  chamber,  that  he  snatched  his  hat  and  cloak,  and  went 
off  in  a  passion. 

Mem.  The  other,  of  a  piece,  sent  to  Fleet  to  be  printed, 
upon  the  unfitness  of  Mr.  Mauduit  to  represent  this  Province  at 
the  British  court,  both  in  point  of  age  and  knowledge.  He  is, 
as  that  writer  says,  seventy  years  old;  an  honest  man,  but 
avaricious ;  a  woollen  draper,  a  mere  cit ;  so  ignorant  of  Court 
and  public  business,  that  he  knew  not  where  the  public  offices 
were,  and  that  he  told  Mr.  Bollan  that  he  was  agent  for  New 
England.  He  says  that  all  the  other  agents  laugh  at  this  Pro- 
vince for  employing  him,  and  that  all  persons  on  that  side  of 
the  water  are  surprised  at  us.  That  the  "  Considerations  on  the 
present  German  War,"  were  written  by  a  person  unknown,  who 
hired  or  persuaded  Mr.  Mauduit  to  father  it.1 

Books,  —  we  read  five  sermons  in  Dr.  Sherlock,  and  several 
chapters  in  the  Inquiry  into  the  Origin  of  our  Ideas  of  the  Sub- 
lime and  the  Beautiful.  The  chapter  upon  sympathy  they  all 
disapprove.  The  author  says,  —  we  have  a  real  pleasure  in  the 
distresses  and  misfortunes  of  others.  Mem.  To  write  a  letter 
to  Sewall,  or  Quincy,  or  Lowell,  on  the  subject  of  that  chap- 
ter. I  employed,  however,  too  little  of  my  time  in  reading 
and  in.  thinking ;  I  might  have  spent  much  more.  The  idea 
of  M.  de  Vattel  indeed,  scowling  and  frowning,  haunted  me. 

Q.  Do  we  take  pleasure  in  the  real  distress  of  others  ?  What 
is  my  sensation  when  I  see  Captain  Cunningham  laid  up  with 
the  gout,  and  hear  his  plaintive  groans  ?  What  are  the  feelings 
of  the  women  at  groanings  ?  What  is  my  feeling  when  I  hear 
of  an  honest  man's  losing  a  ship  at  sea  ? 

1  There  had  been  a  good  deal  of  management  on  all  sides,  in  the  General  Court 
of  the  last  year,  in  the  selection  of  an  agent  tor  the  Colony.  Mr.  Bollan,  who  had 
acted  in  this  capacity,  was  set  aside  by  a  union  of  opposite  interests  against  him ; 
finding  difficulty  in  choosing  a  successor,  a  majority,  as  is  not  uncommon  in  such 
cases,  combined  upon  Jasper  Mauduit,  esteemed  more  for  his  private  worth, 
than  for  his  competency  for  the  post.  But,  soon  discovering  the  mistake,  Israel 
Mauduit,  his  brother,  of  far  more  capacity,  and  the  author  of  the  celebrated 
pamphlet  referred  to,  would  probably  have  been  substituted,  had  it  not  been  tor 
Governor  Bernard,  whose  influence  was  at  its  height,  and  whose  views  it  suited 
that  no  change  should  then  be  made.  Probably  he  kept  the  post  in  his  eye  for 
Mr.  Jackson,  as  stated  hereafter  in  this  Diary.  Hutchinson  was  again  so  popular 
as  to  be  soon  afterwards  elected  almost  unanimously  by  the  General  Court,  as  a 
special  agent.  It  was  the  hour  of  James  Otis's  weakness,  and  of  compromise  and 
reaction,  ultimately  stopped  only  by  the  energy  of  Oxenbridge  Thacner.  Minot, 
ii.  p,  142.     Hutchinson,  iii.  p.  105,  note.      7'iu/ur's  Lift  of  Otis,  p.  170. 


142  DIARY.  [1763. 

5.  Saturday.     Memorabilia  of  this  week 
The  bar  agreed  upon  these  four  rules;  — 

1.  That  the  clerk  call  the  plaintiff,  and  if  anybody  answer 
except  the  plaintiff  or  some  sworn  attorney,  his  power  be 
demanded,  and  no  general  power  in  such  case  be  admitted. 

2.  That  no  attorney's  fee  be  taxed  for  the  future,  where  the 
declaration  was  not  drawn  by  the  plaintiff  himself  or  some  sworn 
attorney. 

3.  That  no  attendance  be  taxed,  unless  the  party  attend  per- 
sonally, or  by  some  sworn  attorney. 

4.  That  no  attorney  be  allowed  to  practise  here,  unless  sworn 
in  this  court  or  in  the  superior  court. 

Mr.  Gridley  read  these  rules  to  the  court,  as  unexceptionable 
regulations  agreed  upon  by  the  bar. 

Mr.  Otis  arose  and  said,  he  had  the  credit  of  the  motion,  but 
he  never  had  moved  for  any  such  rules  as  these ;  for  they  were 
against  the  Province  law,  against  the  rights  of  mankind,  and 
he  was  amazed  that  so  many  wise  heads  as  that  bar  was  blessed 
with,  could  think  them  practicable ;  and  concluded  that  he  was, 
for  one,  entirely  against  them  ;  and  said,  that  all  schemes  to 
suppress  pettifoggers  must  rest  on  the  honor  of  the  bar.  Foster 
Hutchinson  asked,  why  then  was  the  court  troubled  with  the 
motion  ?  Judge  Watts  said,  if  the  bar  was  not  agreed,  the 
court  could  do  nothing.  And,  at  last,  they  determined  to  con- 
sider till  April. 

Thus,  with  a  whiff  of  Otis'  pestilential  breath, 
Was  this  whole  system  blown  away. 

But  the  bar  was  in  a  great  rage  !  Thacher  said  to  Kent, 
Auchmuty,  and  me,  —  "whoever  votes  for  him  to  be  any  thing 
more  than  a  constable,  let  him  be  anathema  maranatha.  I 
pamphleteer  for  him  again?  No!  I'll  pamphleteer  against 
him."  Kent  damned  him,  and  said  he  had  been  abused  by 
him,  personally,  in  such  a  manner  as  he  never  would  forgive, 
unless  he  made  him  more  satisfaction  than  he  imagined  was  in 
his  power. 

Thacher  moved,  that,  in  the  cards  to  be  sent  to  the  judges, 
the  expression  should  be,  "the  bar,  exclusively  of  Mr.  Otis, 
invites,"  —  and  Auchmuty,  Kent,  Gridley,  and  I,  as  well  as 
Thacher,  voted  for  it. 


Mr.  27.]  DIARY.  143 

Auchmuty  and  Fitch1  were  equally  warm  ;  they  talked  about 
renouncing  all  commerce  or  connection  with  him.  Gridley 
talked  about  treating  him  dryly  and  decently.  Auchmuty  said, 
the  two  principles  of  all  this  were  popularity  and  avarice.  He 
made  the  motion,  at  first,  to  get  some  of  these  understrappers 
into  his  service.  He  could  not  bear  that  Quincy  and  Auchmuty 
should  have  underworkers  and  he  none,  and  he  objected  to 
the  rules  to  save  his  popularity  with  the  constables,  Justices 
Story  and  Ruddock,  &c,  and  pettifoggers  of  the  town,  and  with 
the  pettifoggers  that  he  uses  as  tools  and  myrmidons  in  the 
house. 

Mr.  G.  said  he  went  off  to  avoid  a  quarrel ;  for  he  could  not 
bear  it ;  —  such  tergiversation,  such  trimming,  such  behavior ! 
Kent  and  Auchmuty  said  they  had  borne  with  his  insolence, 
thinking  him  honest,  though  hot  and  rash  and  passionate ;  but 
now  he  appeared  to  act  against  his  conscience.2 


Recipe  to  make  a  Patriot.3 

Take  of  the  several  species  of  malevolence,  as  revenge,  malice, 
envy,  equal  quantities ;  of  servility,  fear,  fury,  vanity,  profaneness, 
and  ingratitude,  equal  quantities ;  and  infuse  this  composition 
into  the  brains  of  an  ugly,  surly,  brutal  mortal,  and  you  have 
the  desideratum. 


The  Life  of  Furio. 

In  Croatia.  His  descent,  education  at  school,  college,  at  the 
bar.  Historians  relate  his  wrath  at  Plymouth,  at  Boston;  he 
heads  the  trade,  brings  actions,  fails ;  is  chosen  representative, 
quarrels  with  Governor,  Lieutenant,  Council,   House,  custom- 

1  It  is  a  curious  fact,  that,  of  eight  persons  here  named  as  actively  engaged  at 
the  bar  at  this  period,  only  one,  the  writer  himself,  lived  through  the  Revolution 
as  an  advocate  of  American  Independence.  Five  adhered  to  Great  Britain. 
Mr.  Thacher  died  in  1765.     Mr.  Otis  became  incapacitated  for  action  in  1771. 

2  This  remarkable  scene  and  extraordinary  harshness  will  scarcely  detract 
much  from  the  character  of  James  Otis.  It  illustrates  the  extent  to  which  the 
esprit  de  corps  will  sometimes  carry  the  most  sensible  men,  and  nothing  more. 
Few,  at  this  day,  will  be  disposed  to  doubt  that  Mr.  Otis  was  more  nearly  right 
than  his  opponents,  and  his  action,  in  this  instance,  consistent  with  his  general 
principles,  if  not  with  his  first  impulse. 

3  These  two  lampoons  seem  to  have  been  the  offspring  of  the  passions  of  the 
moment  and  copied  on  the  spot.     It  is  not  clear  by  whom  they  were  made. 


144  DIARY.  [1763. 

house  officers,  gentlemen  of  the  army,  the  bar ;  retails  prosody, 
writes  upon  money,  Province  sloop.1 


Boston.  February.  This  day  learned  that  the  Caucus  Club 
meets,  at  certain  times,  in  the  garret  of  Tom  Dawes,  the  Adju- 
tant of  the  Boston  Regiment.  He  has  a  large  house,  and  he 
has  a  movable  partition  in  his  garret  which  he  takes  down,  and 
the  whole  club  meets  in  one  room.  There  they  smoke  tobacco 
till  you  cannot  see  from  one  end  of  the  garret  to  the  other. 
There  they  drink  flip,  I  suppose,  and  there  they  choose  a  moder- 
ator, who  puts  questions  to  the  vote  regularly ;  and  selectmen, 
assessors,  collectors,  wardens,  fire-wards,  and  representatives,  are 
regularly  chosen  before  they  are  chosen  in  the  town.  Uncle 
Fairfield,  Story,  Ruddock,  Adams,  Cooper,  and  a  rudis  indiges- 
taque  moles  of  others  are  members.2  They  send  committees  to 
wait  on  the  merchant's  club,  and  to  propose  and  join  in  the 
choice  of  men  and  measures.  Captain  Cunningham  says,  they 
have  often  solicited  him  to  go  to  those  caucuses  ;  they  have 
assured  him  benefit  in  his  business,  &c. 

1  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  each  of  these  points  has  a  direct  reference 
to  some  event  in  the  life  of  Otis.  The  question  raised  as  to  the  Governor's 
authority  to  fit  out  the  Province  sloop  is  spoken  of  by  Tudor  as  "  one  of  the 
preparatory  causes  of  the  Revolution."     Life  of  Otis,  p.  117. 

2  Gordon  assigns  a  very  early  date  for  this  practice.  He  says,  "  More  than 
fifty  years  ago,"  (from  1774,)  "Mr.  Samuel  Adams's  father  and  twenty  others, 
one  or  two  from  the  north  end  of  the  town,  where  all  the  ship  business  is  carried 
on,  used  to  meet,  make  a  caucus,  and  lay  their  plan  tor  introducing  certain  per- 
sons into  places  of  trust  and  power.  When  they  had  settled  it,  they  separated, 
and  used  each  their  particular  influence  within  his  own  circle.  He  and  his 
friends  would  furnish  themselves  with  ballots,  including  the  names  of  the  parties 
fixed  upon,  which  they  distributed  on  the  days  of  election.  By  acting  in  concert, 
together  with  a  careful  and  extensive  distribution  of  ballots,  they  generally  carried 
the  elections  to  their  own  mind.  In  like  manner  it  was,  that  Mr.  Samuel  Adams 
first  became  a  representative  for  Boston."  History  of  the  American  Revolution, 
vol.  i.  p.  365,  note. 


Mr.  28.]  DIARY.  145 

An  interval  of  two  years  occurs  here  in  the  Diary.     One  event  took  place 
of  no  trifling  consequence  to  the  subsequent  life  of  the  writer. 


1764.  [Here  it  may  be  proper  to  recollect  something  which 
makes  an  article  of  great  importance  in  the  life  of  every  man. 
I  was  of  an  amorous  disposition,  and,  very  early,  from  ten  or 
eleven  years  of  age,  was  very  fond  of  the  society  of  females.  I 
had  my  favorites  among  the  young  women,  and  spent  many  of 
my  evenings  in  their  company ;  and  this  disposition,  although 
controlled  for  seven  years  after  my  entrance  into  college,  returned 
and  engaged  me  too  much  till  I  was  married. 

I  shall  draw  no  characters,  nor  give  any  enumeration  of  my 
youthful  flames.  It  would  be  considered  as  no  compliment  to 
the  dead  or  the  living.  This,  I  will  say ;  —  they  were  all  modest 
and  virtuous  girls,  and  always  maintained  their  character  through 
life.  No  virgin  or  matron  ever  had  cause  to  blush  at  the  sight  of 
me,  or  to  regret  her  acquaintance  with  me.  No  father,  brother, 
son,  or  friend,  ever  had  cause  of  grief  or  resentment  for  any 
intercourse  between  me  and  any  daughter,  sister,  mother,  or  any 
other  relation  of  the  female  sex.  These  reflections,  to  me  con- 
solatory beyond  all  expression,  I  am  able  to  make  with  truth 
and  sincerity ;  and  I  presume  I  am  indebted  for  this  blessing  to 
my  education.  This  has  been  rendered  the  more  precious  to 
me,  as  I  have  seen  enough  of  the  effects  of  a  different  practice. 
Corroding  reflections  through  life  are  the  never  failing  conse- 
quence of  illicit  amours  in  old  as  well  as  in  new  countries. 
The  happiness  of  life  depends  more  upon  innocence  in  this 
respect,  than  upon  all  the  philosophy  of  Epicurus  or  of  Zeno 
without  it. 

I  passed  the  summer  of  1764  in  attending  courts  and  pursuing 
my  studies,  with  some  amusement  on  my  little  farm,  to  which 
I  was  frequently  making  additions,  until  the  fall,  when,  on  the 
_25th  of  October,  I  was  married  to  Miss  Smith,  second  daughter 
of  the  Rev.  William  Smith,  minister  of  Weymouth,  grand- 
daughter of  the  Honorable  John  Quincy  of  Braintree,  a  con- 
nection which  has  been  the  source  of  all  my  felicity,  although  a 
sense  of  duty,  which  forced  me  away  from  her  and  my  children 
for  so  many  years,  produced  all  the  griefs  of  my  heart,  and  all 
that  I  esteem  real  afflictions  in  life.] 

vol.  11.  13 


J4(i  DIARY.  [1765. 

Sodalitas,  a  Club  of  Friends. 
1765.     January  24.  Thursday.     Soon  after  I  got  to  Boston, 
at  January  Court,  Mr.  Fitch  came  to  me,  upon  'Change,  and  told 
me  that  Mr.  Gridley  and  he  had  something  to  communicate  to 
me  that  I  should  like  —  in  sacred  confidence,  however.     I  waited 
on  Mr.  Gridley  at  his  office,  (after  many  conjectures  what  the 
secret  might  be,)  and  he  told  me  that  he  and  Mr.  Fitch  had 
proposed  a  law  club,  a  private  association  for  the  study  of  law 
and  oratory.     As  to  the  bar,  he  thought  of  them  as  he  did  think 
of  them  ; —  Otis,  Thacher,  Auchmuty.     He  was  considering  who 
was,  for  the  future,  to  support  the  honor  and  dignity  of  the  bar ; 
and  he  was  determined  to  bring  me  into  practice,  the  first  prac- 
tice, and  Fitch l  too.     He  could  easily  do  it  by  recommending. 
And  he  was  very  desirous  of  forming  a  junto,  a  small  sodality 
of  himself  and  Fitch  and  me,  —  and  Dudley,  if  he  pleased,  might 
come,  —  in  order  to  read  in  concert  the  Feudal  Law  and  Tully's 
Orations ;  and  for  this  purpose  he  lent  me  The  "  Corpus  Juris 
Civilis   in    quatuor    Partes    distinctum,    eruditissimis    Dionysii 
Gothofredi  J.  C.  clarissimi  Notis  illustratum ; "  at  the  end  of 
which  are  the  "  Feudorum  Consuetudines,  partim  ex  Editione 
Vulgata,  partim  ex  Cujaciana  Vulgata  apposita?,"  as  also  the 
"  Epitome    Feudorum    Dionysio    Gothofredo    authore."      We 
agreed  to  meet,  the  next  evening,  in  one  of  Ballard's    back 
chambers,  and  determine  upon  times,  places,  and  studies.     We 
accordingly  met,  Mr.  Gridley,  Fitch  and  I,  and  spent  the  whole 
evening.     Proposals  were,  to  read  a  reign  and  the  statutes  of 
that  reign ;  to  read  Hurd's  Dialogues  and  any  new  pieces.     But 
at  last  we  determined  to  read  the  Feudal  Law  and  Cicero  only, 
lest  we  should  lose  sight  of  our  main  object  by  attending  to  too 
many.     Thursday  nights  were  agreed  on,  and  to  meet  first  at 
Mr.  Gridley's  office.     There  we  accordingly  met  on'the  Thursday 
night  following,  and  suffered  our  conversation  to  ramble  upon 
Hurd's   Dialogues,  the    Pandects,  their   discovery  in    Italy  by 
Lotharius  in  1135,  in  the  reign  of  Stephen,  upon  Lambard  De 


i  Mr.  Fitch  afterwards  obtained  the  office  of  Solicitor  to  the  Board  of  Com- 
missioners, and  hence  naturally  signed  the  address  to  Governor  Hutchinson  in 
1774,  which  entailed  upon  him  the  consequences  of  adhering  to  the  loyal  side. 
Mr.  Sabine  has  not  succeeded  in  tracing-  him  abroad,  beyond  the  year  1 783. 
The.  American  Loyalists,  p.  287. 


jEt.  29.]  DIARY.  147 

Priscis  Anglorum  Legibus,  in  Saxon  and  Latin,  upon  Lord 
Karnes,  Mr.  Blackstone,  &c.  But  we  agreed  to  meet  the  next 
Thursday  night  at  Mr.  Fitch's,  and  to  read  the  three  first  titles 
of  the  Feudal  Law,  and  Tully's  Oration  for  Milo. 

I  rode  to  Boston  on  purpose  to  meet  at  Fitch's.  Gridley 
came ;  —  we  read  the  three  first  titles  of  the  Feudal  Law,  and 
we  read  Gothofred's  notes,  and  we  looked  into  Strykius  for  the 
explanation  of  many  hard  words  in  those  three  titles.  The 
Valvasors,  Capitanei,  Guardia  and  Guastaldi.  This  Strykius 
wrote  an  Examen  Juris  Feudalis,  by  way  of  question  and  answer. 
His  account  of  the  original  of  the  Consuetudines  Feudorum  is, 
that  they  were  collected  and  written  by  Gerardus  Niger  and 
Obertus,  the  consuls  of  Milan.  We  read  also  part  of  Tully's 
Milo,  and  are  to  read  the  fourth  and  fifth  titles  of  the  Feudal 
Law,  and  the  rest  of  that  oration  next  Thursday  night.  The 
law  of  inheritances  in  England  originates  in  the  feudal  law; 
Gilbert's  Tenures  originate  there.  Robertson's  History  of  Scot- 
land gives  the  clearest  account  of  the  feudal  system,  they  say. 
Lord  Kames  has  given  us  the  introduction  of  the  feudal  law 
into  Scotland.  Q.  What  say  the  law  tracts  and  Dalrymple  on 
this  subject  ? 

Gridley.  "  Taylor  observed  to  me  when  in  England,  that  no 
books  were  more  proper  for  nisi  prius  oratory,  than  the  Exam- 
iner, Craftsman,  and  such  controversial  writings  of  the  best 
hands." 

I  expect  the  greatest  pleasure  from  this  sodality,  that  I  ever 
had  in  my  life,  and  a  pleasure,  too,  that  will  not  be  painful  to 
my  reflection. 

Milo  was  condemned,  and  went  into  banishment  at  Mar- 
seilles. There  he  afterwards  read  the  oration,  which  had  been 
corrected  and  polished  for  his  perusal,  and  sent  to  him  by 
Cicero  for  a  present  and  an  amusement.  Reading  it,  he 
broke  out,  — "  Si  sic  egisses,  Marce  Tulli,  barbatos  pisces  non 
comedissemP 

For  he  had  been  eating  a  sort  of  bearded  fishes  that  he  found 
at  Marseilles. 

31.  Thursday.  The  snowy  weather  prevented  me  from  going 
to  Dudley's.  The  sodality,  however,  met  and  read  the  two  titles 
assigned,  and  assigned  the  three  next ;  namely,  the  sixth,  Episco- 
pum  vel  Abbatem  vel  Abbatissam  vel  Dominum,  Plebis  feudum 


148  DIARY.  [17G5. 

dare  non  posse;  Tit.  7th,  De  Natura  Feudi;  and  Tit   8th,  De 
Successione  Feudi. 

February  21.  Thursday.  At  Boston  entertained  the  sodality 
at  Blodget's.  We  were  never  in  better  spirits,  or  more  social. 
We  began  the  thirteenth  title  of  the  Feudal  Law,  De  Alienatione 
Feudi,  and  read  three  titles.  Gridley  proposed  that  we  should 
mark  all  those  passages  which  are  adopted  by  the  English  law, 
that  when  we  come  to  read  Lord  Coke,  we  may  recur  back 
upon  occasion  to  the  originals  of  our  law. 

The  fourteenth  title  is  De  Feudo  Marchias  vel  Ducatus  vel 
Comitatus.  Here,  therefore,  we  see  the  originals  of  English 
dignities,  marquisates,  dukedoms,  counties,  &c.  The  fifteenth 
title  is,  An  maritus  succedat  uxori  in  Feudo.  I  quoted  to  my 
brothers  the  preface  to  the  Historical  Law  Tracts; — "  The  feudal 
customs  ought  to  be  the  study  of  every  man  who  proposes  to 
reap  instruction  from  the  history  of  the  modern  European  nations, 
because,  among  these  nations,  public  transactions,  not  less  than 
private  property,  were,  some  centuries  ago,  regulated  by  the 
feudal  system. 

"  Sovereigns  formerly  were,  many  of  them,  connected  by  the 
relation  of  superior  and  vassal.  The  King  of  England,  for 
example,  by  the  feudal  tenure,  held  of  the  French  king  many 
fan  provinces." 

I  quoted  also  the  sentiments  of  Rousseau,  which  are  very 
inimical  to  the  feudal  system.  "  The  notion  of  representatives," 
says  he,  "  is  modern,  descending  to  us  from  the  feudal  system, 
that  most  iniquitous  and  absurd  form  of  government  by  which 
human  nature  was  so  shamefully  degraded."  l 

Fitch.  "  The  feudal  system  was  military ;  it  was  a  martial 
system  ;  a  set  of  regulations,  (as  Robertson  calls  it,)  for  the 
encampment  of  a  great  army ;  and  it  was  a  wise  and  good 
system  for  a  martial  people  in  such  circumstances.  For  the 
feudal  connections,  and  subordination,  and  services,  were  neces- 
sary for  their  defence  against  the  inroads  and  invasions  of  their 
neighbors,"  &c. 

Ego.  "  I  think  that  the  absurdity  and  iniquity  lies  in  this ;  — 
that  nations  at  peace  and  in  plenty,  who  live  by  commerce  and 
industry,  have  adopted  such  a  system." 

1  Du  Contrat  Social,  chap.  xt. 


JEt.  29.]  DIARY.  149 

Gridley.  "  There  lies  the  absurdity  and  iniquity ;  and  the 
observation  you  quote  proves  that  Rousseau  is  shallow." 

I  might  have  quoted  Lord  Karnes's  British  Antiquities,  who 
says,  — "  It  is  the  plan  of  the  feudal  law  to  bestow  the  whole 
land  property  upon  the  king,  and  to  subject  to  him  the  bulk  of 
the  people  in  quality  of  servants  and  vassals ;  a  constitution  so 
contradictory  to  all  the  principles  which  govern  mankind  can 
never  be  brought  about,  one  should  imagine,  but  by  foreign 
conquest  or  native  usurpation."  And  in  another  place  he  calls 
the  feudal  connection  —  "  the  feudal  yoke." 

These  epithets  of  "  absurd,"  "  iniquitous,"  "  unnatural,"  &c,  are 
not  very  agreeable  to  the  opinion  of  Strykius,  who  says,  in  answer 
to  the  question  —  unde  originem  trahunt  feuda  ?  Certo  modo 
et  si  for  mam  feudorum  genericam  consideres,  dici  potest,  ex  jure 
gentium.  Hoc  enim  ratio  naturalis,  juncta  necessitate  publica, 
exigit  ut  militibus  potissimum  prsedia,  ab  hostibus  occupata,  pro 
bene  meritis  concederentur  sub  conditione  tamen  fidelitatis,  quo 
eo  securior  esset  respublica  et  ad  patriam  defendendam  magis 
allicerentur. 

In  Milo  we  read  from  the  twenty-seventh  to  the  thirty-fourth 
section  in  Davidson's  translation.  We  begin  the  peroration 
next.  We  had  Guthrie's  and  Davidson's  translations.  In  point 
of  accuracy  and  spirit,  Davidson's  is  vastly  superior. 

Mr.  Gridley  produced  a  book  entitled,  In  Herennium  Commen- 
tarius,  as  an  introduction  to  Tully  de  Oratore,  and  read  the  three 
sorts  of  orations,  —  the  demonstrative,  deliberative,  and  judicial, 
—  and  the  several  parts  of  an  oration,  —  the  exordium,  &c. 

Gridley.  "  Our  plan  must  be,  when  we  have  finished  the  Feu- 
dal Law,  to  read  Coke- Littleton,  and  after  him  a  reign  and  the 
statutes  of  that  reign.  It  should  also  be  a  part  of  our  plan  to 
improve  ourselves  in  writing,  by  reading  carefully  the  best  Eng- 
lish writers,  and  by  using  ourselves  to  writing.  For  it  should 
be  a  part  of  our  plan  to  publish  pieces  now  and  then.  Let  us 
form  our  style  upon  the  ancients  and  the  best  English  authors. 

"  I  hope  and  expect  to  see  at  the  bar,  in  consequence  of  this 
sodality,  a  purity,  an  elegance,  and  a  spirit  surpassing  any  thing 
that  ever  appeared  in  America." 

Fitch  said  that  he  would  not  say  he  had  abilities,  but  he  would 
say  he  had  ambition  enough  to  hope  for  the  same  thing. 

This  sodality  has  given  rise  to  the  following  speculation  of 

13* 


150  DIARY.  [1765. 

my  own,  which  I  commit  to  writing  as  hints  for  future  inquiries, 
rather  than  as  a  satisfactory  theory ! l 

August  15.  Wednesday.  I  hope  it  will  give  no  offence  to 
inquire  into  the  grounds  and  reasons  of  the  strange  conduct  of 
yesterday  and  last  night  at  Boston.  Is  there  any  evidence  that 
Mr.  Oliver2  ever  wrote  to  the  ministry,  or  to  anybody  in  England, 
any  unfavorable  representations  of  the  people  of  this  Province  ? 
Has  he  ever  placed  the  character  of  the  people,  their  manners,  their 
laws,  their  principles  in  religion  or  government,  their  submission 
to  order  and  magistracy,  in  a  false  light  ?  Is  it  known  that  he  ever 
advised  the  ministry  to  lay  internal  taxes  upon  us  ?  that  he  ever 
solicited  the  oilier  of  distributer  of  stamp's  1  or  thai  he  has  ever 
done  any  thing  to  injure  the  people  or  to  incur  their  displeasure, 
besides  barely  accepting  of  that  office  ?  If  there  is  no  proof  at 
all  of  any  such  injury  done  to  the  people  by  that  gentleman,  has 
not  the  blind,  undistinguishing  rage  of  the  rabble  done  him  irre- 
parable injustice  ?  To  be  placed,  only  in  pageantry,  in  the  most 
conspicuous  part  of  the  town,  with  such  ignominious  devices 
around  him,  would  be  thought  severity  enough  by  any  man  of 
common  sensibility.  But  to  be  carried  through  the  town  in  such 
insolent  triumph,  and  burned  on  a  hill,  to  have  his  garden  torn 
in  pieces,  his  house  broken  open,  his  furniture  destroyed,  and  his 
whole  family  thrown  into  confusion  and  terror,  is  a  very  atrocious 
violation  of  the  peace,  and  of  dangerous  tendency  and  conse- 
quence. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  let  us  ask  a  few  questions.  Has  not 
his  Honor  the  Lieutenant-Governor  discovered  to  the  people,  in 
innumerable  instances,  a  very  ambitious  and  avaricious  disposi- 

1  Here  follows  the  first  draught  of  the  three  papers  published  in  the  Boston 
Gazette,  and  afterwards  collected  and  republished  in  London  under  the  title  of 
"  A  Dissertation  on  the  Canon  and  Feudal  Law."  As  the  work  is  reserved  for 
another  portion  of  these  volumes,  some  remarkable  variations  in  this  draught 
will  find  a  more  appropriate  place  there. 

2  Mr.  Oliver  was  hung  in  effigy  upon  Liberty  tree.  "  Before  night  the  image 
was  taken  down,  and  carried  through  the  town-house,  in  the  chamber  whereof 
the  governor  and  council  were  sitting.  Forty  or  fifty  tradesmen,  decently 
dressed,  preceded;  and  some  thousands  of  the  mob  followed  down  King  street 
to  Oliver's  dock,  near  which  Mr.  Oliver  had  lately  erected  a  building,  which  it 
was  conjectured  he  designed  for  a  stamp  office.  This  was  laid  flat  to  the  ground 
in  a  few  minutes.  From  thence  the  mob  proceeded  for  Fort  Hill,  but  Mr.  Oli- 
ver's house  being  in  the  way,  they  endeavored  to  force  themselves  into  it,  and, 
being  opposed,  broke  the  windows,  beat  down  the  doors,  entered  and  destroyed 
part  of  his  furniture,  and  continued  in  riot  until  midnight,  before  they  separated." 
Hutchinson,  vol.  iii.  p.  121. 


^t.  29.]  DIARY.  151 

tion  ?  Has  he  not  grasped  four  of  the  most  important  offices  in 
the  Province  into  his  own  hands  ?  Has  not  his  brother-in-law, 
Oliver,  another  of  the  greatest  places  in  government  ?  Is  not  a 
brother  of  the  Secretary,  a  judge  of  the  superior  court?  Has 
not  that  brother  a  son  in  the  House  ?  Has  not  the  Secretary  a 
son  in  the  House,  who  is  also  a  judge  in  one  of  the  counties  ? 
Did  not  that  son  marry  the  daughter  of  another  of  the  Judges  of 
the  Superior  Court?  Has  not  the  Lieutenant-Governor  a  brother, 
a  Judge  of  the  pleas  in  Boston,  and  a  namesake  and  near  rela- 
tion who  is  another  Judge  ?  Has  not  the  Lieutenant-Governor  a 
near  relation  who  is  register  of  his  own  court  of  probate,  and 
deputy  secretary  ?  Has  he  not  another  near  relation  who  is  Clerk 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  ?  _Is_  not  this  amazing  ascend- 
ancy of  one  family  foundation  sufficient  on  which  to  erect  a 
tyranny  ?    Is  11  not  enough  to  excite  jealousies  amonff  the  people? 

Qucere  further.  Has  not  many  a  member  of  both  houses 
labored  to  the  utmost  of  his  ability  to  obtain  a  resolution  to 
send  home  some  petitions  and  remonstrances  to  the  King,  Lords, 
and  Commons,  against  the  impositions  they  saw  were  about  to 
be  laid  upon  us  ?  Has  not  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  all  along, 
been  the  very  gentleman  who  has  prevented  it,  and  wiped  every 
spirited  if  not  every  sensible  expression  out  of  those  petitions  ? 

Queer e  further.  When  the  Court  was  about  to  choose  an  agent, 
did  not  the  Governor,  Lieutenant-Governor,  and  Secretary,  make 
use  of  all  their  influence  to  procure  an  election  for  Mr.  Jackson  ?  1 
Was  not  Mr.  Jackson  a  secretary  to  Mr.  Grenville  ?  Was  not 
Mr.  Grenville  the  author  of  the  late  measures  relative  to  the 
Colonies  ?  Was  not  Mr.  Jackson  an  agent  and  a  particular 
friend  of  the  Governor  ?  Was  not  all  this,  considering  the  natu- 
ral jealousy  of  mankind,  enough  to  excite  suspicions  among  the 
vulgar  that  all  these  gentlemen  were  in  a  combination  to  favor 
the  measures  of  the  Ministry,  at  least  to  prevent  any  thing  from 
being  done  here  to  discourage  the  Minister  from  his  rash,  mad, 
and  dogmatical  proceedings  ?  Would  it  not  be  prudence  then  in 
those  gentlemen,  at  this  alarming  conjuncture,  and  a  condescen- 
sion that  is  due  to  the  present  fears  and  distresses  of  the  people, 
(in  some  manner  consistent  with  the  dignity  of  their  stations 
and  characters,)  to  remove  these  jealousies  from  the  minds  of 
the  people  by  giving  an  easy  solution  of  these  difficulties  ? 

1  See  page  141,  note. 


152  DIARY.  [1765. 


[After  the  fourteenth  of  August  I  went  on  a  journey  to  Martha's 
Vineyard,  on  the  trial  of  a  cause  before  referees,  between  Jerusha 
Mayhew  and  her  relations.  The  keen  understanding  of  this 
woman,  and  the  uncontrollable  violence  of  her  irascible  passions, 
had  excited  a  quarrel  of  the  most  invidious,  inveterate,  and 
irreconcilable  nature  between  the  several  branches  of  the  May- 
hew  family,  which  had  divided  the  whole  island  into  parties. 
The  rancor  of  that  fiend,  the  spirit  of  party,  had  never  appeared 
to  me  in  so  odious  and  dreadful  a  light,  though  I  had  heard 
much  of  it  in  a  contest  between  Roland  Cotton  and  Parson 
Jackson,  at  Woburn ;  and  had  remarked  enough  of  it  in  the 
trial  between  Hopkins  and  Ward  x  at  Worcester.  In  all  these 
cases  it  seemed  to  have  wrought  an  entire  metamorphosis  of  the 
human  character.  It  destroyed  all  sense  and  understanding,  all 
equity  and  humanity,  all  memory  and  regard  to  truth,  all  virtue, 
honor,  decorum,  and  veracity.  Never  in  my  life  was  I  so  grieved 
and  disgusted  with  my  species.  More  than  a  week,  I  think, 
was  spent  in  the  examination  of  witnesses  and  the  arguments 
of  council,  Mr.  Paine  on  one  side,  and  I  on  the  other.  We 
endeavored  to  argue  the  cause  on  both  sides  as  well  as  we 
could,  but  which  of  us  got  the  cause  I  have  forgotten.  It  was 
indeed  no  matter ;  for  it  was  impossible  for  human  sagacity  to 
discover  on  which  side  justice  lay.  We  were  pretty  free  with 
our  vituperations  on  both  sides,  and  the  inhabitants  appeared  to 
feel  the  justice  of  them.     I  think  the  cause  was  compromised. 

I  forgot  to  mention  that  while  we  were  at  Falmouth,  waiting 
to  be  ferried  over  to  the  island,  the  news  arrived  from  Boston  of 
the  riots  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  August,  in  which  Lieutenant-, 
( rbvernor  Hutchinson's  house  was  so  much  injured. 

This  year,  1765,  was  the  epoch  of  the  Stamp  Act.  I  drew 
up  a  petition  to  the  selectmen  of  Braintree,  and  procured  it  to 
be  signed  by  a  number  of  the  respectable  inhabitants,  to  call  a 
meeting  of  the  town  to  instruct  their  representative  in  relation 
to  the  stamps.     The  public  attention  of  the  whole  continent  was 

1  The  history  of  this  lawsuit,  growing  out  of  a  long  and  vehement  political 
struggle  in  Rhode  Island,  is  given  by  Professor  Gamniell  in  his  Life  of  Samuel 
Ward.     Sparks's  American  Biography,  vol.  xix.  pp.  259  -  283. 


iET.  29.]  DIARY.  153 

alarmed,  and  my  principles  and  political  connections  were  well 
known.  I  prepared  a  draught  of  instructions  at  home,  and 
carried  them  with  me.  The  cause  of  the  meeting  was  explained 
at  some  length,  and  the  state  and  danger  of  the  country  pointed 
out;  a  committee  was  appointed  to  prepare  instructions,  of  which 
I  was  nominated  as  one.  We  retired  to  Mr.  Niles's  house,  my 
draught  was  produced,  and  unanimously  adopted  without  amend- 
ment, reported  to  the  town,  and  accepted  without  a  dissenting 
voice.  These  were  published  in  Draper's  paper,  as  that  printer 
first  applied  to  me  for  a  copy.  They  were  decided  and  spirited 
enough.  They  rang  through  the  State  and  were  adopted  in  so 
many  words,  as  I  was  informed  by  the  representatives  of  that 
year,  by_forty  towns,  as  instructions  to  their  representatives. 
They  were  honored  sufficiently,  by  the  friends  of  government, 
with  the  epithets  of  inflammatory,  &c.  I  have  not  seen  them 
now  for  almost  forty  years,  and  remember  very  little  of  them. 
I  presume  they  would  now  appear  a  poor  trifle ;  but  at  that  time 
they  met  with  such  strong  feelings  in  the  readers,  that  their  effect 
was  astonishing  to  me,  and  excited  some  serious  reflections.  I 
thought  a  man  ought  to  be  very  cautious  what  kinds  of  fuel  he 
throws  into  a  fire,  when  it  is  thus  glowing  in  the  community. 
Although  it  is  a  certain  expedient  to  acquire  a  momentary  celeb- 
rity, yet  it  may  produce  future  evils  which  may  excite  serious 
repentance.  I  have  seen  so  many  firebrands  thrown  into  the 
flame,  not  only  in  the  worthless  and  unprincipled  writings  of 
the  profligate  and  impious  Thomas  Paine,  and  in  the  French 
Revolution,  but  in  many  others,  that  I  think  every  man  ought  to 
take  warning. 

In  the  Braintree  instructions,  however,  if  I  recollect  any  repre- 
hensible fault,  it  was  that  they  conceded  too  much  to  the  adver- 
sary^  not  to  say,  enemy.1  About  this  time  I  called  upon  my 
friendL  Samuel  Adams,  and  found  him  at  his  desk.  He  told  me 
the  town  of  Boston  had  employed  him  to  draw  instructions  for 
their  representatives ;  that  he  felt  an  ambition  which  was  very 
apt  to  mislead  a  man,  —  that  of  doing  something  extraordinary ; 
and  he  wanted  to  consult  a  friend  who  might  suggest  some 
thoughts  to  his  mind.     I  read  his  instructions,  and  showed  him 

1  These  instructions,  being  the  first  public  act  of  Mr.  Adams,  will  be  found  in 
another  volume.     They  bear  date  the  twentj'-fourth  of  September,  1 765. 


154  DIARY.  [1765. 

a  copy  of  mine.  I  told  him  I  thought  his  very  well  as  far  as 
they  went,  but  he  had  not  gone  far  enough.  Upon  reading 
mine,  he  said  he  was  of  my  opinion,  and  accordingly  took  into 
his  some  paragraphs  from  mine.] 


Braintree.  December  18.  Wednesday.  How  great  is  my  loss 
in  neglecting  to  keep  a  regular  journal  through  the  last  Spring, 
Summer,  and  Fall !  In  the  course  of  my  business,  as  a  sur- 
veyor  of  highways,  as  one  of  the  committee  for  dividing,  plan- 
ning, and  selling  the  North  Commons,  in  the  course  of  my  two 
great  journeys  to  Pownalborough  and  Martha's  Vineyard,  and 
in  several  smaller  journeys  to  Plymouth,  Taunton,  and  Boston, 
I  had  many  fine  opportunities  and  materials  for  speculation. 
•  The  year  1765  has  been  the  most  remarkable  year  of  my  life. 
That  enormous  engineTTabricated  by  the  British  Parliament,  for 
battering  down  all  the  rights  and  liberties  of  America,  I  mean 
the  Stamp  Act,  has  raised  and  spread  through  the  whole  conti- 
nent a  spirit  that  will  be  recorded  to  our  honor  with  all  future 
generations.  In  every  colony,  from  Georgia  to  New  Hampshire 
inclusively,  the  stamp  distributers  and  inspectors  have  been  com- 
pelled by  the  unconquerable  rage  of  the  people  to  renounce  their 
offices.  Such  and  so  universal  has  been  the  resentment  of  the 
people,  that  every  man  who  has  dared  to  speak  in  favor  of  the 
stamps,  or  to  soften  the  detestation  in  which  they  are  held,  how 
great  soever  his  abilities  and  virtues  had  been  esteemed  before, 
or  whatever  his  fortune,  connections,  and  influence  had  been, 
has  been  seen  to  sink  into  universal  contempt  and  ignominy. 

The  people,  even  to  the  lowest  ranks,  have  become  more  atten- 
tive to  their  liberties,  more  inquisitive  about  them,  and  more 
determined  to  defend  them,  than  they  were  ever  before  known 
or  had  occasion  to  be ;  innumerable  have  been  the  monuments 
of  wit,  humor,  sense,  learning,  spirit,  patriotism,  and  heroism, 
erected  in  the  several  colonies  and  provinces  in  the  course  of 
this  year.  Our  presses  have  groaned,  our  pulpits  have  thun- 
dered, our  legislatures  have  resolved,  our  towns  have  voted ; 
the  crown  officers  have  everywhere  trembled,  and  all  their  little 
tools  and  creatures  been  afraid  to  speak  and  ashamed  to  be 
seen. 

This  spirit,  however,  has  not  yet  been  sufficient  to  banish  from 


Mt.  30.]  DIARY.  155 

persons  in  authority  that  timidity  which  they  have  discovered 
from  the  beginning.  The  executive  courts  have  not  yet  dared 
to  adjudge  the  Stamp  Act  void,  nor  to  proceed  with  business  as 
usual,  though  it  should  seem  that  necessity  alone  would  be  suffi- 
cient to  justify  business  at  present,  though  the  act  should  be 
allowed  to  be  obligatory.  The  stamps  are  in  the  castle.  Mr. 
Oliver  has  no  commission.  The  Governor  has  no  authority  to 
distribute  or  even  to  unpack  the  bales ;  the  Act  has  never  been 
proclaimed  nor  read  in  the  Province ;  yet  the  probate  office  is 
shut,  the  custom-house  is  shut,  the  courts  of  justice  are  shut, 
and  all  business  seems  at  a  stand.  Yesterday  and  the  day 
before,  the  two  last  days  of  service  for  January  Term,  only  one 
man  asked  me  for  a  writ,  and  he  was  soon  determined  to  wave 
his  request.     I  have  not  drawn  a  writ  since  the  first  of  November. 


How  long  we  are  to  remain  in  this  languid  condition,  this 
passive  obedience  to  the  Stamp  Act,  is  not  certain.  But  such  a 
pause  cannot  be  lasting.  Debtors  grow  insolent ;  creditors  grow 
angry ;  and  it  is  to  be  expected  that  the  public  offices  will  very 
soon  be  forced  open,  unless  such  favorable  accounts  should  be 
received  from  England  as  to  draw  away  the  fears  of  the  great, 
or  unless  a  greater  dread  of  the  multitude  should  drive  away 
the  fear  of  censure  from  Great  Britain. 

It  is  my  opinion  that  by  this  inactivity  we  discover  cowardice, 
and  too  much  respect  to  the  Act,  This  rest  appears  to  be,  by 
implication  at  least,  an  acknowledgment  of  the  authority  of 
Parliament  to  tax  us.  And  if  this  authority  is  once  acknow- 
ledged and  established,  the  ruin  of  America  will  become  inevi- 
table. This  long  interval  of  indolence  and  idleness  will  make 
a  large  chasm  in  my  affairs,  if  it  should  not  reduce  me  to  dis- 
tress, and  incapacitate  me  to  answer  the  demands  upon  me. 
But  I  must  endeavor,  in  some  degree,  to  compensate  the  disad- 
vantage, by  posting  my  books,  reducing  my  accounts  into  better 
order,  and  by  diminishing  my  expenses,  —  but,  above  all,  by 
improving  the  leisure  of  this  winter  in  a  diligent  application 
to  my  studies. 

I  find  that  idleness  lies  between  business  and  study ;  that  is, 
the  transition  from  the  hurry  of  a  multiplicity  of  business  to  the 
tranquillity  that  is  necessary  for  intense  study,  is  not  easy.  There 
must  be  a  vacation,  an  interval  between  them,  for  the  mind  to 
recollect  itself. 


156  DIARY.  [1765. 

The  bar  seem  to  me  to  behave  like  a  flock  of  shot  pigeons ; 
they  seem  to  be  stopped  ;  the  net  seems  to  be  thrown  over  them, 
and  they  have  scarcely  courage  left  to  flounce  and  to  flutter.  So 
sudden  an  interruption  in  my  career  is  very  unfortunate  for  me. 
I  was  but  just  getting  into  my  gears,  just  getting  under  sail,  and 
an  embargo  is  laid  upon  the  ship.  Thirty  years  of  my  life  are 
passed  in  preparation  for  business;  I  have  had  poverty  to  struggle 
with,  envy  and  jealousy  and  malice  of  enemies  to  encounter,  no 
friends,  or  but  few,  to  assist  me ;  so  that  I  have  groped  in  dark 
obscurity,  till  of  late,  and  had  but  just  become  known  and  gained 
a  small  degree  of  reputation,  when  this  execrable  project  was  set 
on  foot  for  my  ruin  as  well  as  that  of  America  in  general,  and 
of  Great  Britain. 

19.  Thursday.  A  fair  morning,  after  a  severe  storm  of  three 
days  and  four  nights ;  a  vast  quantity  of  rain  fell. 

About  twelve  o'clock  came  in  Messrs.  Crafts  and  Chase,  and 
gave  me  a  particular  account  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Sons  of 
Liberty,  on  Tuesday  last,1  in  prevailing  on  Mr.  Oliver  to  renounce 
his  office  of  distributer  of  stamps,  by  a  declaration  under  his 
hand  and  under  his  oath,  taken  before  Justice  Dana  in  Hanover 
Square,  under  the  very  tree  of  liberty,  nay,  under  the  very  limb 

where  he  had  been  hanged  in  effigy,  August  14th,  1765. Their 

absolute  requisition  of  an  oath,  and  under  that  tree,  were  circum- 
stances extremely  humiliating  and  mortifying,  as  punishments  for 
his  receiving  a  deputation  to  be  distributer,  after  his  pretended 
resignation,  and  for  his  faint  and  indirect  declaration  in  the 
newspapers  last  Monday. 

About  one  o'clock  came  in  Mr.  Clark,  one  of  the  constables 


1  "  The  Secretary  (Oliver,)  being  informed  that  the  people  were  assembled 
before  the  time,  by  a  note  directed  to  them,  desired  to  make  his  resignation  at 
the  town-house  ;  but  this  would  not  satisfy  them,  and  they  insisted  on  his  coming 
to  the  tree.  Several  of  his  friends,  at  his  desire,  accompanied  him ;  but  Mackin- 
tosh, the  chief  actor  in  destroying  the  Lieutenant-Governor's  house,  attended  him, 
at  his  right  hand,  through  the  streets  to  the  tree,  in  a  rainy,  tempestuous  day,  a 
great  number  following.  About  two  thousand  people  were  assembled.  Several 
of  the  selectmen,  and  many  other  persons  of  condition,  were  in  the  house  before 
which  the  tree  stood,  with  Richard  Dana,  Esq.,  a  justice  of  peace  and  a  lawyer 
of  note,  who  administered  an  oath  to  the  Secretary  to  this  purpose  :  — '  That  he 
had  never  taken  any  measures,  in  consequence  of  his  deputation,  to  act  in  his 
office  as  distributer  of  stamps,  and  that  he  never  would,  directly  or  indirectly, 
by  himself  or  any  under  him,  make  use  of  his  deputation,  or  take  any  measures 
for  enforcing  the  stamp  act  in  America.'  After  three  huzzas,  he  was  at  liberty 
to  return  home."     Hutchinson's  History,  iii.  p.  140. 


JEv.  30.]  DIARY.  ir,7 

of  the  town  of  Boston,  with  a  letter  from  Mr.  William  Cooper, 
their  town-clerk,  in  these  words : 

«  Sir :  —  I  am  directed  by  the  town  to  acquaint  you,  that  they 
have  this  day  voted  unanimously  that  Jeremiah  Gridley,  James 
Otis,  and  John  Adams,  Esquires,  be  applied  to  as  counsel  to 
appear  before  his  Excellency  the  Governor  in  council,  in  support 
of  their  memorial  praying  that  the  courts  of  law  in  this  Province 
may  be  opened.  A  copy  of  said  memorial  will  be  handed  you 
on  your  coming  to  town. 

I  am,  sir,  your  most  obedient,  humble  servant, 

William  Cooper,  Toivn  Clerk." 
Johx  Adams,  Esq.1 

Boston,  December  18th,  17G5. 

The  reasons  which  induced  Boston  to  choose  me,  at  a  distance 
and  unknown  as  I  am,  the  particular  persons  concerned  and 
measures  concerted  to  bring  this  about,  I  am  wholly  at  a  loss  to 
conjecture ;  as  I  am,  what  the  future  effects  and  consequences 
will  be  both  with  regard  to  myself  and  the  public. 

But  when  I  recollect  my  own  reflections  and  speculations 
yesterday,  a  part  of  which  were  committed  to  writing  last  night, 
and  may  be  seen  under  December  18th,  and  compare  them  with 
the  proceedings  of  Boston  yesterday,  of  which  the  foregoing 
letter  informed  me,  I  cannot  but  wonder,  and  call  to  mind  my 
Lord  Bacon's  observation  about  secret,  invisible  laws  of  nature, 
and  communications  and  influences  between  places  that  are  not 
discoverable  by  sense. 
_JBut  I  am  now  under  all  obligations  of  interest  and  ambition, 
as  well  as  honor,  gratitude,  and  duty,  to  exert  the  utmost  of  my 
abilities  in  this  important  cause.  How  shall  it  be  conducted? 
Shall  we  contend  that  the  Stamp  Act  is  void  —  that  the  Parlia- 
ment have  no  legal  authority  to  impose  internal  taxes  upon  us, 
because  we  are  not  represented  in  it  —  and,  therefore,  that  the 
Stamp  Act  ought  to  be  waved  by  the  judges  as  against  natural 
equity  and  the  constitution  ?  Shall  we  use  these  as  arguments 
for  opening  the  courts  of  law  ?  or  shall  we  ground  ourselves  on 
necessity  only? 


1  The  original  of  this  is  preserved. 
VOL.   II.  14 


158  DIARY.  [1765. 

20.  Friday.  Went  to  Boston ;  dined  with  Mr.  Rowe,1  in 
company  with  Messrs.  Gridley,  Otis,  Kent,  and  Dudley.  After 
dinner,  went  to  the  town-house,  and  attended,  with  the  commit- 
tee of  the  town  of  Boston  and  many  other  gentlemen,  in  the 
representatives  room  till  about  dark,  after  candle-light,  when  Mr. 
Adams,  the  chairman  of  the  committee,  received  a  message  from 
the  Governor,  by  the  deputy  secretary,  purporting  that  his  Excel- 
lency and  the  council  were  ready  to  hear  the  memorial  of  the 
town  of  Boston,  and  their  counsel  in  support  of  it;  but  that 
no  other  persons  might  attend. 

We  accordingly  went  in.  His  Excellency  recommended  it  to 
us,  who  were  of  counsel  for  the  town,  to  divide  the  points  of  law 
and  topics  of  argument  among  ourselves,  that  repetition  might, 
as  much  as  possible,  be  avoided. 

Mr.  Gridley  answered,  that,  as  he  was  to  speak  last,  he  would 
endeavor  to  avoid  repetition  of  what  should  be  said  by  the  two 
gentlemen  who  were  to  speak  before  him. 

Mr.  Otis  added,  that,  as  he  was  to  speak  second,  he  would 
observe  the  same  rule. 

Then  it  fell  upon  me,  without  one  moment's  opportunity  to 
consult  any  authorities,  to  open  an  argument  upon  a  question 
that  was  never  made  before,  and  I  wish  I  could  hope  it  never 
would  be  made  again,  that  is,  whether  the  courts  of  law  should 
be  open  or  not  ? 

My  old  friend  Thacher's  officina  justiticc. 

I  grounded  my  argument  on  the  invalidity  of  the  Stamp  Act, 
it  not  being  in  any  sense  our  act,  having  never  consented  to  it. 
But,  lest  that  foundation  should  not  be  sufficient,  on  the  present 
necessity  to  prevent  a  failure  of  justice,  and  the  present  impossi- 
bility of  carrying  that  act  into  execution.* 

1  John  Rowe,  a  merchant,  active  on  the  side  of  liherty.  Gordon  says  that 
many  influential  persons,  at  this  time,  were  thinking  of  him  as  a  representative 
from  Boston  to  the  General  Court;  but  Mr.  Samuel  Adams  artfully  nominated 
a  different  one,  by  asking,  with  his  eyes  looking  to  Mr.  Hancock's  house,  "  Is 
there  not  another' John  that  may  do  better  ?  " 

*  [With  so  little  preparation,  and  with  no  time  to  look  into  any  books  for 
analogous  cases,  I  went  and  introduced  the  argument,  but  made  a  very  poor 
figure.  Mr.  Gridley  and  Mr.  Otis  more  than  supplied  all  my  defects.  But  the 
Governor  and  council  would  do  nothing.] 

Among  the  papers  of  Mr.  Adams,  the  following  abstract  remains  of  the  author- 
ities on  which  he  relied  upon  this  occasion  :—■• 


V 


Mr.  30.]  DIARY.  159 

Mr.  Otis  reasoned  with  great  learning  and  zeal  on  the  judges' 
oaths,  &c. 

Mr.  Gridley  on  the  great  inconveniences  that  would  ensue  the 
interruption  of  justice. 

The  Governor  said,  many  of  the  arguments  used  were  very 
good  ones  to  be  used  before  the  Judges  of  the  executive  courts ; 
but  he  believed  there  had  been  no  instance  in  America  of  an 
application  to  the  Governor  and  council ;  and  said,  that  if  the 
Judges  should  receive  any  directions  from  the  King  about  a 
point  of  law,  they  would  scorn  to  regard  them,  and  would  say 
that  while  they  were  in  those  seats,  they  only  were  to  determine 
points  of  law. 

The  council  adjourned  to  the  morning,  and  I  repaired  to  my 
lodgings. 

21.  Saturday.  Spent  the  morning  in  sauntering  about  and 
chatting  with  one  and  another,  —  the  sheriff,  Mr.  Goldthwaite, 
brother  Sewall,&c,  —  upon  the  tarries.     Dined  with  brother  knii ; 


EIGHT,    WRONG,   AND   REMEDY. 

Common  law  is  common  right.     1  Inst.  142  a.     Coke's  Proem  to  2  Inst. 

The  law  is  the  subject's  best  birthright.     2  Inst.  56. 

Want  of  right  and  want  of  remedy  is  all  one ;  for  where  there  is  no  remedy 
there  is  no  right.     1  Inst.  95  b. 

The  law  provides  a  remedy  for  every  wrong.  1  Inst.  197  b.  2  Inst.  55,  56, 
405.     But  see  1  Inst.  199  b. 

The  law  hath  a  delight  in  giving  of  remedy.  Lit.  323.  1  Inst.  54  b.,  199  b., 
100  a. 

The  act  of  law  never  doth  wrong.     1  Inst.  88  b.,  148  a.  b.,  379  a. 

Where  the  construction  of  any  act  is  left  to  the  law,  the  law  will  never  con- 
strue it  to  work  a  wrong.     Wood's  Inst.  pp.  4,  5. 

A  statute  must  be  construed  that  no  innocent  man  may,  by  a  literal  construc- 
tion, receive  damage.     Wood,  p.  9. 

An  act  of  Parliament  can  do  no  wrong.  Holt,  12  Mod.  687,  688.  Hill,  13 
Wm.  IH.  B.  R.     City  of  London  v.  Wood. 

Actus  Dei  nemini  tacit  injuriam ;  actus  legis  nulli  facit  injuriam. 

CASES  OF  NECESSITY  AND  IMPOSSIBILITY. 

The  law  forces  no  one  to  that  which  is  impossible  or  vain.  1  Inst.  79  a.,  92 
a.,  127  b.  To  procure  the  stamp  papers  is  impossible,  and  to  stop  justice  would 
be  vain. 

Things  of  necessity  are  to  be  excepted  out  of  a  general  law.  2  Inst.  168. 
There  is  nothing  of  greater  necessity  than  the  administration  of  justice.  Justice 
cannot  be  administered  at  present  but  in  the  usual  way.  Therefore  the  present 
case  and  these  times  are  excepted  out  of  that  general  law,  the  Stamp  Act. 

Things  for  necessity'  sake  or  to  prevent  a  failure  of  justice,  are  excepted  out 
of  a  statute.     Wood's  Inst.  p.  9. 

Acts  of  Parliament  that  are  against  reason,  or  impossible  to  be  performed,  shall 
be  judged  void.     8  Rep.  118,  128,  129.     2  Inst,  587,  588. 


160  DIARY.  [1765. 

after  dinner  received  a  hint  from  the  committee,  that,  as  I  was  of 
counsel  for  the  town,  I  not  only  had  a  right,  but  it  was  expected 
I  should  attend  the  meeting.  I  went  accordingly.  The  com- 
mittee reported  the  answer  of  the  board  to  their  petition,  which 
was,  in  substance,  that  the  board  had  no  authority  to  direct 
the  courts  of  law  in  the  manner  prayed  for;  that  the  memorial 
involved  a  question  of  law,  namely,  whether  the  officers  of  the 
government,  in  the  present  circumstances  of  the  Province,  could 
be  justified  in  proceeding  with  business  without  stamps ;  that 
the  board  were  desirous  that  the  judges  should  decide  that  ques- 
tion freely,  without  apprehension  of  censure  from  the  board ;  and 
that  the  board  recommended  it  to  the  judges  of  the  inferior  court, 
for  the  county  of  Suffolk,  and  to  the  other  judges  of  the  other 
courts  in  the  Province,  to  determine  that  question  as  soon  as 
may  be,  at  or  before  their  next  respective  terms.1 

The  question  was  put,  whether  that  paper  should  be  recorded  ? 
Passed  in  the  affirmative. 

The  next  question  was,  whether  it  was  a  satisfactory  answer 
to  their  memorial  ?  Unanimously  in  the  negative.  Then  sev- 
eral motions  were  made.  The  first  was,  that  the  meeting  be 
adjourned  to  a  future  day,  and  that  the  town's  counsel  be  desired 
to  consult  together  and  give  the  town  their  opinions,  whether 
any  other  legal  and  constitutional  steps  can  be  taken  by  the  town 
towards  removing  the  obstructions  to  justice.  The  second  motion 
was,  that  those  of  the  town's  counsel  who  were  present  should 
then  give  their  opinion.  The  third  was,  that  application  should 
be  made  to  the  judges  to  determine  the  question  speedily.  The 
second  prevailed,  and  I  was  called  upon  to  give  my  opinionjirst. 
I  agreed  with  Kent,  that  an  application  to  the  Judges  might  be 
out  of  character,  both  for  the  town  and  the  Judges,  and  that  no 
person  could  be  in  any  danger  of  penalties  on  the  one  hand,  or 
of  having  processes  adjudged  void  on  the  other.  But  many  per- 
sons might  entertain  fears   and  jealousies   and   doubts,  which 


1  Hutchinson's  comment  on  this  decision  and  its  consequences  is  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

"  This  was  very  improper,  and  tending  to  division,  and  to  increase  the  flame; 
but  no  other  way  occurred  to  the  council,  of  freeing  themselves  from  trouble. 

The  town  adjourned  for  two  or  three  days  to  know  the  result;  and,  when 
they  heard  it,  voted,  'that  it  was  not  satisfactory.' 

Such  votes  became  frequent,  and  had  greater  effect  than  can  well  be  ima- 
gined."    History,  iii.  141. 


Mi.  30.]  DIARY.  161 

would  everlastingly  be  a  grievance.  So  that  I  had  heard  no 
proposal  yet  made,  for  the  future  conduct  of  the  town,  which 
had  not  difficulties  and  objections  attending  it;  so  that  I  must 
conclude  myself  as  yet  in  doubt,  and  that  I  dared  not  give  any 
opinion  positively,  in  a  matter  of  so  much  importance,  without 
the  most  mature  deliberation. 

Mr.  Otis  then  gave  his  sentiments,  and  declared  once  for  all 
that  he  knew  of  no  legal  and  constitutional  course  the  town 
could  take,  but  to  direct  their  representatives  to  request  the 
Governor  to  call  a  convention  of  the  members  of  both  houses, 
as  he  could  not  legally  call  an  assembly ;  and  if  his  Excellency 
would  not,  to  call  one  themselves,  by  requesting  all  the  members 
to  meet ;  but  concluded  with  observing  that,  as  one  of  their 
counsel  was  not  present,  and  another  was  in  doubt,  he  thought 
it_would  be  best  to  take  further  time  for  consideration.  And 
the  town  accordingly  voted  an  adjournment  to  next  Thursday, 
ten  o'clock. 

A  consultation,  therefore,  I  must  have  with  Messrs.  Gridley 
and  Otis,  and  we  must  all  attend  the  town  meeting  next  Thurs- 
day.    What  advice  shall  we  give  them  ? 

The  question  is,  "  what  legal  and  constitutional  measures  the 
town  can  take  to  open  the  courts  of  law  ?  " 

The  town,  in  their  memorial  to  his  Excellency  in  council,  assert 
that  the  courts  of  law  within  the  Province,  in  which  alone  justice 
can  be  distributed  among  the  people  so  far  as  respects  civil  mat- 
ters, are  to  all  intents  and  purposes  shut  up ;  for  which  no  just 
and  legal  reason  can  be  assigned.  The  record  of  the  board, 
sent  down  in  answer,  admits  that  the  courts  of  law  are  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  shut  up ;  and  says  that,  before  they  can  be 
opened,  a  point  of  law  must  be  decided,  namely,  whether  the 
officers  of  the  government,  in  the  present  circumstances  of  the 
Province,  can  be  justified  in  proceeding  in  their  offices  without 
stamps?  —  which  the  Judges  are  to  determine. 

Are  the  board  then  agreed  with  the  town  that  the  courts  of 
law  are  shut  up  ?  But  I  hope  the  town  will  not  agree  with  the 
board,  that  the  judges  are  the  proper  persons  to  decide  whether 
they  shall  be  open  or  not.  It  is  the  first  time,  I  believe,  that 
such  a  question  was  ever  put  since  William  the  Conqueror, 
nay,  since  the  days  of  King  Lear.  Should  the  twelve  judges 
of  England,  and  all  other  officers  of  justice,  judicial  and  minis- 

14* 


1G2  DIARY.  [1765. 

terial,  suddenly  stop  and  shut  up  their  offices,  I  believe  the  King 
in  council  would  hardly  recommend  any  points  of  law  to  the 
consideration  of  those  judges.  The  King,  it  is  true,  of  his  pre- 
rogative, could  not  remove  the  judges,  because  in  England  a 
judge  is  quite  another  thing  from  what  he  is  here.  But  I  believe 
the  Commons  in  Parliament  would  immediately  impeach  them 
all  of  high  treason. 

My  advice  to  the  town  will  be,  to  take  the  board  at  their  word, 
and  to  choose  a  committee  immediately ;  in  the  first  place,  to 
wait  on  the  Governor  in  council,  as  the  supreme  court  of  probate, 
and  request  of  them  a  determination  of  the  point, — whether  the 
officers  of  the  probate  courts  in  the  Province  can  be  justified  in 
proceeding  with  business  without  stamps ;  in  the  next  place,  to 
wait  on  the  honorable  the  judges  of  the  superior  court,  to  request 
their  determination  of  the  same  question ;  and,  in  the  third  place, 
to  wait  on  the  judges  of  the  inferior  court  for  the  county  of 
Suffolk,  with  the  same  request,  in  pursuance  of  the  recommen- 
dation of  the  honorable  board  ;  and,  unless  a  speedy  determina- 
tion of  the  question  is  obtained  in  all  these  courts  in  this  way,  to 
request  of  the  Governor  a  convention  of  the  two  houses,  and,  if 
that  is  refused,  to  endeavor  to  call  one  themselves. 

What  are  the  consequences  of  the  supposition  that  the  courts 
are  shut  up?  The  King  is  the  fountain  of  justice,  by  the  con- 
stitution ;  and  it  is  a  maxim  of  the  law,  that  the  King  never  dies. 

Are  not  protection  and  allegiance  reciprocal  ?  and  if  we  are 
out  of  the  King's  protection,  are  we  not  discharged  from  our 
allegiance  ?  Are  not  all  the  ligaments  of  government  dissolved  ? 
Is  it  not  an  abdication  of  the  throne  ?  In  short,  where  will  such 
a  horrid  doctrine  terminate  ?     It  would  run  us  into  treasonJ_ 

22.  Sunday.  At  home  with  my  family,  thinking. 
Jy^/>  k<T  23.  Monday.  Went  to  Boston.  After  dinner  rambled  after 
Messrs.  Gridley  and  Otis,  but  could  find  neither.  Went  into 
Mr.  Dudley's,  Mr.  Dana's,  Mr.  Otis's  office,  and  then  to  Mr. 
Adams's,  and  went  with  him  to  the  Monday  night  club.  There 
I  found  Otis,  Gushing,  Wells,  Pemberton,  Gray,  Austin,  two 
Waldos,  Inches,  Dr.  Parker,  and  spent  the  evening  very  agree- 
ably indeed.  Politicians  all  at  this  club.  We  had  many  curious 
anecdotes  about  governors,  counsellors,  representatives,  dema- 
gogues, merchants,  &c. 

The  behavior  of  these  gentlemen  is  very  familiar  and  friendly 


2Et.  30.]  DIARY.  1(33 

to  each  other,  and  very  polite  and  complaisant  to  strangers. 
Gray  *  has  a  very  tender  mind,  is  extremely  timid.  He  says, 
when  he  meets  a  man  of  the  other  side,  he  talks  against  him ; 
when  he  meets  a  man  of  our  side,  he  opposes  him; — so  that  he 
fears  he  shall  be  thought  against  everybody,  and  so  everybody 
will  be  against  him.  But  he  hopes  to  prepare  the  way  for  his 
escape,  at  next  May,  from  an  employment  that  neither  his  abil- 
ities, nor  circumstances,  nor  turn  of  mind,  are  fit  for. 

Cushing  2  is  steady,  and  constant,  and  busy  in  the  interest  of 
liberty  and  the  opposition,  is  famed  for  secrecy  and  his  talent  at 
procuring  intelligence. 

Adams  3  is  zealous,  ardent,  and  keen  in  the  cause,  is  always 
for  softness,  and  delicacy,  and  prudence,  where  they  will  do,  but 
is  staunch  and  stiff  and  strict  and  rigid  and  inflexible  in  the 
cause. 

Otis  is  fiery  and  feverous ;  his  imagination  flames,  his  pas- 
sions blaze  ;  he  is  liable  to  great  inequalities  of  temper ;  some- 
times in  despondency,  sometimes  in  a  rage.  The  rashnesses 
and  imprudencies  into  which  his  excess  of  zeal  have  formerly 
transported  him,  have  made  him  enemies,  whose  malicious  watch 
over  him  occasion  more  caution,  and  more  cunning,  and  more 
inexplicable  passages  in  his  conduct  than  formerly  ;  and,  perhaps, 
views  at  the  chair  or  the  board,  or  possibly  more  expanded  views 
beyond  the  Atlantic,  may  mingle  now  with  his  patriotism. 

TneTTPenseroso,  however,  is  discernible  on  the  faces  of  all 
four. 

Adams,  I  believe,  has  the  most  thorough  understanding  of 
liberty  and  her  resources  in  the  temper  and  character  of  the 
people,  though  not  in  the  law  and  constitution ;  as  well  as  the 
most  habitual,  radical  love,  of  it,  of  any  of  them,  as  well  as  the 
most  correct,  genteel,  and  artful  pen.  He  is  a  man  of  refined 
policy,  steadfast  integrity,  exquisite  humanity,  genteel  erudition, 
obliging,  engaging  manners,  real  as  well  as  professed  piety,  and 

1  Harrison  Gray,  Treasurer  of  the  Province,  whose  vacillation,  here  depicted, 
terminated  as  it  usually  terminates  in  difficult  public  questions,  in  taking  the 
side  of  authority. 

2  Thomas  Cushing,  at  this  time  Speaker  of  the  House,  and  subsequently  a 
member  of  the  first  Congress  at  Philadelphia.  He  is  the  person  concerning 
whose  position  Dr.  Johnson,  in  "  Taxation  no  Tyranny,"  made  his  singular 
blunder.  "  One  object  of  the  Americans  is  said  to  be,  to  adorn  the  brows  of 
Mr.  C — g  with  a  diadem." 

3  Samuel  Adams. 


164  DIARY-  [1765. 

a  universal  good  character,  unless  it  should  be  admitted  that 
he  is  too  attentive  to  the  public,  and  not  enough  so  to  lnmself 
and  his  family. 

The  gentlemen  were  warm  to  have  the  courts  opened.  Grid- 
ley  had  advised  to  wait  for  a  judicial  opinion  of  the  judges.  I 
was  for  requesting  of  the  Governor  that  the  General  Court  might 
assemble  at  the  time  to  which  they  stood  prorogued ;  and,  if  the 
town  should  think  fit,  to  request  the  extrajudicial  opinion  of  the 
judges.  I  was  for  petitioning  the  Governor  and  council  to 
determine  the  question  first  as  Supreme  ordinary.  Gridley  will 
be  absent,  and  so  shall  I.  But  I  think  the  apparent  impatience 
of  the  town  must  produce  some  spirited  measures,  perhaps  more 
spirited  than  prudent. 

24.  Tuesday.  Returned  from  Boston ;  spent  the  afternoon 
and  evening  at  home. 

25.  Wednesday.  Christmas.  At  home  thinking,  reading, 
searching,  concerning  taxation  without  consent ;  concerning  the 
great  pause  and  rest  in  business. 


By  the  laws  of  England,  justice  flows  with  an  uninterrupted 
stream !  In  that  music  the  law  knows  of  neither  rests  nor  pauses. 
Nothing  but  violence,  invasion,  or  rebellion,  can  obstruct  the  river 
or  untune  the  instrument. 

Concerning  a  compensation  to  the  sufferers  by  the  late  riots 
in  Boston.  Statute  of  Winchester,  chapter  II.  —  "If  the  county 
will  not  answer  the  bodies  of  the  offenders,  the  people  there  shall 
be  answerable  for  all  the  robberies  done,  and  also  for  the  dama- 
ges."    Wingate's  Abridgment,  Title  Robberies. 

"Nulli  vendernns,  nvilli  negabimus,  aut  deferemus  justitiam." 

Every  writ  supposes  the  King  present  in  all  his  courts  of 
justice. 

Lord  Coke  says,  "  Against  this  ancient  and  fundamental  law, 
and  in  the  face  thereof,  I  find  an  act  of  Parliament  made,  that  as 
well  justices  of  assize,  as  justices  of  peace,  without  any  finding 
or  presentment  of  twelve  men,  upon  a  bare  information  for  the 
King  before  them  made,  should  have  full  power  and  authority, 
by  their  discretions,  to  hear  and  determine  all  offences  and  con- 
tempts against  the  form,  ordinance,  and  effect  of  any  statute,  by 


26*.  30.]  DIARY.  165 

color  of  which  act  shaking  this  fundamental  law,  it  is  not  cred- 
ible what  horrible  oppressions  and  exactions  were  committed  by- 
Sir  Richard  Empson  and  Edmund  Dudley;  and,  upon  this  unjust 
and  injurious  act,  a  new  office  was  created,  and  they  made  mas- 
ters of  the  king's  forfeitures.  But  at  the  Parliament,  first  Henry 
VITL,  this  act,  11  Henry  VII.,  is  recited,  made  void,  and  repealed. 
The  fearful  end  of  these  two  oppressors  should  deter  others  from 
committing  the  like,  and  admonish  Parliaments  that,  instead  of 
this  ordinary  and  precious  trial  per  legem  terra,  they  bring  not 
in  absolute  and  partial  trials  by  discretion." 


Went  not  to  Christmas ;  dined  at  home ;  drank  tea  at  grand- 
father Quincy's.1  The  old  gentleman  inquisitive  about  the  hear- 
ing before  the  Governor  and  council ;  about  the  Governor's  and 
Secretary's  looks  and  behavior,  and  about  the  final  determination 
of  the  board.  The  old  lady  as  merry  and  chatty  as  ever,  with 
her  stories  out  of  the  newspapers. 

Spent  the  evening  at  home  with  my  partner,  and  no  other 
company.  _Mr.  Samuel  Adams  told  me  he  was  glad  I  was 
nominated,  for  several  reasons  ;  first,  because  he  hoped  that 
such  an  instance  of  respect  from  the  town  of  Boston,  would 
jnake  an  impression  on  my  mind,  and  secure  my  friendship  to 
the  town  from  gratitude.  Secondly,  he  was  in  hopes  such  dis- 
tinction  from  Boston  would  be  of  service  to  my  business  and 
interest.  Thirdly,  he  hoped  that  Braintree,  finding  The  eyes  oT 
Boston  were  upon  me,  would  fix  theirs  on  me  too,  next  May. 

His  hopes,  in  the  two  first  particulars,  may  be  well  grounded, 
but  I  am  sure  not  in  the  third. 


A  Dissertation  upon  Seekers — of  Elections,  of  Commissions  from 
the  Governor,  of  Commissions  from  the  Crown. 

Of  elections, — when  they  give  your  one  hundred  pounds,  lawful 
money,  towards  building  a  new  meeting-house,  and  one  hundred, 
old  tenor,  towards  repairing  one,  or  fifty  dollars  towards  repairing 
highways,  or  ten  dollars  to  the  treasury  towards  the  support  of 

1  Colonel  John  Quincy,  for  more  than  forty  years  an  active  person  in  the 
General  Court  of  the  Colony,  now  retired  in  that  part  of  Braintree  called  Mount 
Wollaston,  where  he  died,  isth  July,  176  7. 


166  DIARY.  [1765. 

the  poor  of  the  town,  or  when  they  are  very  liberal  of  their 
drams  of  brandy  and  lumps  of  sugar,  and  of  their  punch,  &c, 
on  May  meeting  days.  These  are  commonly  persons  who  have 
some  further  views  and  designs.  These  largesses  aim  at  some- 
thing further  than  your  votes.  These  persons  aim  at  being 
justices,  sheriffs,  judges,  colonels ;  and  when  they  get  to  court, 
they  will  be  hired  and  sell  their  votes,  as  you  sold  yours  to  them. 
But  there  is  another  sort  of  seekers  worse  than  the  other  two,  — 
such  as  seek  to  be  Governors,  Lieutenant-Governors,  Secretaries, 
Custom-house  officers  of  all  sorts,  Stamp-officers  of  all  sorts,  —  in 
fine,  such  as  seek  appointments  from  the  crown.  These  seekers 
are  actuated  by  a  more  ravenous  sort  of  ambition  and  avarice, 
and  they  merit  a  more  aggravated  condemnation.  These  ought 
to  be  avoided  and  dreaded  as  the  plague,  as  the  destroying 
angels ;  and  the  evil  spirits  are  as  good  objects  of  your  trust  as 
they. 

Let  no  such  man  ever  have  the  vote  of  a  freeholder  or  a  repre- 
sentative.    Let  no  such  man  be  trusted. 


27.  Friday.  "  In  unforeseen  cases,  that  is,  when  the  state  of 
things  is  found  such  as  the  author  of  the  disposition  has  not 
foreseen,  and  could  not  have  thought  of,  we  should  rather  follow 
his  intention  than  his  words,  and  interpret  the  act  as  he  himself 
would  have  interpreted  it,  had  he  been  present,  or  conformably 
to  what  he  would  have  done  if  he  had  foreseen  the  things  that 
happened.  This  rule  is  of  great  use  to  Judges.  Vattel,  p.  230 ; 
book  2,  ch.  17,  s.  297.  If  a  case  be  presented  in  which  one  cannot 
absolutely  apply  the  well  known  reason  of  a  law  or  a  promise, 
this  case  ought  to  be  excepted.  Book  2,  ch.  17,  s.  292.  Every 
interpretation  that  leads  to  an  absurdity,  ought  to  be  rejected." 
Page  222,  book  2,  ch.  17,  s.  282.  Every  impossibility,  physical 
and  moral,  is  an  absurdity.* 

At  home  all  day.     Mr.  Shute  called  in  the  evening,  and  gave 

*  [The  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  however,  were  persuaded  to  proceed ;  and  the 
Superior  Court  postponed  and  continued  the  question  till  the  act  was  repealed. 
At  an  inferior  court  in  Plymouth,  Mr.  Paine  and  I  called  a  meeting  of  the  bar, 
and  we  labored  so  successfully  with  our  brothers  that  we  brought  them  all  to 
agree  in  an  application  to  the  Court  to  proceed  without  stamps,  in  which  we 
succeeded.] 


JEt.  30.]  DIARY.  1(37 

us  a  number  of  anecdotes  about  Governor  Rogers l  and  Secretary 
Potter, — their  persecution  in  Boston,  their  flight  to  Rhode  Island, 
their  sufferings  there ;  their  deliverance  from  jail,  and  voyage  to 
Antigua  and  Ireland  without  money  ;  their  reception  in  Ireland, 
and  voyage  to  England ;  their  distresses  in  England  till  they 
borrowed  money  to  get  Rogers's  Journal  printed  and  present  it 
to  his  Majesty,  which  procured  each  of  them  his  appointment  at 
Michilimackinac.  Shute  is  a  jolly,  merry,  droll,  social  Christian  ; 
he  loves  to  laugh,  tells  a  story  with  a  good  grace,  delights  in 
banter,  but  yet  reasons  well ;  is  inquisitive  and  judicious ;  has 
an  eye  that  plays  its  lightnings ;  sly,  and  waggish,  and  roguish ; 
is  for  sinking  every  person  who  either  favors  the  stamps  or  trims 
_jibout  them,  into  private  station;  expects  a  great  mortality  among 
the  counsellors  next  May.  In  this,  I  think  he  is  right.  If  there 
is  any  man,  who  from  wild  ideas  of  power  and  authority,  from 
a  contempt  of  that  equality  in  knowledge,  wealth,  and  power, 
which  has  prevailed  in  this  country,  or  from  any  other  cause, 
can  upon  principle  desire  the  execution  of  the  Stamp  Act, 
those  principles  are  a  total  forfeiture  of  the  confidence  of  the 
people.  If  there  is  any  one  who  cannot  see  the  tendency  of 
that  Act  to  reduce  the  body  of  the  people  to  ignorance,  poverty, 
dependence,  his  want  of  eyesight  is  a  disqualification  for  public 
employment.  Let  the  towns  and  the  representatives,  therefore, 
renounce  every  stamp  man  and  every  trimmer  next  May. 

28.  Saturday.  Went  to  Weymouth  with  my  wife  ;  dined  at 
Father  Smith's ;  heard  much  of  the  uneasiness  among  the  people 
of  Hingham,  at  a  sermon  preached  by  Mr.  Gay,2  on  the  day  of 

1  Robert  Rogers,  of  New  Hampshire,  was  noted  during  the  French  war  as  a 
daring  partisan  officer.  He  was  placed  in  command  of  a  company  of  Rangers, 
and  was  engaged  in  much  dangerous  service  on  scouting  parties  around  Lake 
George,  when  Ticonderoga  and  Fort  William  Henry  were  the  head  quarters 
of  conflicting  forces.  His  Journal  of  these  transactions,  first  printed  in  London, 
in  1 7(1.3,  has  been  reprinted  within  a  few  years  at  Concord,  N".  H.  It  is  a  book 
of  little  merit,  yet  it  contains  some  details  of  the  mode  of  warfare  at  this  period 
which  will  be  read  with  more  curiosity  as  time  elapses.  He  obtained  the  appoint- 
ment of  Governor  of  Michilimackinac,  as  stated  in  the  text,  but  was  soon  dis- 
placed and  sent  in  irons  to  Montreal,  on  suspicion  of  treachery.  His  mode  of 
life  had  not  been  favorable  to  the  cultivation  of  any  moral  sense,  so  that  after  the 
Revolution  broke  out  he  seemed  ready  to  serve  either  side  or  both.  General 
Washington  seized  him  as  a  spy,  which  he  probably  was ;  he  nevertheless  suc- 
ceeded in  gaining  his  liberty,  which  he  improved  by  taking  a  commission  of 
Colonel  in  the  British  service.  Sabine's  American  Loyalists.  Sjmrks's  Wash' 
'vnjton. 

2  Reverend  Dr.  Ebenezer  Gay,  for  sixty-nine  years  pastor  of  the  first  church 
in  Hingham.     His  political  sentiments,  inclining  to  the  side  of  authority,  caused 


168  DIARY.  [1765. 

Thanksgiving,  from  a  text  in  James  :  "  Out  of  the  same  mouth 
proceedeth  blessing  and  cursing."  In  which  he  said  that  the 
ancient  weapons  of  the  church  were  prayers  and  tears,  not 
clubs ;  and  inculcated  submission  to  authority  in  pretty  strong 
expressions.  His  people  said  that  Mr.  Gay  would  do  very  well 
for  a  distributer,  and  they  believed  he  had  the  stamps  in  his 
house,  and  even  threatened,  &c.  This  uneasiness,  it  seems,  was 
inflamed  by  a  sermon  preached  there  the  Sunday  after,  by  Mr. 
Smith,  which  they  admired  very  much,  and  talk  of  printing,  as 
the  best  sermon  they  ever  heard  him  preach.  This  sermon  of 
Mr.  Smith's  was  from  —  "  Render  therefore  unto  Caesar  the  things 
that  are  Csesar's,  and  unto  God  the  things  that  are  God's."  The 
tenor  of  it  was  to  recommend  honor,  reward,  and  obedience,  to 
good  rulers,  and  a  spirited  opposition  to  bad  ones,  interspersed 
with  a  good  deal  of  animated  declamation  upon  liberty  and  the 
times. 

It  seems  there  is  a  club,  consisting  of  Colonel  Lincoln,  the 
two  Captain  Barkers,  one  of  them  an  half-pay  officer,  Colonel 
Thaxter,  &c,  who  visit  the  parson  (Gay)  every  Sunday  evening; 
and  this  club  is  wholly  inclined  to  passive  obedience,  as  the  best 
way  to  procure  redress.  A  very  absurd  sentiment  indeed !  We 
have  tried  prayers  and  tears,  and  humble  begging,  and  timid,  tame 
submission,  as  long  as  trying  is  good ;  and,  instead  of  redress,  we 
have  only  increased  our  burdens  and  aggravated  our  condemna- 
tion. 

Returned  and  spent  the  evening  at  home. 

29.  Sunday.  Heard  Parson  Wi bird :  —  "  Hear,  O  heavens,  and 
give  ear,  O  earth!  I  have  nourished  and  brought  up  children, 
and  they  have  rebelled  against  me."  I  began  to  suspect  a  Tory 
sermon,  on  the  times,  from  this  text,  but  the  preacher  confined 
himself  to  spirituals.  But,  I  expect,  if  the  tories  should  become 
the  strongest,  we  shall  hear  many  sermons  against  the  ingratitude, 
injustice,  disloyalty,  treason,  rebellion,  impiety,  and  ill  policy  of 
refusing  obedience  to  the  Stamp  Act.  The  church  clergy,  to  be 
sure,  will  be  very  eloquent.     The  church  people  are,  many  of 


them,Javorers  of  the  Stamp  Act  at  present.     Major  Miller,  for- 

him  some  trouble  in  a  parish  which  sympathized  with  the  popular  party.  But 
he  was  not  averse  to  gratifying  his  people,  occasionally,  by  an  exchange  with  his 
neighbor  of  Weymouth,  the  Rev. 'William  Smith,  father-in-law  of  Mr.  Adams, 
who  generally  seized  the  opportunity,  as  in  the  present  instance,  of  inculcating 
more  acceptable  doctrines. 


JEt.  30.]  DIARY.  159 

sooth,  is  very  fearful  that  they  will  be  stomachfitl  at  home,  and 
angry  and  resentful.  Mr.  Veasey  insists  upon  it,  that  we  ought 
to  pay  our  proportion  of  the  public  burdens.  Mr.  Cleverly  is 
fully  convinced  that  they,  that  is  the  Parliament,  have  a  right  to 
tax  us;  he  thinks  it  is  wrong  to  go  on  with  business;  we  had 
better  stop  and  wait  till  Spring,  till  we  hear  from  home.  He 
says  we  put  the  best  face  upon  it ;  that  letters  have  been  received 
in  Boston,  from  the  greatest  merchants  in  the  nation,  blaming  our 
proceedings,  and  that  the  merchants  don't  second  us.  Letters 
from  old  Mr.  Lane  and  from  Mr.  Deberdt.  He  says  that  things 
go  on  here  exactly  as  they  did  in  the  reign  of  King  Charles  I., 
"  that  blessed  saint  and  martyr." 

Thus  that  unaccountable  man  goes  about,  sowing  his  perni- 
_cious  seeds  of  mischief,  instilling  wrong  principles  in  church  and 
state  into  the  people,  striving  to  divide  and  disunite  them,  and 
to  excite  fears,  to  damp  their  spirits  and  lower  their  courage. 

Etter  is  another  of  the  poisonous  talkers,  but  not  equally  so. 
^Cleverly  and  Veasey  are  slaves  in  principle ;  they  are  devout, 
religious  slaves,  and  a  religious  bigot  is  the  worst  of  men. 
Cleverly  converses  of  late  at  Mr.  Lloyd's,  with  some  of  the 
seekers  of  appointments  from  the  Crown  —  some  of  the  dozen, 
in  the  town  of  Boston,  who  ought,  as  Hancock  says,  to  be 
beheaded ;  or  with  some  of  those  who  converse  with  the 
Governor,  who  ought,  as  Tom  Boylston  says,  to  be  sent  home 
with  all  the  other  Governors  on  the  continent,  with  chains  about 
their  necks. 

30.  Monday.  We  are  now  concluding  the  year  1765.  To- 
morrow is  the  last  day  of  a  year  in  which  America  has  shown 


j>uch_magnanimity  and  spirit,  as  never  before  appeared  in  any 
country  for  such  a  tract  of  country.  And  Wednesday  will  open 
upon  us  a  new  year,  1766,  which  I  hope  will  procure  us  innu- 
merable testimonies  from  Europe  in  our  favor  and  applause, 
and  which  we  all  hope  will  produce  the  greatest  and  most 
extensive  joy  ever  felt  in  America,  on  the  repeal  both  of  the 
^Starnp  Act  and  Sugar  Act,  at  least  of  the  former. 

Q.  Who  ia  it  that  has  harangued  the  grand  juries  in  every 
county,  and  endeavored  to  scatter  party  principles  in  politics  ? 
Who  has  made  it  his  constant  endeavor  to  discountenance  the 
odium  in  which  informers  are  held  ?  Who  has  taken  occasion, 
in  fine-spun,  spick  and  span,  spruce,  nice,  pretty,  easy,  warbling 

VOL.    II.  15 


170  DIARY.  [1765. 

declamations  to  Grand  Inquests,  to  render  the  characters  of 
informers  honorable  and  respectable  ?  Who  has  frequently 
expressed  his  apprehensions  that  the  form  of  government  in 
England  was  become  too  popular?  Who  is  it  that  has  said 
in  public  speeches  that  the  most  complete  monarchy  in  Europe 
was  the  government  of  France  ?  Wlio  is  it  that  so  often  enlarges 
on  the  excellency  of  the  government  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and 
insists  upon  it  so  often  that  the  constitution,  about  the  time  of 
her  reign,  and  under  her  administration,  was  nearest  the  point 
of  perfection  ?  Who  is  it  that  has  always  given  his  opinion  in 
favor  of  prerogative  and  revenue,  in  every  case  in  which  they 
have  been  brought  into  question,  without  one  exception  ?  Who 
is  it  that  has  endeavored  to  bias  simple  juries,  by  an  argument 
as  warm  and  vehement  as  those  of  the  bar,  in  a  case  where  the 
Province  was  contending  against  a  custom-house  officer  ? x  And 
what  were  the  other  means  employed  in  that  cause  against  the 
resolutions  of  the  General  Assembly  ?  Who  has  monopolized 
almost  all  the  power  of  the  government  to  himself  and  his  fam- 
ily ;  and  who  has  been  endeavoring  to  procure  more,  both  on  this 
side  and  the  other  side  the  Atlantic  ? 
I  Read  Shakspeare's  Life  of  King  Henry  VIII. 

31.  Tuesday.  Went  to  Mr.  Jo.  Bass's,  and  there  read  yester- 
day's paper;  walked  in  the  afternoon  into  the  common,  and 
quite  through  my  hemlock  swamp.  I  find  many  fine  bunches 
of  young  maples,  and  nothing  else  but  alders.  Spent  the  even- 
ing at  home  with  neighbor  Field. 

The  national  attention  is  fixed  upon  the  colonies ;  the  religion, 
administration  of  justice,  geography,  numbers,  &c,  of  the  colo- 
nies, are  a  fashionable  study.  But  what  wretched  blunders  do 
they  make  in  attempting  to  regulate  them.  They  know  not  the 
character  of  Americans. 

1766.  January  1.  Wednesday.  Severe  cold,  and  a  prospect 
of  snow.  We  are  now  upon  the  beginning  of  a  year  of  greater 
expectation  than  any  that  has  passed  before  it.  This  year  brings 
ruin  or  salvation  to  the  British  Colonies.  The  eyes  of  all  Amer- 
ica are  fixed  on  the  British  Parliament.  In  short,  Britain  and 
America  are  staring  at  each  other;  and  they  will  probably  stare 
more  and  more  for  some  time. 

1  Gray  vs.  Paxton.  Minot's  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  87.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to 
say  that  Hutchinson  is  the  person  pointed  at. 


^t.  30.]  DIARY.  J71 

At  home  all  day.     Mr.  Joshua  Hayward,  Jr.  dined  with  me ; 

Town  politics  the  subject.     Doctor  Tufts  here  in  the  afternoon ; 

__  American  politics  the  subject.     Read  in  the  evening  a  letter 

from  Mr.  Deberdt,1  our  present  agent,  to  Lord  Dartmouth,  in 

which  he  considers  three  questions.     1.  Whether  in  equity  or 

policy  America  ought  to  refund  any  part  of  the  expense  of 

driving  away  the  French  in  the  last  war?     2.  Whether  it  is 

necessary  for  the  defence  of  the  British  plantations  to  keep  up 

an  army  there  ?     3.  Whether  in  equity  the  Parliament  can  tax 

us  ?     Each  of  which  he  discusses  like  a  man  of  sense,  integrity, 

and  humanity,  well  informed  in  the  nature  of  his  subject.     In 

Jiis  examination  of  the  last  question,  he  goes  upon  the  principle 

_of  the  Ipswich  instructions ;    namely,  that  the  first  settlers  of    ^ 

America  were  driven  by  oppression  from  the  realm,  and  so  dis- 

__juembered^from  the  dominions,  till  at  last  they  offered  to  make 
a  contract  with  the  nation,  or  the  Crown,  and  to  become  subject 
to  the  Crown  upon  certain  conditions,  which  contract,  subordi- 
nation, and  conditions,  were  wrought  into  their  charters,  which 
gave  them  a  right  to  tax  themselves.2  This  is  a  principle  which 
has  been  advanced  long  ago.  I  remember  in  the  trial  of  the 
cause  at  Worcester,  between  Governor  Hopkins  of  Rhode  Island 
and  Mr.  Ward,  one  of  the  witnesses  swore  that  he  heard  Gover- 

nor  Hopkins  some  years  before,  in  a  banter  with  Colonel  Amy, 

advancing  that  we  were  under  no  subjection  to  the  British  Par- 

_Jiament ;  that  our  forefathers  came  from  Leyden,  &c.  And, 
indeed,  it  appears  from  Hutchinson's  History  and  the   Massa- 

1  This  letter  was  simultaneously  printed  in  the  supplements  to  the  Boston 
Gazette,  the  Post-Boy,  and  the  Evening  Post,  of  30  December,  1765. 

2  Extract  from  the  instructions  given  to  Dr.  John  Calef,  representative,  by 
the  people  of  Ipswich,  2d  October.  1765 : 

"  When  our  forefathers  left  their  native  country,  they  left  also  the  laws  and 
constitution  they  had  been  under,  in  all  respects  and  to  all  purposes,  save  what 
was  secured  by  the  charters ;  and  it  is  manifest  fact,  that,  from  that  day  to  this, 
the  government  at  home  have  never  considered  the  Colonies  as  under  the  force 
of  that  constitution  or  the  laws  of  that  realm.  Three  things  were  necessary  to 
have  made  this  otherwise ;  First,  that  their  migrating  and  coming  forth  should 
have  been  a  national  act.- Secondly,  that  it  should  have  been  at  a  national 
expense.  Thirdly,  that  they  should  be  sent  to  settle  some  place  or  territory  that 
the  nation  had  before,  in  some  way  or  other,  made  their  own,  as  was  usually,  if 
not  always  the  case  with  the  ancient  Romans.  But  neither  of  them  was  the  case 
here.  It  is  well  known  they  came  out  of  their  own  accord,  and  at  their  own 
expense,  and  took  possession  of  a  country  they  were  obliged  to  buy  or  fight  for, 
and  to  which  the  nation  had  no  more  right  than  to  the  moon.  Thence  it  follows 
that,  abating  the  charter,  they  were  as  much  dismembered  from  the  government 
they  came  from,  as  the  people  of  any  other  part  of  the  world." 


/l/ 


172  DIARY.  [1766. 

chusetts  Records,  that  the  Colonies  were  considered  formerly, 
both  hen;  and  at  home,  as  allies  rather  than  subjects.  The  first 
settlement,  certainly,  was  not  a  national  act ;  that  is,  not  an  act 
of  the  people  nor  the  Parliament.  Nor  was  it  a  national  expense ; 
neither  the  people  of  England  nor  their  representatives  contribu- 
ted any  thing  towards  it.  Nor  was  the  settlement  made  on  a 
territory  belonging  to  the  people  nor  the  Crown  of  England. 

Q.  How  far  can  the  concern  the  council  at  Plymouth  had  in 
the  first  settlement,  be  considered  as  a  national  act?  How  far 
can  the  discoveries  made  by  the  Cabots  be  considered  as  an 
acquisition  of  territory  to  the  nation  or  the  crown  ?  And  quccre, 
whether  the  council  at  Plymouth,  or  the  voyages  of  the  Cabots, 
or  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  &c.,  were  any  expense  to  the  nation  ? 

In  the  paper  there  are  also  Remarks  on  the  Proceedings  of 
Parliament  relating  to  the  Stamp  Act,  taken  from  the  London 
Magazine,  September,  1765.1  This  remarker  says,  "as  a  great 
number  of  new  offences,  new  penalties,  and  new  offices  and 
officers,  are  by  this  act  created,  we  cannot  wonder  at  its  being 
extremely  disgustful  to  our  fellow  subjects  in  America.  Even 
the  patient  and  long  suffering  people  of  this  country  would 
scarcely  have  borne  it  at  once.  They  were  brought  to  it  by 
degrees ;  and  they  will  be  more  inconvenient  in  America  than 
they  can  be  in  England." 

The  remarker  says  further,  that  "  the  design  of  one  clause  in 
the  Stamp  Act  seems  to  be,  that  there  shall  be  no  such  thing  as 
a  practising  lawyer  in  the  country, — the  case  of  the  Saxons.  This 
design,  he  says  ludicrously,  by  compelling  every  man  to  manage 
and  plead  his  own  cause,  would  prevent  many  delays  and  perver- 
sions of  justice,  and  so  be  an  advantage  to  the  people  of  America. 
But  he  seriously  doubts  whether  the  tax  will  pay  the  officers. 
People  will  trust  to  honor,  like  gamesters  and  stockjobbers.  He 
says  he  will  not  enter  into  the  question,  whether  the  Americans 
are  right  or  wrong  in  the  opinion  they  have  been  indulged  in 
ever  since  their  establishment,  that  they  could  not  be  subjected  to 
any  taxes  but  such  as  should  be  imposed  by  their  own  respective 
assemblies.  He  thinks  a  land  tax  the  most  just  and  convenient 
of  any ;  an  extension  of  the  British  land  tax  to  the  American 
dominions.     But  this  would  have  occasioned  a  new  assessment 

1  This  article  is  printed  in  the  Evening  Post  alone. 


Mr.  30.]  DIARY.  173 

of  the  improved  value  of  the  lands  in  England  as  well  as  here, 
which  probably  prevented  the  scheme  of  a  land  tax  ;  for  he  hopes 
no  views  of  extending  the  corruptive  power  of  the  ministers  of 
the  crown  had  any  effect." 

It  is  said  at  New  York,  that  private  letters  inform,  the  great 
jnen  are  exceedingly  irritated  at  the  tumults  in  America,  and  are 
determined  to  enforce  the  act. 


This  irritable  race,  however,  will  have  good  luck  to  enforce  it. 
They  will  find  it  a  more  obstinate  war  than  the  conquest  of 
Canada  and  Louisiana. 

2.  Thursday.  A  great  storm  of  snow  last  night;  weather 
tempestuous  all  day.  "Waddled  through  the  snow  driving  my 
cattle  to  water  at  Doctor  Savil's  ;-r-a  fine  piece  of  glowing  exer- 
cise.    Brother  spent  the  evening  here  in  cheerful  chat. 

At  Philadelphia,  the  Heart-and-Hand  Fire  Company  has  ex- 
pelled Mr.  Hughes,  the  stamp  man  for  that  colony.  The  freemen 
of  Talbot  county,  in  MarylancL_have  erected  a  gibbet  before  the 
door  of  the  court-house,  twenty  feet  high,  and  have  hanged  on 
it  the  effigies  of  a  stamp  informer  in  chains,  in  terror  em  till  the 
Stamp  Act  shall  be  repealed ;  and  have  resolved,  unanimously, 
to  hold  in  utter  contempt  and  abhorrence  every  stamp  officer, 
and  every  favorer  of  the  Stamp  Act,  and  to  "  have  no  commu- 
nication with  any  such  person,  not  even  to  speak  to  him,  unless 
to  upbraid  him  with  his  baseness."  So  triumphant  is  the  spirit 
of  liberty  everywhere.  Such  a  union  was  never  before  known 
jn  America.  In  the  wars  that  have  been  with  the  French  and 
Indians  a  union  could  never  be  effected.  I  pity  my  unhappy 
fellow  subjects  in  Quebec  and  Halifax  for  the  great  misfortune 
that  has  befallen  them.  Quebec  consists  chiefly  of  Frenchmen, 
wTho  [are  mixed]  with  a  few  English,  and  awed  by  an  army  ; 
though  it  seems  the  discontent  there  is  so  great  that  the  Gazette 
is  dropped.  Halifax  consists  of  a  set  of  fugitives  and  vaga- 
bonds, who  are  also  kept  in  fear%by  a  fleet  and  an  army.  But 
can  no  punishment  be  devised  for  Barbadoes,  and  Port  Royal 
in  Jamaica,  for  their  base  desertion  of  the  cause  of  liberty,  their 
tame  surrender  of  the  rights  of  Britons,  their  mean,  timid  resig- 
nation to  slavery?  Meeching,1  sordid,  stupid  creatures,  below 
contempt,  below  pity,  they  deserve  to  be  made  slaves  to  their 

1  "  Sure  she  has  some  meeching  rascal  in  her  house,"  &c. 

The  Scornful  l.wiij.    Beaumont  and  Fletcher. 

i  -  * 


174  DIAIIY.  [176C. 

own  negroes !  But  they  live  under  the  scorching  sun,  which 
melts  them,  dissipates  their  spirits,  and  relaxes  their  nerves. 
Yet  their  negroes  seem  to  have  more  of  the  spirit  of  liberty 
than  they.  I  think  we  sometimes  read  of  insurrections  among 
their  negroes.  I  could  wish  that  some  of  their  blacks  had  been 
appointed  distributers  and  inspectors,  &c,  over  their  masters. 
This  would  have  but  a  little  aggravated  the  indignity. 

3.  Friday.  Fair  weather,  and  snow  enough.  Major  Miller, 
Dr.  Savil,  and  Mr.  Joseph  Penniman,  spent  the  evening  with 
me.  Agriculture,  commerce,  fishery,  arts,  manufactures ;  town, 
provincial,  American,  and  national  politics,  the  subject 

4.  Saturday.  Edes  and  Gill's  Gazette  brought  in.  I  find 
that  somebody  has  published  the  very  scene  in  Shakspeare's 
Henry  VIII.,  which  I  have  put  into  Lord  Clarendon's  letter  to 
Pym.1  This  brings  to  my  mind  again  Lord  Bacon's  doctrine  of 
secret,  invisible  connections  and  communications,  and  unknown, 
undiscovered  laws  of  nature. 

Hampden  writes  to  Pym  on  the  failure  of  justice  in  America, 
on  the  shutting  up  of  the  courts  of  justice  since  October.  He 
has  given  the  public  Mr.  Otis's  argument  before  the  Governor 
and  council,  from  Magna  Charta,  Lord  Coke,  the  Judges'  oaths, 
&c,  and  promises  to  give  more. 

7.  Tuesday.  At  Boston.  Hampden  has  given  us,  in  yester- 
day's Gazette,  a  long  letter  to  Pym  upon  shutting  up  the  courts ; 
in  which  he  proves,  from  Holt's  and  Pollexfen's  argument  at  the 
revolution  conference,  from  Grotius  De  Jure  Belli,  (book  1,  ch.  3, 
s.  2,)  that  shutting  up  the  courts  is  an  abdication  of  the  throne, 
a  discharge  of  the  subjects  from  their  allegiance,  and  a  total  dis- 
solution of  government,  and  reduction  of  all  men  to  a  state  of 
nature ;  and  he  proves,  from  Bracton,  that  partial  tumults,  &c, 
are  not  a  tenvpus  guerrium,  (bellorum,)  a  time  of  war. 

Samuel  Waterhouse  has  made  a  most  malicious,  ungenerous 
attack  upon  James  Lovell,  Jr.,  the  usher  of  the  grammar  school ; 
as  Y.  Z.  and  H.  had  attacked  him  about  idleness,  and  familiar 

1  Act  1  ;  scene  2.  The  controversial  papers  of  this  period  are  of  the  highest 
ability.  William  Pym  was  the  singular  choice  of  a  name  by  a  writer  on  the 
side  of  government,  in  the  London  Evening  Post,  20th  August,  1765,  whose 
speculations  were  reprinted  in  the  Boston  Evening  Post,  of  the  25th  of  Novem- 
ber. John  Adams,  by  way  of  offset,  chose  that  of  Clarendon  in  his  reply;  whilst 
James  Otis  addressed  to  his  opponent  a  series  of  vigorous  articles  under  the 
name  of  John  Hampden.     They  appeared  in  the  Gazette. 


;Et.  30.]  DIARY.  175 

spirits,  and  zanyship,  and  expectancy  of  a  deputation,  &c.  This 
way  of  reviling  one  another  is  very  shocking  to  humanity,  and 
very  dangerous  in  its  consequences.  To  pry  into  a  man's  private 
life,  and  expose  to  the  world  all  the  vices  and  follies  of  youth,  to 
paint  before  the  public  eye  all  the  blots  and  stains  in  a  man's 
private  character,  must  excite  the  commiseration  of  every  reader 
to  the  object,  and  his  indignation  against  the  author  of  such 
abuse.1 

Spent  half  an  hour  with  Father  Dana ;  another  with  Samuel 
Quincy  ;  an  hour  with  Mr.  Otis,  &c.  Otis  is  in  high  spirits ;  is 
preparing  for  next  Monday's  paper ;  says  that  Mr.  Trail  brings 
very  comfortable  news ;  that  Conway  told  him  the  Stamp  Act 
must  be  repealed,  that  there  was  some  difficulty  about  coming 
off  with  honor,  and  that  America  would  boast  that  she  had 
conquered  Britain,  but  he  hoped  the  Americans  would  petition ; 
he  longed  to  receive  some  petitions,  &c.  John  Wentwortha 
writes  his  uncle  Samuel,  that  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham  told 
him  he  would  give  his  interest  to  repeal  one  hundred  Stamp 
Acts,  before  he  would  nm  the  risk  of  such  confusions  as  would 
be  caused  by  enforcing  it ;  that  he  knew  there  were  already  ten 
thousand  workmen  discharged  from  business  in  consequence  of 
the  advices  from  America. 

9.  Thursday.     At  home. 

"  Tantone  novorum 
Proventu  scelerurn  quaerunt  uter  imperet  urbi  ? 
Vix  tanti  fuerat  civilia  bella  moveri, 
Ut  neuter." 

Must  such  a  number  of  new  crimes  be  committed  to  decide 
which  of  these  two,  Caesar  or  Pompey,  shall  be  master  in 
Rome  ?  One  would  hardly  purchase,  at  that  price,  the  good 
fortune  of  having  neither  of  them  for  master.3 

10.  Friday.  Went  in  the  afternoon,  with  my  wife,  to  her 
grandfather's.     Mr.   Cleverly  here  in  the  evening.     He  says  he 

1  These  articles,  of  virulence  not  exceeded  even  in  the  worst  newspapers  of 
later  times,  are  to  be  found  in  the  Evening  Post  and  Gazette  of  this  period. 

2  The  last  loyal  governor  of  New  Hampshire,  a  classmate  at  Cambridge  and 
an  intimate  friend  of  the  author.  He  was  in  England  at  this  time,  and  procured 
the  appointment  which  he  held  until  1 775,  when  under  the  efforts  to  aid  General 
Gage  his  great  popularity  at  last  gave  way  and  he  was  compelled  to  fly.  Bel- 
knap's History  of  N.  II.,' Farmer's  Edit.  vol.  i.  p.  357,  358. 

3  Lucan's  Pharsalia,  1.  2,  v.  60. 


176  DIARY.  [176€. 

is  not  so  clear  as  he  was  that  the  Parliament  has  a  right  to  tax 
us;  he  rather  thinks  it  has  not.  Thus  tEe  contagion  of  the 
times  has  caught  even  that  bigot  to  passive  obedience  and  non- 
resistance ;  it  has  made  him  waver.  It  is  almost  the  first  time 
I  ever  knew  him  converted,  or  even  brought  to  doubt  and  hesi- 
tate about  any  of  his  favorite  points, — as  the  authority  of  Parlia- 
ment to  tax  us  was  one.  Nay,  he  used  to  assert  positively  that 
the  king  was  as  absolute  in  the  plantations  as  the  Great  Turk 
in  his  dominions. 

Mr.  Quincy  gave  me  some  anecdotes  about  John  Boylston 
and  Jo.  Green,  &c.  Green *  refused  to  sign  the  resolutions  of 
merchants  at  first,  but  was  afterwards  glad  to  send  for  the  paper. 
They  were  at  first  afraid  of  Salem,  Newbury,  Marblehead,  and 
Plymouth,  but  these  towns  have  agreed  unanimously  to  the  same 
resolutions. 

What  will  they  say  in  England,  when  they  see  the  resolves 
of  the  American  legislatures,  the  petitions  from  the  united  col- 
onies, the  resolutions  of  the  merchants  in  Boston,  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  &c.  ? 

13.  Monday.  At  Boston.  The  inferior  court  of  common 
pleas  opened;  present,  Mr.  Wells,  Mr.  Watts,  and  Mr.  Foster 
Hutchinson ;  more  than  one  hundred  new  entries.  The  actions 
all  called  over,  and  many  defaulted  and  some  continued,  so  that 
the  court  has  rushed  upon  the  thick  bosses  of  the  buckler,  and 
into  the  thickest  of  the  penalties  and  forfeitures.  Dined  at 
brother  Dudley's,  with  Gridley,  Swift,  Lowell,  and  Mr.  Fayer- 
weather.  Fayerweather  is  one  of  the  genteel  folks ;  he  said  he 
was  dressed  in  black  as  mourning  for  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  ; 
he  said  he  was  wearing  out  his  black  clothes  as  fast  as  he  could, 
and  was  determined  to  get  no  more  till  the  Stamp  Act  was 
repealed ;  he  designed  to  wear  out  all  his  old  clothes  and  then 
go  upon  our  own  manufactures,  unless  the  Stamp  Act  was 
repealed.  One  Thompson  came  to  me  at  Cunningham's,  in 
the  evening,  and  engaged  me  in  a  cause  of  Sampson  vs.  Buttar, 
which  is  for  entering  a  vessel  at  Louisburg  and  taking  away  ten 


1  The  poet  and  the  wit,  whose  patriotism,  moderate  at  first  and  whilst  the 
questions  at  issue  seemed  purely  commercial,  gradually  evaporated  until  his 
sympathies  became  marked  by  the  nomination  made  of  him  as  one  of  the 
Mandamus  council.  He  also  signed  the  Merchants'  Address  to  Hutchinson, 
and  soon  afterwards  left  the  country.     He  died  in  England  in  1780.     Sabine. 


jEt.  30.]  DIARY.  177 

barrels  of  rum.  Buttar  was,  or  pretended  to  be,  a  naval  offieer 
for  the  port  of  Louisburg,  or  secretary  to  Governor  Whitmore, 
and,  under  color  of  that  authority,  entered  the  vessel,  and  seized 
and  brought  off  the  rum.  Now  Buttar  pretended  to  give  com- 
missions to  officers  under  him  to  attend  the  wharves  and  keys 
of  the  port,  and  to  examine  all  goods  imported  and  exported, 
and  to  stop  the  same,  and  report  to  him  if  illegal  or  contrary 
to  the  orders  of  the  Governor,  &c. 

Mr.  Gridley  was  in  a  very  trifling  humor  to-day,  after  dinner, 
telling  tales  about  Overing,1  &c. ;  and  judges  of  inferior  courts 
formerly;  and  McCarty,  who  built  the  court  by  the  town-house, 
&c. ;  and  stories  about  Colonel  Choate  of  Ipswich,  &c.2  The 
unsmotherable  pride  of  his  own  heart  broke  out  in  his  account 
of  his  disputes,  &c,  with  Choate.  "  Choate  was  a  tyrant ; 
Choate  attempted  things  too  large  for  him  ;  I  have  tumbled 
him  over  and  over,  and  twisted  and  tossed  and  tumbled  him, 
and  yet  he  could  say  to  me,  '  Sir,  I  was  here  at  nine  o'clock,  by 
agreement,  and  you  was  not  come.'  I  answered  him,  '  I  was 
here,  sir,  at  a  quarter  after  nine,  and  you  was  not  here ;  sir,  the 
honor  of  attending  me  might  at  any  time  dispense  with  a  quarter 
of  an  hour.'  "  This  is  not  pride.  If  Gridley  had  pride,  he  would 
scorn  such  gross  vanity.  A  New  England  church,  he  said,  was 
one  object  of  dispute  between  them.  The  people  in  the  pale, 
the  deacons,  and  the  minister,  were  the  picture  of  a  New  England 
church.  No  idea  of  it  in  the  New  Testament.  Platform,  too, 
was  a  bone  of  contention. 

Spent  the  evening  at  Mr.  Adams's,  with  him  and  brother 
Swift,3  very  socially. 

i  John  Overing,  a  native  of  England  and  Attorney- General  of  the  Province 
in  the  early  part  "of  this  century.  He  is  noticed  in  the  valuable  contribution  to 
the  history  of  the  law  and  lawyers  in  Massachusetts,  made  by  Mr.  Joseph 
Willard  in  his  Address  to  the  Bar  of  Worcester  County,  October  2,  1829. 
Some  more  comprehensive  work  on  the  same  plan  is  now  much  needed. 

2  Representative  of  the  town  of  Ipswich  for  fifteen  years,  a  member  of  the 
Council  five  years,  Justice  of  the  Sessions  and  Common  Pleas,  and  Judge  of  the 
Probate  Court.  Out  of  respect  to  him,  the  inhabitants  called  the  bridge,  over 
Ipswich  river,  by  his  name.    Felt's  History  of  Ipswich,  Essex,  and  Hamilton,  p.  180. 

3  This  Mr.  Swift  is  probably  the  same  person  mentioned  in  the  newspapers 
of  the  time  as  having  marched  at  the  head  of  the  north  end,  upon  the  occasion 
of  the  reconciliation  that  took  place  with  the  south  end,  on  the  preceding  fifth 
of  November.  It  had  been  customary  in  Massachusetts  as  in  England  to  cele- 
brate that  day  as  the  anniversary  of  the  deliverance  of  the  nation  from  the 
Gunpowder  Plot.  In  Boston  the  occasion  had  by  degrees  degenerated  into  a 
trial  of  strength  between  the  people  of  the  opposite  ends  of  the  town,  pro- 

L 


178  DIARY.  [1766. 

14.  Tuesday.  Dined  at  Mr.  William  Cooper's,1  with  Messrs. 
Cushing,  Story,  and  John  Boylston.  Cushing  silent  and  sly  as 
usual.  Story,  I  don't  know  what.  Cooper  and  Boylston  prin- 
cipal talkers.  Boylston  affecting  a  philosophical  indifference 
about  dress,  furniture,  entertainments,  &c. ;  laughed  at  the 
affectation  of  nicely  distinguishing  tastes,  such  as  the  several 
degrees  of  sweet,  till  you  come  up  to  the  first  degree  of  bitter ; 
laughed  at  the  great  expenses  for  furniture,  as  Nick  Boylston's 


carpets,  tables,  chairs,  glasses,  beds,  &c,  which  Cooper  said  were 
the  richest  in  North  America ;  the  highest  taste,  and  newest 
fashion,  would  soon  flatten  and  grow  old ;  a  curse  or  two  upon 
the  climate  —  preferable  however  to  Carolina,  but  every  part  of 
Europe  preferable  to  this.  Q.  Is  not  this  nicety  of  feeling,  this 
indisposition  to  be  satisfied  with  the  climate,  of  the  same  nature 
with  the  delicacy  of  tastes  and  the  curiosity  about  furniture  just 
before  exploded  ? 

Spent  the  evening  at  Cunningham's. 

15.  Wednesday.  Dined  at  Mi-.  Isaac  Smith's; — no  company; 
no  conversation.  Spent  the  evening  with  the  Sons  of  Liberty, 
at  their  own  apartment  in  Hanover  Square  near  the  tree  of  lib- 
erty. It  is  a  counting-room  in  Chase  and  Speakman's  distillery ; 
a  very  small  room  it  is. 

John  Avery,  distiller  or  merchant,  of  a  liberal  education, 
John  Smith,  the  brazier,  Thomas  Crafts,  the  painter,  Edes, 
the  printer,  Stephen  Cleverly,  the  brazier,  Chase,  the  distiller,2 
Joseph  Field,  master  of  a  vessel,  Henry  Bass,  George  Trott, 
jeweller,  were  present.  I  was  invited  by  Crafts  and  Trott  to 
go  and  spend  an  evening  with  them  and  some  others.     Avery 

ductive  of  many  disorders.  Taking  advantage  of  the  common  indignation 
against  the  abettors  of  the  Stamp  Act,  some  of  the  more  politic  citizens  recom- 
mended a  formal  celebration,  in  King  Street,  of  the  establishment  of  a  union, 
which  was  accordingly  carried  into  effect  with  great  ceremonies,  the  leaders, 
Mr.  Mackintosh  from  the  south,  and  Mr.  Swift  from  the  north,  appearing  in 
military  habits,  with  small  canes  resting  on  their  left  arms,  and  music  in  front 
and  Hank.  Mr.  Tudor  says,  however,  that  peace  was  not  fully  established  until 
November,  17  74.  See  S7tow's  History  of  Boston,  pp.  262-264.  Tudor's  Life 
of  Otis,  pp.  26  -  29. 

1  This  is  the  town-clerk  for  forty-nine  years,  whose  name  is  found  attached  to 
almost  all  the  Boston  papers  of  the  Revolution.  Story  was  the  registrar  of  the 
Admiralty  Court,  and  very  unpopular ;  his  house  had  suffered  in  the  mob  of  the 
26th  of  August. 

2  Six  of  these  names  are  given  by  Gordon  as  of  those  who  provided  and  hung 
up  on  the  liberty  tree  the  effigy  of  a  stamp  officer  and  a  jack  boot,  upon  the 
memoi'able  fourteenth  of  August  preceding.     Vol.  i.  p.  175. 


JEt.  30.]  DIARY.  179 

was  mentioned  to  me  as  one.  I  went,  and  was  very  civilly  and 
respectfully  treated  by  all  present.  We  had  punch,  wine,  pipes 
and  tobacco,  biscuit  and  cheese,  &c.  I  heard  nothing  but  such 
conversation  as  passes  at  all  clubs,  among  gentlemen,  about  the 
times.  No  plots,  no  machinations.  They  chose  a  committee  to 
make  preparations  for  grand  rejoicings  upon  the  arrival  of  the 
news  of  a  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  and  I  heard  afterwards  they 
are  to  have  such  illuminations,  bonfires,  pyramids,  obelisks,  such 
grand  exhibitions  and  such  fireworks  as  were  never  before  seen 
in  America.1     I  wish  they  may  not  be  disappointed. 

16.  Thursday.  Dined  at  Mr.  Nick  Boylston's,  with  the  two 
Mr.  Boylstons,  two  Mr.  Smiths,  Mr.  Hallowell,  and  their  ladies  — 
an  elegant  dinner  indeed !  Went  over  the  house  to  view  the 
furniture,  which  alone  cost  a  thousand  pounds  sterling.  A  seat 
it  is  for  a  nobleman,  a  prince.  The  Turkey  carpets,  the  painted 
hangings,  the  marble  tables,  the  rich  beds  with  crimson  damask 
cm-tains  and  counterpanes,  the  beautiful  chimney  clock,  the  spa- 
cious garden,  are  the  most  magnificent  of  any  thing  I  have  ever 
seen. 

The  conversation  of  the  two  Boylstons  and  Hallowell  is  a 
curiosity.  Hotspurs  all.  Tantivy  Nick,  is  a  warm  friend  of 
the  Lieutenant-Governor,  and  inclining  towards  the  Governor. 
Tom,  a  fire-brand  against  both.  Tom  is  a  perfect  viper,  a  fiend., 
a  Jew,  a  devil,  but  is  orthodox  2  in  politics,  however.  Hallowell 
tells  stories  about  Otis,  and  drops  hints  about  Adams,  &c,  and 
about  Mr.  Dudley  Atkins  of  Newbury.  Otis  told  him,  he  says, 
that  the  Parliament  had  a  right  to  tax  the  colonies,  and  he 
was  ad  —  d  fool  who  denied  it ;    and  that  this  people  never 

1  Copies  of  two  letters  addressed  to  the  author  by  the  Sons  of  Liberty,  will  be 
found  appended  to  the  Diary  at  the  close  of  the  present  month. 

2  He  did  not  remain  so,  when  the  question  ceased  to  be  a  commercial  one. 
He  left  America  during  the  Revolution,  with  the  leave  of  the  provincial 
government,  involved  his  large  but  hardly  earned  accumulations  of  money  in 
the  concerns  of  a  house  that  became  insolvent,  and  died  broken-hearted  in  Lon- 
don, in  1798.  Benjamin  Hallowell,  who  had  married  his  sister,  was  one  of  the 
commissioners  of  the  customs,  and  his  house  had  suffered  at  the  time  when 
Hutchinson's  was  destroyed.  Again  he  was  harshly  treated  in  the  riot  caused 
by  the  attempt  to  seize  Mr.  Hancock's  Sloop  Liberty,  and  once  more  when 
falling  accidentally  into  the  mob  assembled  at  Cambridge,  in  1774,  for  the 
purpose  of  forcing  Lieutenant-Governor  Oliver  to  resign  his  place  of  counsellor 
by  mandamus.  He  also  left  the  country.  Nicholas  Boylston  died  before  the 
Revolution.  He  is  enrolled  among  the  benefactors  of  Harvard  College,  as 
founder  of  one  of  the  professorships  and  in  other  ways.  See  Quincy's  History, 
vol.  ii.  p.  214.     The  partisan  spirit  of  all  is  sufliciently  visible  in  the  conversation. 


180  DIARY.  [1706. 

would  be  quiet  till  we  had  a  council  from  home,  till  our  charter 
was  taken  away,  and  till  we  had  regular  troops  quartered  upon 
us.  He  says  he  saw  Adams  under  the  tree  of  liberty  when 
the  effigies  hung  there,  and  asked  him  who  they  were  and  what ; 
he  said  he  did  not  know  —  he  could  not  tell  —  he  wanted  to 
inquire.  He  says,  Mr.  Dudley  Atkins  was  too  well  acquainted 
with  the  secret  of  some  riots  there  to  be  entirely  depended  on  in 
his  account,  &c.  Nick  Boylston,  full  of  stories  about  Jemmy 
and  Solomon  Davis.  Solomon  says,  Countryman,  I  don't  see 
what  occasion  there  is  for  a  Governor,  and  Council,  and  House ; 
you  and  the  town  would  do  well  enough. 

Spent  the  evening  at  Bracket's  with  General  Winslow,1 
Colonel  Bradford,  Mr.  Otis,  Father  Danforth,  Colonel  Rich- 
mond, Mr.  Brinley,  Mr.  Caldwell,  and  Captain  Hay  ward.  Mr. 
Otis  gave  us  some  account  of  Ruggles's  behavior  at  the  Con- 
gress ; 2  and  Winslow  told  us  about  catching  bass  with  eel  spears 
at  the  North  river.  Otis  says  that  when  they  came  to  sign, 
Ruggles  moved  that  none  of  them  should  sign,  but  that  the 
petitions  should  be  carried  back  to  the  Assemblies  to  see  if  they 
would  adopt  them.  This  would  have  defeated  the  whole  enter- 
prise. This  Ruggles  has  an  inflexible  oddity  about  him  which 
has  gained  him  a  character  for  courage  and  probity,  but  renders 
him  a  disagreeable  companion  in  business. 

20.  Monday.  Leonard 3  gave  me  an  account  of  a  club  that 
he  belongs  to  in  Boston.  It  consists,  of  John  Lowell,  Elisha 
Hutchinson,  Frank  Dana,  Josiah  Quincy,  and  two  other  young 
fellows,  strangers  to  me.  Leonard  had  prepared  a  collection  of 
the  arguments  for  and  against  the  right  of  Parliament  to  tax  the 
colonies,  for  said  club.  His  first  inquiry  was,  whether  the  sub- 
ject could  be  taxed  without  his  consent  in  person,  or  by  his 

i  General  John  Winslow  of  Marshfield,  who  commanded,  in  1755,  in  the 
removal  of  the  neutral  French  in  Acadia.  He  seems  at  this  time  to  have 
been  acquiescing  in  the  course  of  the  Whigs,  as  he  was  one  of  the  committee 
which  reported  the  sharp  reply  of  the  House  to  the  message  of  Governor  Ber- 
nard ;  but  it  would  appear  from  what  is  said  of  him  in  the  record  of  the  twenty- 
sixth  of  April,  that  he  did  not  approve  of  it  He  died  in  1774,  and  his  widow 
and  family  afterwards  took  the  loyal  side.     Sabine. 

2  Of  1 765,  held  at  New  York. ' 

3rrobal.lv  Daniel  Leonard,  at  this  time  a  young  member  of  the  bar,  and 
inclining  to  the  colonial  side.  But  like  so  many  of  his  contemporaries,  he  subse- 
quently'became  a  loyalist,  and  as  the  author  of  the  papers  of  Massachusettensis 
took  the  first  rank  in  the  controversies  of  the  period.  He  left  the  country,  and 
became  Chief  Justice  of  the  Bermudas.     He  died  in  Loudon,  in  1829. 


JEt.  30.]  DIARY.  181 

representative  ?     Second,  whether  we  Americans  are  represented 
in  Parliament  or  not  ? 

Leonard  says  that  Lowell  is  a  courtier ;  that  he  rips  about  all 
who  stand  foremost  in  their  opposition  to  the  Stamp  Act ;  at 
your  Otises  and  Adamses,  &c. ;  and  says  that  no  man  can  scribble 
about  politics  without  bedaubing  his  fingers,  and  every  one  who 
does  is  a  dirty  fellow.  He  expresses  great  resentment  against 
that  line  in  Edes  and  Gill,  —  "  Retreat  or  you  are  ruined ; "  and 
says  they  ought  to  be  committed  for  that  single  stroke.  Thus 
it  seems  that  the  air  of  Newbury,  and  the  vicinage  of  Farnham, 
Chipman,  &c.  have  obliterated  all  the  precepts,  admonitions, 
instructions,  and  example  of  his  master,  Thacher.  Lowell 
is,  however,  very  warm,  sudden,  quick,  and  impetuous  ;  and 
all  such  people  are  unsteady.1  Too  much  fire.  Experientia 
docet. 

Leonard  gave  me  also  a  relation  of  his  going  to  Providence 
Court,  and  spending  an  evening  with  the  political  club  there.2 
The  club  consists  of  Governor  Hopkins,  Judge  Jenks,  Downer, 
Cole,  and  others.  They  were  impatient  to  have  the  courts 
opened  in  this  Province,  not  choosing  to  proceed  in  business 
alone ;  were  very  inquisitive  concerning  all  our  affairs ;  had 
much  to  say  of  Hutchinson,  Otis,  &c. ;  admired  the  answer  to 
the  Governor's  speech ;  admired  the  Massachusetts  resolves. 
Hopkins  said  that  nothing  had  been  so  much  admired  there, 
through  the  whole  course  of  the  controversy,  as  the  answer  to 
the  speech,  though  the   Massachusetts  resolves  were  the  best 

1  John  Lowell  went  so  far  as  to  sign  the  Address  to  Governor  Hutchinson  in 
1 774,  but  he  finally  remembered  his  master,  Thacher,  and  took  the  side  of  liberty 
and  the  Revolution  in  season  to  prove  himself  steady,  faithful,  and  useful  through- 
out the  great  struggle.  In  a  later  letter  to  the  author  of  the  Diary  he  assigns 
a  dislike  of  political  warfare  as  the  cause  of  his  hesitation.  It  was  more  proba- 
bly that  sort  of  fastidiousness  which  constantly  operates  to  deter  many  of  the 
most  respectable  citizens  from  trusting  themselves  in  the  arena  of  political  con- 
tention. 

2  The  gentlemen  named  as  of  the  club  in  Rhode  Island,  were  all  of  the  high- 
est character  and  respectability,  and  all  took  an  active  part  in  the  Revolution. 
Governor  Hopkins  was  one  of  the  Signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  his  biography  is  found  in  Sanderson's  Collection,  vol.  v.  A  biography  of 
Judge  Cole  is  inserted  in  Updike's  Memoirs  of  the  Rhode  Island  Bar.  p.  124. 
Judge  Daniel  Jenks  is  numbered  among  the  wealthy  benefactors  of  the  Baptist 
Church,  in  Benedict's  History  of  that  sect.  Mr.  Silas  Downer  was  selected  by 
the  Sons  of  Liberty  in  Providence  to  make  the  Address  on  the  dedication  of 
the  Liberty  Tree,  in  1768.  Collections  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society,  vol.  v. 
Staples's  Annals  of  Providence,  p.  222. 

VOL.    II.  16 


182  DIARY.  [17G6. 

digested,  and  the  best  of  any  on  the  continent ;  inquired  who 
was  the  author  of  them.1 

Inquired  also  who  it  was  that  burlesqued  the  Governor's 
speeches ;  who  wrote  Jemmy  Bullero,  &c.  Thought  Hutch- 
inson's history  did  not  shine ;  said  his  house  was  pulled  down 
to  prevent  his  writing  any  more,  by  destroying  his  materials. 
Thought  Otis  was  not  ah  original  genius,  nor  a  good  writer,  but 
a  person  who  had  done  and  would  continue  to  do  much  good 
service. 

Were  very  inquisitive  about  Mackintosh ; 2  whether  he  was 
a  man  of  abilities  or  not ;  whether  he  would  probably  rise,  in 
case  this  contest  should  be  carried  into  any  length.  Jo  Green, 
Waterhouse,  and  Church,  were  talked  of  as  capable  of  Bullero 
and  the  burlesques.3 

1^The  answer  to  the  speech  is  commonly  ascribed  to  James  Otis.     The  reso- 
lutions were  probably  drawn  by  Samuel  Adams. 

2  Mackintosh  was  the  chief  of  the  south  end  party  upon  the  occasion  of  the 
reconciliation  mentioned  in  the  note  on  page  177.  He  was  also  arrested  for 
participation  in  the  mob  of  the  twenty-sixth  of  August,  but  released.  His  noto- 
riety ceased  with  the  local  disturbances  in  Boston.     Hutchinson,  iii.  121. 

3  These  were  the  wits  and  literary  adventurers  of  the  day.  Of  Green,  Dr. 
Eliot  says  that  the  following  epitaph  was  composed  for  him  so  early  as  1743  : 

"  Siste  viator,  here  lies  one, 
Whose  life  was  whim,  whose  soul  was  pun ; 
And  if  you  go  too  near  his  hearse 
He  '11  joke  you  both  in  prose  and  verse." 

Samuel  Waterhouse  was  in  the  custom-house.  He  is  described  in  a  later 
letter  of  Mr.  Adams,  as  "  the  most  notorious  scribbler,  satirist,  and  libeller,  in  the 
service  of  the  conspirators  against  the  liberties  of  America."  He  was  the  author 
of  "  Jemmibulle.ro,"  the  song  alluded  to  in  the  text,  and  of  many  of  the  most 
scurrilous  papers  of  the  time. 

The  other  person,  Dr.  Church,  starting  as  an  active  patriot,  made  himself 
known  at  an  early  stage  of  the  contest  by  his  treachery,  which,  notwithstanding 
the  labor  to  palliate  it  on  account  of  the  bungling  manner  in  which  it  was 
attempted,  admits  of  no  apology  or  excuse.  After  some  difficulty  he  was  set  at 
large.  He  then  embarked  in  a  vessel  bound  for  the  West  Indies,  which  never 
reached  its  destination. 


Mr.  30.]  DIARY.  183 

The  following  letters  were  written  to  carry  out  the  policy  of  association  in 
resistance  to  the  Stamp  Act. 


The  Sons  of  Liberty  to  John  Adams. 

Boston,  5  February,  1766. 

Sir  :  —  You,  doubtless,  and  every  American,  must  be  sensi- 
ble that  where  there  is  a  union  happily  established,  we  should 
endeavor  to  support  it  by  all  possible  means,  especially  when 
the  grand  object  in  view  is  the  preservation  of  our  invaluable 
rights  and  privileges. 

The  colonies,  (we  mean  New  York  and  Connecticut)  have 
entered  into  certain  reciprocal  and  mutual  agreements,  conces- 
sions, and  associations,  a  copy  of  which l  we  received  (by  an 
express)  the  last  Sunday,  with  their  desire  to  accomplish  the 
like  association  with  us ;  which  deserves  our  most  serious  atten- 
tion, as  thereby  it  will  be  the  means  of  strengthening  this  late 
union,  and,  in  our  humble  opinion,  of  preventing  the  execution 
of  an  Act  of  Parliament,  commonly  known  by  the  name  of  the 
Stamp  Act.  But,  to  avoid  enlarging,  permit  us  to  single  out 
a  few  words  by  which  you  will  know  their  intentions. 

"  The  worthy  Sons  of  Liberty  in  New  York  and  Connecticut, 
taking  into  their  most  serious  consideration  the  melancholy  and 
unsettled  state  of  Great  Britain  and  her  North  American  Colo- 
nies, proceeding,  as  they  are  fully  persuaded,  from  a  design  in 
her  most  inveterate  enemies  to  alienate  the  affections  of  his 
Majesty's  most  loyal  and  faithful  subjects  in  America  from  his 
person  and  government,  which  they  are  determined  to  maintain 
and  support ;  —  and  for  the  preservation  of  which  they  have  signi- 
fied their  resolution  and  determination  to  march  with  all  despatch, 
at  their  own  costs  and  expense,  on  the  first  proper  notice,  with 
their  whole  force  (if  required)  to  the  relief  of  those  who  shall 
or  may  be  in  danger  from  the  Stamp  Act  or  its  abettors,  and  to 
keep  a  watchful  eye  over  all  those  who,  from  the  nature  of  their 
offices,  vocations,  or  dispositions,  may  be  the  most  likely  to 
introduce  the  use  of  stamped  paper,  to  the  total  subversion  of 
the  British  constitution  and  American  liberty." 

We  address  ourselves  to  you,  as  a  gentleman  well  versed  in 

1  Given  in  Gordon's  History,  vol.  i.  pp.  195-198. 


184  DIARY.  [1766. 

the  constitution  of  your  country,  and  who  consequently  will  do 
your  utmost  to  oppose  all  measures  detrimental  to  the  welfare 
of  it ;  and  we  should  be  glad  if  you  would  inform  us  as  soon  as 
possible  of  your  sentiments  on  the  above,  and  the  disposition  of 
the  people  in  your  town. 

Please  to  direct  to  us  under  cover,  to  Messrs.  Edes  and  Gill, 
printers,  in  Boston. 

We  are,  sir,  your  most  humble  servants, 

The  Sons  of  Liberty. 


Tliomas  Crafts,  Jr.  to  John  Adams. 

Boston,  15  February,  1766. 
Friday  Night,  10  o'clock. 
Sir  :  — Yesterday  I  wrote  you  a  few  lines,  by  Dr.  Tufts,  inform- 
ing you  the  Sons  of  Liberty  desired  your  company  at  Boston 
next  Wednesday,  and  mentioned  for  what  occasion.  I  would 
now  desire  it  as  a  favor,  if  you  can  spare  the  time,  to  come  on 
Monday  next,  because  they  want  you  to  write  those  inscriptions 
that  I  mentioned  to  you  when  last  at  Boston ;  one  in  favor  of 
liberty,  not  forgetting  the  true:born  sons,  and  another  with  enco- 
miums on  King  George,  expressive  of  our  loyalty ;  which,  if  you 
can  do  by  Wednesday,  we  will  excuse  your  coming  sooner. 
Pray  let  them  be  as  short  and  as  expressive  as  possible.  The 
stamped  paper  I  informed  you  of  in  my  last,  was  found  strag- 
gling about  this  town,  but  on  Thursday,  at  eleven  o'clock,  shall 
commit  it  to  its  proper  element  with  no  small  parade.1 
I  am,  with  great  respect,  your  friend, 

Thomas  Crafts,  Jr. 


j) 


Destroy  this  after  reading  it.  Mr.  Samuel  Adams  sends  his 
compliments,  and  desires  you  would  come. 

P.  S.  We  expect  the  news  of  the  repeal  of  the  Act  commonly 
called  the  Stamp  Act,  in  three  weeks  from  this,  by  the  news  we 
have  had  by  the  last  ships  from  London,  which  I  doubt  not  you 
have  heard  of. 

1  This  date  should  be  the  14th,  as,  according  to  Snow,  Thursday,  the  20th, 
was  fixed  for  burning  one  of  the  stamped  papers  in  the  principal  towns  in  every 
colony.  In  Boston,  the  ceremony  was  conducted  with  great  decency  and  good 
order,  and  the  effigies  of  Bute  and  Grenville  in  full  court  dress,  were  added  to 
the  bonfire.  ""  Snows  History  of  Boston^  pTlRJGV 


Mi.  30.]  DIARY.  185 

N.  B.  An  answer  to  a  letter  sent  by  the  Sons  of  Liberty  last 
Saturday,  will  be  acceptable. 

I  had  wrote  this  letter  before  I  received  yours,  and  hope  you 
will  be  here  on  Thursday  next. 


March  1.  Saturday.  Spent  a  part  of  last  evening  with  Mr. 
Jo  Cleverly.  He  is  a  tiptoe  for  town  meeting;  he  has  many 
schemes  and  improvements  in  his  head ; — namely,  for  separating 
the  offices  of  constable  and  collector ;  collecting  taxes  has  laid 
the  foundation  for  the  ruin  of  many  families.  He  is  for  five 
selectmen,  and  will  vote  for  the  old  ones,  Mr.  Quincy  and 
Major  Miller.  He  hears  they  are  for  turning  out  all  the  old 
selectmen,  and  choosing  a  new  set;  they  for  having  but  three, 
&c.  The  only  way  is  to  oppose  schemes  to  schemes,  and  so 
break  in  upon  them.  Cleverly  will  become  a  great  town-meet- 
ing man,  and  a  great  speaker  in  town  meeting.  Q.  What  effect 
will  this  have  on  the  town  affairs  ? 

Brother  tells  me  that  William  Veasey,  Jr.  tells  him  he  has 
but  one  objection  against  Jonathan  Bass,  and  that  is,  Bass  is 
too  forward.  When  a  man  is  forward,  we  may  conclude  he  has 
some  selfish  view,  some  self  ends.  Brother  asked  him  if  he  and 
his  party  would  carry  that  argument  through.  It  holds  stronger 
against  Captain  Thayer  and  Major  Miller,  than  it  ever  did 
against  anybody  in  this  town,  excepting  Colonel  Gooch  and 
Captain  Mills.  But  I  desire  the  proof  of  Bass's  forwardness. 
Has  he  been  more  so  than  Major  Miller?  Come,  come,  Mr. 
Veasey,  says  Master  Jo  Cleverly,  don't  you  say  too  much ;  I 
an't  of  that  mind.  Ego.  Bass  is  an  active,  capable  man,  but 
no  seeker  by  mean  begging  or  buying  of  votes. 

3.  Monday.  My  brother  Peter,  Mr.  Etter,  and  Mr.  Field, 
having  a  number  of  votes  prepared  for  Mr.  Quincy  and  me, 
set  themselves  to  scatter  them  in  town  meeting.  The  town  had 
been  very  silent  and  still,  my  name  had  never  been  mentioned, 
nor  had  our  friends  ever  talked  of  any  new  selectmen  at  all, 
excepting  in  the  south  precinct ;  but  as  soon  as  they  found  there, 
was  an  attempt  to  be  made,  they  fell  in  and  assisted  ;  and, 
although  there  were  six  different  hats  with  votes  for  as  many 
different  persons,  besides  a  considerable  number  of  scattering 
votes,  I  had  the  major  vote  of  the  assembly  the  first  time.     Mr. 


16* 


186  DIARY.  [1766. 

Quincy  had  more  than  one  hundred  and  sixty  votes.  I  had  but 
one  vote  more  than  half.  Some  of  the  church  people,  —  Mr.  Jo 
Cleverly,  his  brother  Ben  and  son,  &c.  and  Mr.  Ben  Veasey, 
of  the  middle  precinct,  Mr.  James  Faxon,  &c.  —  I  found  were 
grieved  and  chagrined  for  the  loss  of  their  dear  Major  Miller.1 
Etter  and  my  brother  took  a  skilful  method ;  they  let  a  number 
of  young  fellows  into  the  design,  John  Ruggles,  Peter  Newcomb, 
&c.  who  were  very  well  pleased  with  the  employment,  and  put 
about  a  great  many  votes.  Many  persons,  I  hear,  acted  slyly 
and  deceitfully ;  this  is  always  the  case. 

I  own  it  gave  me  much  pleasure  to  find  I  had  so  many  friends, 
and  that  my  conduct  in  town  has  been  not  disapproved.  The 
choice  was  quite  unexpected  to  me.  I  thought  the  project  was 
so  new  and  sudden  that  the  people  had  not  digested  it,  and 
would  generally  suppose  the  town  would  not  like  it,  and  so 
would  not  vote  for  it.  But  my  brother's  answer  was,  that  it 
had  been  talked  of  last  year  and  some  years  before,  and  that 
the  thought  was  familiar  to  the  people  in  general,  and  was  more 
agreeable  than  any  thing  of  the  kind  that  could  be  proposed  to 
many,  and  for  these  reasons  his  hopes  were  strong. 

But  the  triumph  of  the  party  was  very  considerable,  though 
not  complete ;  for  Thayer,  and  Miller,  and  the  late  lessees  of 
the  north  commons,2  and  many  of  the  church  people,  and  many 
others  had  determined  to  get  out  Deacon  Penniman;  but,  instead 
of  that,  their  favorite  was  dropped,  and  I,  more  obnoxious  to  that 
party  than  even  Deacon  Penniman  or  any  other  man,  was  chosen 
in  his  room,  and  Deacon  Penniman  was  saved  with  more  than 
one  hundred  and  thirty  votes,  —  a  more  reputable  election  than 
even  Thayer  himself  had. 

1  This  indicates  the  first  popular  struggle  of  the  Revolution  in  the  town  of 
Braintree.  Major  Miller  inclined  to  the  government.  See  the  entry  of  the 
twenty-ninth  of  December,  page  168. 

2  Of  the  share  which  they  had  in  the  matter,  the  Autobiography  explains  the 
cause. 

[In  1763  or  1764  the  town  voted  to  sell  their  common  lands.  This  had  been 
a  subject  of  contention  for  many  years.  The  south  parish  was  zealous,  and  the 
middle  parish  much  inclined  to  the  sale ;  the  north  parish  was  against  it.  The 
lands  in  their  common  situation  appeared  to  me  of  very  little  utility  to  the  public 
or  to  individuals ;  under  the  care  of  proprietors  where  they  should  become  pri- 
vate property,  they  would  probably  be  better  managed  and  more  productive.  My 
opinion  was  in  favor  of  the  sale.  The  town  now  adopted  the  measure,  appointed 
Mr.  Niles,  Mr.  Bass,  and  me,  to  survey  the  lands,  divide  them  into  lots,  to  sell 
them  by  auction,  and  execute  deeds  of  them  in  behalf  of  the  town.] 


Mi.  30.]  DIARY.  187 

Mr.  Jo  Bass  was  extremely  sorry  for  the  loss  of  Major  Miller; 
he  would  never  come  to  another  meeting.  Mr.  Jo  Cleverly  could 
not  account  for  many  things  done  at  town  meetings.  His  motion 
for  choosing  collectors  was  slighted ;  his  motion  for  lessening  his 
fine  was  thrown  out ;  and  he  made  no  sort  of  figure  as  a  speaker ; 
so  that  I  believe  Mr.  Cleverly  will  make  no  hand. 

Elisha  Niles  says,  set  a  knave  to  catch  a  knave.  A  few  days 
before  a  former  March  meeting,  he  told  Thayer  that  he  had  a 
mind  to  get  in  Deacon  Penniman.  Thayer  asked  him,  who  he 
would  have  with  him  ?  he  answered,  Captain  Allen.  Thayer 
made  him  no  answer,  but  when  the  meeting  came,  was  chosen 
himself.  Mr.  Thomas  Faxon,  of  this  end  of  the  town,  told  my 
wife  he  never  saw  anybody  chosen  so  neatly  in  his  life,  —  not  a 
word,  not  a  whisper  beforehand.  Peter  Newcomb  gave  him  a 
vote ;  he  had  one  before  for  Miller,  and  had  heard  nothing  of 
me ;  but  he  thought  I  should  have  one.  So  he  dropped  that  for 
Miller.  Jo  Nightingale  asked  my  wife,  "  Mr.  Adams  will  have 
too  much  business,  will  he  not ;  the  courts  to  attend,  selectman, 
and  representative  at  May,  &c.  ?  "  Mr.  John  Baxter,  the  old  gen- 
tleman, told  me  he  was  very  well  pleased  with  the  choice  at  the 
north  end,  &c.  Old  Mr.  John  Ruggles  voted  for  me ;  but  says 
that  Thayer  will  [be  chosen]  at  May.  If  I  would  set  up,  he 
would  vote  for  me,  and  I  should  go,  but  Mr.  Quincy  will  not. 
Lieutenant  Holbrook,  I  hear,  was  much  in  my  favor,  &c.  Thus 
the  town  is  pretty  generally  disputing  about  me,  I  find. 

But  this  choice  will  not  disconcert  Thayer,  at  May,  though  it 
will  weaken  him.  But,  as  I  said  before,  the  triumph  was  not 
complete ;  —  Cornet  Bass  had  the  most  votes  the  first  time,  and 
would  have  come  in  the  second,  but  the  north  end  people,  his 
friends,  after  putting  in  their  votes  the  first  time,  withdrew  for 
refreshment,  by  which  accident  he  lost  it,  to  their  great  regret. 

Mark  the  fruits  of  this  election  to  me.  Will  the  church  people 
be  angry,  and  grow  hot  and  furious,  or  will  they  be  cooler  and 
calmer  for  it?  Will  Thayer's  other  precinct  friends  resent  it 
and  become  more  violent,  or  will  they  be  less  so  ?  In  short,  I 
cannot  answer  these  questions ;  many  of  them  will  be  disheart- 
ened, I  know ;  some  will  be  glad. 

10.  Monday.  Last  week  went  to  Boston,  and  to  Weymouth, 
&c.  I  hear  that  Mr.  Benjamin  Cleverly  has  already  bespoke 
Mr.  John  Ruggles,  Jr.  against  May  meeting,  —  promised  him 


188  DIARY.  [1766. 

as  much  as  he  can  eat  and  drink  of  the  best  sort,  if  he  will  vote 
for  Captain  Thayer ;  told  him  he  would  not  have  acted  as  he 
did,  at  March,  if  it  had  not  been  for  Thomas  Newcomb,  and 
that  he  would  vote  for  Thayer,  at  May,  if  it  was  not  for  Thomas 
Newcomb.  By  this,  the  other  side  are  alarmed ;  the  craft,  they 
think,  is  in  danger ;  but  I  believe  their  fears  are  groundless, 
though  I  wish  there  was  good  reason  for  them. 

Drank  tea  at  Mr.  Etter's.  He  says  all  the  blame  is  laid  to 
him,  and  that  a  certain  man  takes  it  very  ill  of  him.  By  the 
way,  I  heard  to-day  that  Major  Miller  and  James  Bracket,  Jr. 
were  heard,  since  March  meeting,  raving  against  Deacon  Palmer, 
and  said  he  was  a  knave,  &c.      Q.   About  this  quarrel? 

I  find  the  late  choice  has  brought  upon  me  a  multiplicity  of 
new  cares.  The  schools  are  one  great  object  of  my  attention. 
It  is  a  thing  of  some  difficulty  to  find  out  the  best,  most  benefi- 
cial method  of  expending  the  school  money.  Captain  Adams 
says,  that  each  parish's  proportion  of  the  school  money  has  not 
been  settled  since  my  father's  day.  Thomas  Faxon  says,  it  would 
be  more  profitable  to  the  children,  to  have  a  number  of  women's 
schools  about  than  to  have  a  fixed  grammar  school.  Q.  Whether 
he  has  not  a  desire  that  his  wife  should  keep  one  ?  Jonathan 
Bass  says  the  same.  Q.  His  wife  is  a  school-mistress.  So  that 
two  points  of  examination  occur ;  the  portion  between  the  par- 
ishes, that  is,  the  sum  which  this  parish  ought  to  have ;  and 
whether  a  standing  grammar  school  is  preferable  to  a  number 
of  school-mistresses  part  of  the  year,  and  a  grammar  school 
part. 

Another  great  object  is  the  poor;  persons  are  soliciting  for 
the  privilege  of  supplying  the  poor  with  wood,  corn,  meat,  &c. 
The  care  of  supplying  at  cash  price,  and  in  weight  and  measure, 
is  something ;  the  care  of  considering  and  deciding  the  preten- 
sions of  the  claimants  is  something. 

A  third,  and  the  greatest,  is  the  assessment ;  here  I  am  not  so 
thorough ;  I  must  inquire  a  great  while  before  I  shall  know  the 
polls  and  estates,  real  and  personal,  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
town  or  parish.  The  highways,  the  districts  to  surveyors,  and 
laying  out  new  ways  or  altering  old  ones,  are  a  fourth  thing. 
Perambulations  of  lines  are  another  thing.  Dorchester,  Milton, 
Stoughton,  Bridgewater,  Abington,  Weymouth, —  orders  for  ser- 
vices of  many  sorts  to,  &c. 


Mt.  30.]  DIARY.  189 

It  will  increase  my  connections  with  the  people. 

11.  Tuesday.  Went  to  Boston.  The  Chief  Justice  not  there; 
a  piece  of  political  finesse,  to  make  the  people  believe  he  was 
under  a  necessity  of  going  a  journey  this  week,  but  would  be 
here  by  the  next,  was  put  about,  while  care  was  taken  to 
secure  an  agreement  to  an  adjournment  for  three  or  four  weeks ; 
so  that  Hutchinson,  is  to  trim,  and  shift,  and  luff  up,  and  bear 
away,  and  elude  the  blame  of  the  ministry  and  the  people. 
Cushing  spoke  out  boldly,  and  said  he  was  ready  to  go  on ;  he 
had  no  difficulty  about  going  on.  Lynde  said,  we  are  here. 
Oliver  said,  here  am  I  in  duress,  and  if  I  must  go  on,  I  must. 
Thus  popular  compulsion,  fear  of  violence  of  the  Sons  of  Lib- 
erty, &c,  was  suggested  to  be  the  only  motive  with  him  to  go 
on.1 

12.  Wednesday.     Returned  to  Braintree. 

14.  Friday.  Yesterday  and  to-day  the  severest  storm  of  snow 
we  have  had  this  year. 

15.  Saturday.  The  snow  is  as  deep,  and  in  as  mountainous 
banks,  as  it  has  been  at  any  time  this  winter.  The  unanimous 
agreement  of  the  court  and  bar  was,  to  try  a  few  civil  causes, 
one  at  least,  and  then  adjourn  over. 

17.  Monday.  Rain.  A  piece  in  Evening  Post,  March  10th ; 
Remarks  and  Observations  on  Hutchinson's  History.  The  writer 
seems  concerned  lest  his  countrymen  should  incur  the  censure 
of  hissing  from  the  stage  all  merit  of  their  own  growth. 

But  quccre,  allowing  Mr.  Hutchinson's  great  merit,  what 
disposition  have  his  countrymen  discovered  to  hiss  it  from  the 
stage  ?  Has  not  his  merit  been  sounded  very  high,  by  his  coun- 
trymen, for  twenty  years?  Have  not  his  countrymen  loved, 
admired,  revered,  rewarded,  nay,  almost  adored  him?  Have 
not  ninety-nine  in  a  hundred  of  them  really  thought  him  the 
greatest  and  best  man  in  America  ?  Has  not  the  perpetual  lan- 
guage of  many  members  of  both  houses,  and  of  a  majority  of 
his  brother  counsellors  been,  that  Mr.  Hutchinson  is  a  great 
man,  a  pious,  a  wise,  a  learned,  a  good  man,  an  eminent  saint,  a 
philosopher,  &c. ;  the  greatest  man  in  the  Province,  the  greatest 
on  the  continent,  &c.  ?  Nay,  have  not  the  affection  and  admi- 
ration of  his  countrymen  arisen  so  high  as  often  to  style  him  the 

1  This  account  may  be  compared  with  that  given  by  Gordon,  vol.  i.  p.  192, 
and  Hutchinson,  vol.  iii.  p.  146. 


190  DIARY.  [176C. 

greatest  and  best  man  in  the  world,  that  they  never  saw,  nor 
heard,  nor  read  of  such  a  man  —  a  sort  of  apotheosis  like  that 
of  Alexander,  and  that  of  Caesar,  while  they  lived  ? 

As  to  rewards,  have  they  not  admitted  him  to  the  highest 
honors  and  profits  in  the  Province?  Have  they  not  assisted 
him  cheerfully  in  raising  himself  and  his  family  to  almost  all 
the  honors  and  profits,  to  the  exclusion  of  much  better  men  ? 
Have  they  not  rewarded  him  so  far  as  to  form  invincible  combi- 
nations to  involve  every  man  of  any  learning  and  ingenuity  in 
general  detestation,  obloquy,  and  ruin,  who  has  been  so  unfor- 
tunate as  to  think  him  rather  too  craving  ? 

There  is  also  another  piece  in  the  same  paper,  called  Remarks 
on  the  Times,  possibly  by  the  same  hand,  about  "  political  enthu- 
siasm, disordered  pulses,  precipices,  vertigoes,  falling  on  rugged 
cliffs,  men  of  hot,  enthusiastical  turn  of  mind,"  &C.1 

Went  to  town  meeting  through  a  fierce  wind,  a  soaking  rain, 
and  miry  roads  and  banks  of  snow. 

18.  Tuesday.  Went  to  Weymouth ;  found  the  family  mourn- 
ing the  loss  and  preparing  for  the  funeral  of  old  Tom.  After  my 
return  rode  to  Mr.  Hall's,  and  in  my  return  stopped  at  Mr.  Jo 
Bass's  for  the  papers.  Major  Miller  soon  afterwards  came  in, 
and  he  and  I  looked  on  each  other  without  wrath  or  shame  or 
guilt,  at  least  without  any  great  degree  of  either,  though  I  must 
own  I  did  not  feel  exactly  as  I  used  to  in  his  company,  and  I 
am  sure  by  his  face  and  eyes  that  he  did  not  in  mine.  We  were 
very  social,  &c. 

28.  Friday.  I  have  omitted  writing  a  week.  Dr.  Tufts  lodged 
here  last  night,  with  yesterday's  paper.  The  January  packet 
arrived  at  New  York  has  brought  the  King's  speech,  the  addresses 
of  Lords  and  Commons,  14th  of  January,  and  many  private  let- 
ters, which  inform  that  Mr.  Pitt  was  in  the  House  of  Commons, 


and  declared  himself  against  Grenville  and  for  a  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act,  upon  principle ;  called  it  the  most  impolitic,  arbi- 

1  The  following  brief  extract  from  this  article  may  serve  as  a  specimen  of  the 
general  tone  of  the  government  writers  of  this  time : 

"Remark  II.  The  best  plans  of  government  and  completest  models  of  civil 
states  will  suffer  by  tumults,  and  are  subject  to  be  overthrown,  when  self-design- 
ing men,  and  men  of  a  hot,  enthusiastical  turn  of  mind,  are  at  the  head  of  public 
commotions. 

"  At  a  time  when  the  torrent  runs  high  and  the  state  is  unsettled,  self-design- 
ing men  will  push  themselves  forward  at  all  adventures,  hoping  for  nothing  more 
than  selt^pi'omotion,  though  at  the  ruin  of  the  public." 


Mr,  30.]  DIARY.  191 

trary,  oppressive,  and  unconstitutional  Act  that  ever  was  passed ; 
denied  that  we  were  represented  in  the  House  of  Commons,  ( Q. 
Whether  the  House  of  Commons  or  the  Parliament?)  and  asserted 
that  the  House  granted  taxes  in  their  representative  capacity, 
not  in  their  legislative,  and,  therefore,  that  the  Parliament  had 
not  the  right  to  tax  the  colonies. 

Q.  What  has  been  said  in  America  which  Mr.  Pitt  has  not 
confirmed  ?  Otis,  Adams,  Hopkins,  &c.,  have  said  no  more. 
Hampden,  F.  A.,  the  Feudal  System,  and  Lord  Clarendon,1  have 
gone  no  further  than  Pitt.  No  epithets  have  been  used  in 
America  worse  than  impolitic,  arbitrary,  oppressive,  unconstitu- 
tional,—  unless  it  be  cursed,  damned,  supercursed,  &c.  What 
shall  we  think  of  Mr.  Pitt?  What  shall  we  call  him?  The 
genius  and  guardian  angel  of  Britain  and  British  America,  or 
what?  Is  it  possible  that  Grenville,  offensive  to  his  King,  dis- 
agreeable to  the  people,  should  prevail  against  the  whole  new 
ministry  and  Mr.  Pitt? 

April  10.  Friday^  At  Plymouth.  Court  open  and  business 
proceeding. 

15.  Tuesday.  Went  to  Boston.  The  superior  court  adjourned 
again,  for  a  fortnight.  Hutchinson,  Cushing,  and  Oliver,  present. 
What  insolence  and  impudence  and  chicanery  is  this ! 

Fleet,  of  yesterday,  gives  us  a  piece  from  London  Gazette, 
January  8th,  signed  Vindex  Patrice.  The  sole  question,  he  says, 
is,  if  the  Americans  are  represented  in  Parliament. 

Colonists  by  charters  shall  have  same  privileges,  as  if  born  in 
England,  that  -  is,  that  England  shall  be  reputed  their  natale 
solum;  Massachusetts,  by  fiction,  supposed  to  lie  in  England. 
Q.  Whether  this  thought  was  not  suggested  by  the  Braintree 
instructions  ?  2  "A  fiction  of  law,  insensible  in  theory  and  inju- 
rious in  practice."  All  England  is  represented,  then  Massa- 
chusetts is. 

26.  Saturday.  The  last  Thursday's  paper  is  full.  The  re- 
solves of  the  House  of  Commons  are  the  most  interesting. 
The  bill  which  is  to  be  brought  in  upon  the  first  resolve  and 
the  sixth,  has  excited  my  curiosity  and  apprehensions  the  most. 

1  The  signatures  of  writers  on  this  topic  in  the  Boston  Gazette 

2  Drawn  up  by  himself,  in  the  September  preceding,  and  which  will  be  found 
elsewhere  in  these  volumes.  It  is  a  little  singular  that  no  other  allusion  to  them 
occurs  in  the  Diary. 


192  DIARY.  [1766. 

The  first  resolve  is,  that  King,  Lords,  and  Commons,  have  an 
undoubted  right  to  make  laws  for  the  Colonies  in  all  cases  what- 
ever. I  am  solicitous  to  know  whether  they  will  lay  a  tax  in  con- 
sequence of  that  resolution,  or  what  kind  of  a  law  they  will  make. 

The  first  resolve  is  in  these  words :  "  That  the  King's  Ma- 
jesty, by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Lords  spiritual 
and  temporal,  and  Commons  of  Great  Britain  in  Parliament 
assembled,  had,  hath,  and  of  right  ought  to  have,  full  power 
and  authority  to  make  laws  and  statutes  of  sufficient  force  and 
validity  to  bind  the  Colonies  and  people  of  America,  subjects  of 
the  Crown  of  Great  Britain,  in  all  cases  whatever."  Now,  upon 
this  resolution,  a  bill  is  to  be  brought  in.  Q.  What  is  the  end 
and  design  of  that  bill  ? 

Another  resolution  is,  that  all  who  have  suffered  damages  for 
their  desire  to  comply  with  any  act  of  Parliament,  or  to  assist  in 
the  execution  of  any,  ought  to  be  amply  compensated.  But  who 
are  they  who  have  manifested  a  desire  to  comply  with  the  Stamp 
Act  or  to  assist  in  the  execution  of  it  ?  Winslow,  Foster,  Clap, 
Brown,  &c,  were  for  submission,  in  order  to  obtain  a  repeal. 
Everybody  has  disowned  any  desire  to  comply  or  assist.  Who 
will  lay  claim  to  the  character  of  dutiful  and  loyal  subjects,  and 
to  the  protection  of  the  House  of  Commons,  in  consecmence  of . 
the  fifth  resolution  ? 

Prophecies  are  the  most  airy,  visionary  things  in  nature.  I 
remember  the  time  when  Pratt  was  universally  called  by  the 
Hutchinsonians  a  bad  politician ;  and  I  never  could  hear  any 
other  reason  given  but  this, — that  his  prophecies  about  the 
King  of  Prussia  and  General  Amherst,  did  not  turn  out  right. 

Now  Hutchinson  himself,  Olivers,  Trowbridges,  Kuggleses, 
Winslows,  have  been  prophesying  that  fleets  and  armies  would 
be  sent  to  enforce  the  Stamp  Act ;  but  they  are  as  false  prophets 
as  ever  uttered  oracles. 

Foresight,  judgment,  sagacity,  penetration,  &c,  are  but  very 
feeble,  infirm  things,  in  these  great  affairs  of  state  and  war. 
What  Hutchinson  said  in  the  probate  office  was  as  good  a  way 
as  any  :  "  I  never  was  more  at  a  loss  in  my  life  about  any  thing 
future !  What  the  new  ministry  will  do  I  know  not ;  if  Mr. 
Pitt  was  in,  I  should  be  at  no  loss  at  all."  In  this  way,  an  air 
of  deep,  important  wisdom  is  preserved,  without  danger  of  being 
proved  mistaken  by  time. 


^t.  30.]  DIARY.  193 

27.  Sunday.  Heard  Mr.  Smith.  In  the  evening,  yesterday,  I 
had  a  great  deal  of  conversation  with  Ezekiel  Price  about  poli- 
tics, &c.  I  provoked  him  to  speak  freely,  by  calling  him  a 
Hutchinsonian.  "  I  swear,"  says  he,  "  I  think  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor  an  honest  man,  and  I  think  he  has  been  most  damna- 
bly abused,  and  slandered,  and  belied,"  &c.  I  know  all  his  violent 
opposers.  I  know  them  and  what  they  are  after,  and  their  dis- 
ciples in  and  about  the  Capital.  There  is  no  man  in  the  Pro- 
vince would  fill  any  one  of  his  offices  as  he  does.  He  is  the 
best  Judge  of  Probate,"  &c.  Flings  about  Otis  and  Adams,  and 
about  being  one  of  their  disciples,  &c. 

29.  Tuesday.  At  Boston.  To  this  day  the  Superior  Court 
was  adjourned.  Hutchinson,  Lynde,  and  Cushing,were  present. 
Two  of  the  bar  agreed  to  continue  an  action.  Hutchinson  leans 
over  and  orders  Winthrop  to  minute  an  agreement  to  continue. 
We  will  consider  of  it,  says  he.  Another  of  the  bar  moved  for 
a  continuance,  and  no  opposition.  Hutchinson  orders  the  clerk 
to  enter  it,  motion  for  a  continuance,  &c.  Then  the  Court  went 
to  playing  off  a  farce,  and  to  trying  to  get  a  cause  for  the  jury, 
but  none  was  then  ready.  Then  Hutchinson  proposed,  —  "  What 
if  we  should  adjourn  to  the  first  Tuesday  in  June  ?"  Then  Otis 
and  Swift  moved  that  complaints  might  be  read  and  passed 
upon  or  affirmed.  Hutchinson  said,  "  I  shall  be  very  open  in 
my  judgment ;  I  am  not  for  making  up  judgment  on  any  com- 
plaints ;  I  am  upon  principle  in  it ;  it  would  not  be  regular  nor 
prudent  at  this  critical  juncture."  Gushing  thought,  "that  in 
some  cases  of  necessity  it  might  be  done,"  with  one  of  his  most 
Jesuitical  looks.  Lynde  declared  he  would  not  belong  to  the 
General  Court,  in  all  advents,  this  year.  Hutchinson  seemed  in 
tortures.  "  He  wanted  to  be  out  of  town,  to  be  at  home ;  he 
was  never  so  easy  as  when  he  was  there ;  he  did  not  love  to 
spend  his  time  idly;  if  there  was  no  business  to  be  done,  he 
was  for  being  where  he  could  be  employed." 

Thus  the  Chief  Justice  is  now  mustering  up  fortitude  enough 
to  make  public,  to  manifest  his  desire  to  comply  with  the  Stamp 
Act,  and  to  assist  in  carrying  it  into  execution,  in  order  to  lay 
claim  to  the  protection  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  to  claim 
a  compensation  for  his  damages.  Ay,  he  is  now  assuming  the 
character  of  a  dutiful  and  loyal  subject!  I  kept  an  obstinate 
silence  the  whole  time ;  I  said  not  one  word  for  or  against  the 

VOL.  II.  17  m 


194  D1AKY.  [176(8. 

adjournment ;  I  saw  the  court  were  determined  before  I  came 
in,  and  they  had  no  right  to  expect  that  I  would  fall  in  with 
that  determination  ;  and  I  had  no  disposition  to  foment  an  oppo- 
sition to  it,  because  an  opposition  made  with  any  warmth  might 
have  ended  in  the  demolition  of  the  earthly  house  of  his  Honor's 
tabernacle. 

But  let  me  look  back  to  the  sixth  page  in  this  book,  that  is, 
to  Tuesday,  11th  of  March,1  and  read  what  was  said  by  Cushi ng, 
Lynde,  &c,  and  can  we  be  sufficiently  amazed  at  the  chicanery, 
the  finesse,  the  prevarication,  the  insincerity,  the  simulation, 
nay,  the  lies  and  falsehoods  of  the  Judges  of  the  superior  court? 
These  are  harsh  words,  but  true.  The  times  are  terrible,  and 
made  so  at  present  by  Hutchinson,  Chief  Justice.  I  cannot  say 
that  Oliver  fibbed,  but  Cushing  did,  abominably,  on  11th  March. 
Nathaniel  Hatch  says,  "  they  are  right,  for  nothing  hindered  the 
repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  but  what  has  been  done  here,  —  the 
riots,  and  resolves,  and  doing  business,"  &c. 

Thus  America  will  ring  with  riots,  resolves,  opening  courts, 
instructions,  Edes  and  Gill's  Gazette,  writers,  &c. —  all  the  evil 
will  be  laid  upon  them  and  the  Congress  too,  and  recalling 
orders  for  goods. 

May  4.  Sunday.  Returning  from  meeting  this  morning,  I 
saw  for  the  first  time  a  likely  young  button-wood  tree,  lately 
planted  on  the  triangle  made  by  the  three  roads,  by  the  house 
of  Mr.  James  Bracket.  The  tree  is  well  set,  well  guarded,  and 
has  on  it  an  inscription,  "  The  Tree  of  Liberty,  and  cursed  is  he 
who  cuts  this  tree ! "  Q.  What  will  be  the  consequences  of  this 
thought  ?  I  never  heard  a  hint  of  it  till  I  saw  it,  but  I  hear  that 
some  persons  grumble,  and  threaten  to  girdle  it. 

18.  Sunday.  Mem.  To  write  some  speculations  upon  the 
union  of  legislative  and  executive  powers,9  and  upon  the  knot, 
the  junto,  the  combination. 

26.  Monday.  I  have  been  very  unfortunate  in  running  the 
gauntlet  through  all  the  rejoicings  for  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp 
Act. 


1  Page  188-189. 

2  From  the  coincidence  of  phrase  here  used  with  that  which  Gordon  quotes 
as  applied  to  justify  the  proceedings  on  the  28th,  only  ten  days  later,  it  is  fair  to 
infer  that  the  writer  was  already  possessed  of  the  design  to  exclude  Hutchinson 
from  the  council,  and  was  meditating  how  to  prepare  the  public  mind  for  the 
stroke.     Gordon's  History,  vol.  i.  p.  208. 


-3St.  30]  DIARY.  195 

Monday  last,  at  two  o'clock,1  was  our  town  meeting;  and  the 
same  evening  were  all  the  rejoicings  in  Boston  and  in  Plymouth. 
After  meeting  I  mounted  for  Plymouth,  and  reached  Dr.  Hall's 
of  Pembroke.  The  only  rejoicings  I  heard  or  saw,  were  at 
Hingham,  where  the  bells  rung,  cannons  were  fired,  drums  beat- 
en, and  landlady  Gushing,  on  the  plain,  illuminated  her  house. 

The  county  of  Plymouth  has  made  a  thorough  purgation; 
Winslow,  Clap,  Foster,  Howard,  Keen,  Oliver,  Alden,  are  all 
omitted,  and  Warren,  Sever,  Thomas,  Turner,  Vinal,  Edson 
Sprout,  are  chosen.     What  a  change ! 

_^A_ duller  day  than  last  Monday,  when  the  Province  was  in  a 
rapture  for  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  I  do  not  remember  to 
have  passed.  My  wife,  who  had  long  depended  on  going  to 
Boston,  and  my  little  babe,  were  both  very  ill  of  an  whooping 
cough.  Myself  under  obligation  to  attend  the  superior  court  at 
Plymouth  the  next  day,  and  therefore  unable  to  go  to  Boston, 
and  the  town  of  Braintree  insensible  to  the  common  joy ! 

28.  Wednesday.     General  election.     At  Boston.    After  lectn 
dined  at  Mr.  Austin's,  the  wine-cooper,  with  the  Rev.  Messrs. 
Prentice  of  Charlestown  and  Adams  '2  of  Roxbury.     Adams  and 
Austin  were  the  disputants  in  politics.     Prentice  a  moderator. 

This  morning,  Adams  was  chosen  Clerk,  and  _Otis  Speaker. 
Governor  Bernard  negatived  him.  Gushing  was  chosen.  In 
the  afternoon  they  proceeded  to  choose  counsellors,  when  Hutch- 
inson and  the  two  Olivers  were  dropped,  and  Trowbridge  was 
dropped,3  and  Mr.  Pitts,  Colonel  Gerrish,  Colonel  White,  Bowers, 
Powell,  and  Mr.  Saunders,  and  Dexter,  were  chosen.  What  a 
change !  This  day  seems  to  be  the  literal  accomplishment  of  a 
prophecy  of  Mr.  Otis,  published  two  or  three  winters  ago  in  the 
newspaper :  "  The  day  is  hastening  on,  with  large  strides,  when 
a  dirty,  very  dirty,  witless  rabble,  I  mean  the  great  vulgar,  shall 
go  down  with  deserved  infamy  to  all  posterity."     Thus  the  tri- 

1  On  the  sixteenth  of  May,  a  copy  of  the  Act  of  Parliament  for  the  repeal  of 
the  Stamp  Act  was  brought  to  .Boston.  No  rejoicings,  since  fFe~Revblution,  had 
been  equal  to  those  on  this  occasion.  The  general  language  from  the  friends  of 
liberty  to  such  as  had  differed  from  them,  was  this :  "  See  what  firmness  and 
resolution  will  do."     Hutchinson,  iii.  14  7. 

2  Rev.  Amos  Adams,  in  high  repute  at  this  time  for  abilities  and  learning. 
Notices  of  him  are  to  be  found  in  Eliot  and  Allen.  He  died  in  17  75,  during 
the  prevalence  around  Boston  of  an  epidemic  dysentery,  to  which  he  fell  a  victim. 

3  The  curious  reader  can  compare  this  account  with  that  in  the  third  volume 
of  Hutchinson's  History,  pp.  148,  et  seq. 


196  DIARY.  [1766. 

muph  of  Otis  and  his  party  are  complete.     But  what  changes 
are  yet  to  come  ?     Will  not  the  other  party  soon  be  uppermost? 

29.  Thursday.  The  Governor  negatived  Otis,  Sparhawk, 
Dexter,  Saunders,  Gerrish,  and  Bowers,  and  made  the  two 
Houses  a  most  nitrous,  sulphureous  speech. 

What  will  be  the  consequence  ? 

This  morning,  in  Hatch's  office,  Mr.  Paxton  came  in. 

"  This  is  the  laziest  town  upon  the  globe ;  poor,  proud  and 
lazy  is  the  character  of  this  town ;  they  won't  work.  If  the 
neutrals  }  were  gone,  there  would  be  nobody  to  throw  the  water 
out  of  the  long  boat  in  this  town."  Trowbridge  told  stories  about 
the  virtue  of  some  neutrals,  their  strict  justice,  their  aversion  to 
profaneness,  &c.  Paxton  said  they  were  never  drunk,  never  dis- 
orderly, never  before  a  magistrate,  &c.  &c.  &c.  All  this  from 
Goffe  2  and  Paxton  was  meant  in  favor  of  Roman  Catholic  reli- 
gion and  civil  slavery,  I  doubt  not. 

Goffe  said  he  had  been  reading  the  History  of  England,  and 
he  found  that  there  had  always  arisen  men  to  defend  liberty  in 
the  same  manner  and  from  the  same  principles  as  they  do  here. 

He  said  further,  that  for  himself  he  felt  so  happily  after  his- 
death,3  that  he  was  pretty  sure  he  had  behaved  well  during  his 
lifetime  ;  for  himself,  he  was  easy,  but  the  poor  Secretary  is 
infirm ;  it  will  bear  hard  upon  him ;  and  for  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor,  now  the  Act  is  repealed,  and  considering  how  he  has 
been  used,  instead  of  doing  any  thing  to  make  up  his  loss,  to 
leave  him  out  of  council,  and  so  to  confirm  in  the  minds  of  the 
people  a  suspicion  that  he  has  been  an  enemy  to  the  country, 
is  very  hard,  for  a  man  who  has  behaved  so  well  as  he  has. 

July  18.  Monday  after  Commencement.  Last  Saturday,  I 
accidentally  found  a  curious  volume  which  Oakes  Angier  found 
in  a  chest  of  books  belonging  to  an  uncle  of  his  who  died  forty- 
five  years  ago.  The  title-page  and  all  the  rest  is  gone  till  you 
come  to  the  eighteenth  page.  It  seems  to  be  a  collection  of 
pamphlets,  published  in  the  memorable  year  1640,  bound  up 
together  in  one  quarto  volume.  Lord  Digbie's  Speech,  9  Novem- 
ber, 1640,  concerning  grievances  and  the  Triennial  Parliament. 

i  The  Acadian  exiles. 

2  Mr.  Goffe  had  changed  his  name  to  that  of  Trowbridge,  by  which  he  is 
designated  in  a  preceding  sentence. 

3  Political  death,  by  being  left  out  of  the  council. 


J&r.  30.]  DIARY.  197 

Harbottle  Grimstone's  speech,  18th  December,  1640,  moving  for 
an  impeachment  of  the  Archbishop.  He  calls  him  the  great  and 
common  enemy  of  all  goodness  and  good  men.  Pym's  speech 
after  the  articles  against  Strafford  were  read.  Pym's  speech 
after  the  articles  against  Sir  George  Ratcliffe  were  read.1 

24.  Sunday.  Thanksgiving  for  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act. 
Air.  Smith's  text  was.  "The  Lord  reigneth,  let  the  earth  rejoice, 
and  the  multitude  of  the  isles  be  glad  thereof." 

Mr.  Wibird's  was,  Genesis  50th,  20th :  "  But,  as  for  you,  ye 
thought  evil  against  me ;  but  God  meant  it  unto  good,  to  bring 
to  pass,  as  it  is  this  day,  to  save  much  people  alive."  America 
is  Joseph ;  the  King,  Lords,  and  Commons,  Joseph's  father  and 
brethren.  Our  forefathers  sold  into  Egypt,  that  is,  persecuted 
into  America,  &c.     Wibird  shone,  they  say. 

28.  Monday.  At  Boston.  A  meeting  of  the  bar  at  the  Coffee 
House,  for  the  admission  of  three  young  gentlemen,  Mr.  Oliver, 
Mr.  Quincy,2  and  Mr.  Blowers,  and  another  meeting  appointed 
next  Friday  sevennight,  to  consider  of  some  measures  for  limita- 
tion, making  a  pause,  &c.  They  swarm  and  multiply  —  sed  the 
country  grows  amazingly,  and  the  time  will  not  be  long  ere 
many  who  are  now  upon  the  stage  will  be  in  their  graves. 
Four  years  must  pass  before  the  three  young  gentlemen  admit- 
ted this  night  will  assume  the  gown,  and  four  years  will  make  a 
great  alteration  in  the  bar.  It  is  not  so  long  since  Pratt  and 
Thacher  were  in  their  glory  at  the  bar ;  since  Colonel  Otis 
reigned  in  three  southern  counties,  &c.  Mr.  Gridley  and  Mr. 
Dana  are  between  sixty  and  seventy.  Kent  is  near  sixty.  Fitch, 
Otis,  Auchmuty,  are  about  forty.  Benjamin  Gridley  and  Mr. 
Dudley  are  about  thirty-five,  and  Sewall,  S.  Quincy,  and  I, 
about  thirty.  Within  tour  years,  possibly  some  of  all  these 
ranks  may  depart.  But  the  bar  has  at  last  introduced  a  regular 
progress  to  the  gown,  and  seven  years  must  be  the  state  of  pro- 
bation. 

Gridley,  Otis,  and  Auchmuty  were  the  chief  speakers.  Gridley, 
however,  was  not  in  trim ;  I  never  saw  him  more  out  of  spirits. 
Otis  told  some  stories.  Auchmuty  told  more,  and  scolded  and 
railed  about  the  lowness  of  the  fees.     This  is  Auchmuty's  com- 

1  Hen-  follows  a  long  list  of  titles  of  speeches  made  during  the  great  struggle 
in  England.     The  volume  must  have  been  curious  and  valuable. 
-  Josiah  Quincy,  Junior. 


198  DIARY.  [17G6. 

monplace  topic :-  In  Jamaica,  Barbadoes,  South  Carolina,  and 
New  York,  a  lawyer  will  make  an  independent  fortune  in  ten 
years. 

29.  Tuesday.  At  Boston.  Bought  Gilbert's  Law  of  Evi- 
dence. Auchmuty  is  employed  in  Sessions  and  everywhere ; 
the  same  heavy,  dull,  insipid  way  of  arguing  everywhere  ;  as 
many  repetitions  as  a  Presbyterian  parson  in  his  prayer.  Volu- 
bility, voluble  repetition  and  repeated  volubility ;  fluent  reitera- 
tions and  reiterating  fluency.  Such  nauseous  eloquence  always 
puts  my  patience  to  the  torture.  In  what  is  this  man  conspicu- 
ous ?  —  in  reasoning,  in  imagination,  in  painting,  in  the  pathetic, 
or  what  ?  In  confidence,  in  dogmatism,  &c.  His  wit  is  flat, 
his  humor  is  affected  and  dull.  To  have  this  man  represented 
as  the  first  at  the  bar,  is  a  libel  upon  it,  a  reproach  and  disgrace 
to  it. 

30.  Wednesday.  At  Boston;  the  weather  cloudy.  Going  to 
the  common  pleas  to-day.  Let  me  take  minutes ;  let  me  remark 
the  speakers,  their  action,  their  pronunciation,  their  learning, 
their  reasoning,  their  art  and  skill ;  let  me  remark  the  causes, 
the  remarkable  circumstances,  &c.  and  report. 

August  12.  Tuesday.  Set  out  with  my  wife  for  Salem; 
dined  at  Boston;  drank  tea  at  Dr.  Simon  Tufts's,  at  Medford; 
lodged  at  Mr.  Bishop's. 

13.  Wednesday.  Set  out  from  Mr.  Bishop's,  oated  at  Nor- 
wood's alias  Martin's,  and  reached  brother  Cranch's  at  twelve 
o'clock ;  dined  and  drank  tea,  and  then  rode  down  to  the  Neck 
Gate,  and  then  back  through  the  Common  and  down  to  Beverly 
Ferry,  then  back  through  the  Common  and  round  the  back  part 
of  the  town  home  ;  then  walked  round  the  other  side  of  the 
town  to  Colonel  Browne's,  who  not  being  at  home  we  returned. 
The  town  is  situated  on  a  plain,  a  level,  a  flat ;  scarce  an  emi- 
nence can  be  found  anywhere  to  take  a  view.  The  streets  are 
broad  and  straight,  and  pretty  clean.  The  houses  are  the  most 
elegant  and  grand  that  I  have  seen  in  any  of  the  maritime 
towns. 

14.  Thursday.  In  the  morning  rode  a  single  horse,  in  company 
with  Mrs.  Cranch  and  Mrs.  Adams  in  a  chaise,  to  Marblehead. 
The  road  from  Salem  to  Marblehead,  four  miles,  is  pleasant 
indeed.  The  grass  plats  and  fields  are  delightful,  but  Marble- 
head differs  from  Salem.     The  streets  are  narrow,  and  rugged, 


JEt.  30.]  DIARY.  199 

and  dirty,  but  there  are  some  very  grand  buildings.  Returned 
and  dined  at  Cranch's ;  after  dinner  walked  to  Witchcraft  hill,  a 
hill  about  half  a  mile  from  Cranch's,  where  the  famous  persons 
formerly  executed  for  witches  were  buried.  Somebody  within 
a  few  years  has  planted  a  number  of  locust  trees  over  the  graves, 
as  a  memorial  of  that  memorable  victory  over  the  "  prince  of  the 
power  of  the  air." 

This  hill  is  in  a  large  common  belonging  to  the  proprietors  of 
Salem,  &c.  From  it  you  have  a  fair  view  of  the  town,  of  the 
river,  the  north  and  south  fields,  of  Marblehead,  of  Judge  Lynde's 
pleasure-house,  &c.  of  Salem  village,  &c. 

18.  Monday.     Went  to  Taunton ;  lodged  at  McWhorter's. 

19.  Tuesday.  Dined  at  Captain  Cobb's  with  Colonel  G. 
Leonard,  Paine,  Leonard,  young  Cobb,  &c. 

20.  Wednesday.  Spent  evening  at  lodgings  with  Charles 
Cushing  and  Daniel  Oliver  of  Middleborough,  Paine,  and  Leon- 
ard, socially. 

21.  Thursday  morning,  fine  weather ;  feel  well. 
__November  3.    Monday.      Set  off  with  my  wife  for   Salem; 

stopped  half  an  hour  at  Boston,  crossed  the  ferry,  and  at  three 
o'clock  arrived  at  Hill's,  the  tavern  in  Maiden,  the  sign  of  the 
Rising  Eagle,  at  the  brook  near  Mi1.  Emerson's  meeting-house, 
five  miles  from  Norwood's ;  where,  namely,  at  Hill's,  we  dined. 
Here  we  fell  in  company  with  Kent  and  Sewall.  We  all  oated  at 
Martin's,  where  we  found  the  new  sherifY  of  Essex,  Colonel  Sal- 
tonstall.  We  all  rode  into  town  together.  Arrived  at  my  dear 
brother  Cranch's  about  eight,  and  drank  tea,  and  are  all  very 
happy.  Sat  and  heard  the  ladies  talk  about  ribbon,  catgut,  and 
Paris  net,  riding-hoods,  cloth,  silk,  and  lace.  Brother  Cranch 
came  home,  and  a  very  happy  evening  we  had.  Cranch  is  now 
in  a  good  situation  for  business,  near  the  court-house  and  Mr. 
Barnard's  meeting-house,  and  on  the  road  to  Marblehead ;  his 
house  fronting  the  wharves,  the  harbor  and  shipping,  has  a  fine 
prospect  before  it. 

4.  Tuesday.  A  fine  morning.  Attended  court  all  day ;  heard 
the  charge  to  grand  jury,  and  a  prayer  by  Mr.  Barnard.  Deacon 
Pickering  was  foreman  of  one  of  the  juries.  This  man,  famous 
for  his  writing  in  newspapers  concerning  church  order  and  gov- 
ernment, they  tell  me  is  very  rich ;  his  appearance  is  perfectly 
plain,  like  a  farmer ;  his  smooth  combed  locks  flow  behind  him 


200  DIARY.  [1766. 

like  Deacon  Cushing's,  though  not  so  gray ;  he  has  a  quick  eye 
like  — ;  he  has  an  hypocritical  demure  on  his  face  like  Deacon 
Foster;  his  mouth  makes  a  semicircle  when  he  puts  on  that 
devout  face.  Deacon  Penniman  is  somewhat  like  him,  though 
Penniman  has  more  of  the  grave  solemnity  in  his  behavior  than 
the  other.  The  picture  of  Governor  Endicott,  &c.  in  the  council 
chamber,  is  of  this  sort;  they  are  puritanical  faces. 

At  this  court  I  also  saw  a  young  gentleman  lately  sworn  in 
the  inferior  court,  whose  name  is  Samuel  Porter ;  he  lived  with 
Mr.  Farnham,  took  his  second  degree  last  year,  and  lives  at 
Ipswich.  Thus  every  county  of  the  Province  swarms  with 
pupils,  and  students,  and  young  practitioners  of  law. 

5.  Wednesday.  Attended  court ;  heard  the  trial  of  an  action 
of  trespass,  brought  by  a  mulatto  woman,  for  damages,  for 
restraining  her  of  her  liberty.  This  is  called  suing  for  liberty; 
the  first  action  that  ever  I  knew  of  the  sort,  though  I  have  heard 
there  have  been  manv.  Heard  another  action  for  assault  and 
battery,  of  a  mariner,  by  the  master  of  a  vessel ;  a  little  fellow 
was  produced  as  a  witness  who  is  a  Spaniard ;  speaks  intelligible 
English ;  black  eyes,  thin,  sharp  features ;  has  been  among  the 
English  three  or  four  years. 

Here  I  saw  Nathaniel  Peaslee  Sargeant,  of  Methuen,1  two 
years  an  attorney  of  superior  court,  now  commencing  a  barrister. 
He  took  his  degree  the  year  I  entered  college ;  he  has  the  char- 
acter of  sense,  ingenuity,  &c,  but  not  of  fluency ;  he  is  a  stout 
man,  not  genteel  nor  sprightly.  This  is  the  gentleman  whom 
Thacher  recommended  for  a  justice,  and  admired  for  his  correct- 
ness and  conciseness,  as  another  Father  Read.  Here  I  found 
the  famous  Joseph  Eaton,  at  law  as  usual.  I  knew  him  when  I 
lived  at  Worcester,  where  he  had  a  suit,  I  believe,  every  court 
while  I  lived  there.  He  now  lives  at  Lynn  End,  on  the  borders 
between  Essex  and  Middlesex.  This  is  one  of  the  stirring  instru- 
ments that  Goffe  has  patronized  and  encouraged  for  many  years. 
I  remember  to  have  heard  Goffe  celebrate  him  for  self-govern- 
ment, for  a  cool,  steady  command  of  his  passions,  and  for  firm- 
ness of  mind,  &c. 

Eaton  is  now  at  law  with  the  Harts,  whose  characters  are  as 
curious  as  his  and  more  so. 

1  Afterwards  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts.  He  died 
in  1791. 


JEt.  31.]  DIARY.  201 

This  Eaton,  Goffe  set  up,  as  Pynchon  tells  me,  to  be  a  justice, 
but  Thacher  got  him  indicted  in  the  county  of  Essex  for  a  bar- 
rator, which  defeated  the  scheme  of  Goffe,  and  he  came  near 
conviction.  Goffe  grew  warm,  and  said  that  Eaton's  character 
was  as  good  as  any  man's  at  the  bar. 

Spent  the  evening  at  Mr.  Pynchon's,  with  Farnham,  Sewall, 
Sargeant,  Colonel  Saltonstall,  &c.  very  agreeably.  Punch,  wine, 
bread  and  cheese,  apples,  pipes  and  tobacco.  Popes  and  bonfires 
this  evening  at  Salem,  and  a  swarm  of  tumultuous  people  attend- 
ing them. 

6.  Thursday.  A  fine  morning ;  oated  at  Martin's,  where  we 
saw  five  boxes  of  dollars,  containing,  as  we  were  told,  about 
eighteen  thousand  of  them,  going  in  a  horse-cart  from  Salem 
custom-house  to  Boston,  in  order  to  be  shipped  for  England.  A 
guard  of  armed  men,  with  swords,  hangers,  pistols,  and  muskets, 
attended  it.     We  dined  at  Dr.  Tufts's  in  Medford. 

There  I  first  heard  that  the  old  custom  and  privilege  of  elect- 
ing orators,  thesis  collectors,  &c.  by  the  class,  has  been  lately 
taken  away,  and  that  this  invasion  of  their  privileges  contributed 
more  than  the  butter  towards  the  late  spirit  of  insurrection  there.1 

Drank  tea  at  Mrs.  Kneeland's ;  got  home  before  eight  o'clock. 

7.  Friday.  Went  up  to  my  common  pasture  to  give  direc- 
tions about  trimming  the  trees,  that  is,  lopping  and  trimming  i/ 
the  walnuts  and  oaks,  and  felling  the  pines  and  savins  and 
hemlocks.  An  irregular,  misshapen  pine  will  darken  the  whole 
scene  in  some  places.  These  I  fell  without  mercy,  to  open  the 
prospect  and  let  in  the  sun  and  air,  that  the  other  wood  may 
grow  the  faster,  and  that  the  grass  may  get  in  for  feed.  I  prune 
all  the  trees ;  I  leave  buttonwoods,  elms,  maples,  oaks,  walnuts, 
savins,  hemlocks,  and  all.  The  pines  that  grow  in  that  pasture 
are,  that  is,  the  white  pines  are,  very  knotty,  crooked,  unthrifty 
things.     I  am  desirous  of  clearing  out  the  rocky  gutter,  that  is, 

of  clearing  away  the  bushes  and  pruning  all  the  trees,  that  we 
may  see  clearly  the  course  of  the  water  there,  and  judge  whether 
it  is  worth  while  to  dig  up  the  rocks  and  make  a  ditch  for  the 
water ;  and  for  another  reason,  too,  namely,  to  let  in  the  sun  and 
air,  because  that  rocky  gutter  produces  a  great  deal  of  feed,  which 
I  should  be  glad  to  sweeten. 

1  Quincy's  History  of  Harvard  University,  vol.  ii.  p.  99. 


202  DIARY.  [1766. 

Afternoon,  went  to  Major  Crosby's,  to  see  him  execute  a  codicil 
to  his  will.  The  old  gentleman  is  very  desirous  that  the  Pro- 
vince should  comply  with  the  King's  recommendation  to  make 
up  the  damages  to  the  sufferers. 

8.  Saturday.     Fine  weather  still. 

Yesterday,  Clement  Hayden  came  in  to  Major  Crosby's.  He 
seemed  to  hope,  he  said,  that  the  Court  wottld  not  vote  to  make 
up  the  losses ; 1  but  he  heard,  to-day  that  the  King  had  requested 
it,  and  if  that  was  true  he  knew  not  what  to  say.  The  King  had 
been  so  gracious  as  to  repeal  the  Stamp  Act,  and  now  to  deny 
him  such  a  trifle,  would  seem  ungrateful  and  ungenerous ;  and 
it  was  our  best  interest  to  be  always  in  favor  with  him,  and  if 
we  should  refuse  his  request,  it  might  be  ten  times  more  damage 
to  us  than  to  pay  it ;  and  he  believed  if  this  town  was  to  meet 
and  to  be  fully  informed  about  it,  they  would  not  vote  against 
it.  In  short,  Clem  talked  like  a  reasonable  man.  He  said  that 
in  all  the  wars  and  all  other  times  nothing  ever  happened  that 
affected  him  like  the  Stamp  Act;  he  said,  if  it  had  been  insisted 
on,  he  knew  it  would  not  be  borne,  and  that  he  expected  dismal 
scenes ;  the  repeal  of  it  was  great  joy,  and  he  should  be  willing 
to  do  any  thing  in  reason,  out  of  duty  to  the  King. 

This  morning  I  asked  John  Clark  some  questions  about  it. 
He  thinks  if  the  King  has  requested  it,  it  will  be  difficult  to 
refuse  it,  but  yet  it  will  be  hard  upon  us  to  pay  it. 

11.  -Tuesday.  Rain.  Deacon  Webb  here  at  tea,  and  put  this 
strange  question  to  me, — What  do  you  think  of  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor,  sir  ? 

I  told  him  what  I  once  thought  of  him,  and  that  I  now  hoped 
I  was  mistaken  in  my  judgment.  I  told  him  I  once  thought  that 
his  death,  in  a  natural  way,  would  have  been  a  smile  of  Provi- 

would  have  been  the  most  joyful 
lave  heard. 

The  Deacon  thought  him  a  devout,  pious  man,  a  professor  of 
religion,  a  good  man,  a  Christian,  &c.  and  a  capable  man,  and 
the  best  Judge  of  probate  that  ever  we  had  this  forty  years ;  and 
that  he  had  been  envied.  This  observation,  of  his  being  envied, 
I  have   heard  made  by   Nat   Thayer  before  now.      "  He  was 

1  "  Of  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  (Hutchinson,)  and  others,  who  had  lost  their 
property  by  the  fury  of  the  people  "  in  the  riot  of  the  twenty-sixth  of  August, 
1765.     See  Hutchinson's  History,  iii.  157. 


I     dence  upon  the  public,  and 
news  to  me  that  I  could  hav< 


Mr.  31.]  DIARY.  203 

capable  and  greatly  promoted,  and  therefore  envied ;  at  the  same 
time  a  craving  man." 

I  presume  it  will  not  be  denied  that  this  Province  is,  at  present, 
in  a  state  of  peace,  order,  and  tranquillity ;  that  the  people  are 
as  quiet  and  submissive  to  government,  as  any  people  under  the 
sun,  as  little  inclined  to  tumults,  riots,  seditions,  as  they  were 
ever  known  to  be  since  the  first  foundation  of  the  government. 

The  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  has  hushed  into  silence  almost 
every  popular  clamor,  and  composed  every  wave  of  popular  dis- 
order into  a  smooth  and  peaceful  calm. 

As  the  indemnification,  recommended  by  his  Majesty,  seems 
at  present  the  reigning  topic  of  conversation,  a  few  thoughts 
upon  that  subject  may  not  be  improper. 

After  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  every  newspaper  and 
pamphlet,  every  public  and  private  letter,  which  arrived  in 
America  from  England,  seemed  to  breathe  a  spirit  of  benevo- 
lence, tenderness,  and  generosity.  The  utmost  delicacy  was 
observed  in  all  the  State  papers  in  the  choice  of  expressions,  that 
no  unkind  impression  might  be  left  upon  the  minds  of  the  people 
in  America.  The  letters  from  the  ministry'  to  the  Governor 
recommended  the  mildest,  softest,  most  lenient  and  conciliating 
measures ;  and  even  the  resolve  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
the  recommendation  from  his  Majesty  concerning  an  indemnifi- 
cation to  the  sufferers,  was  conceived  in  the  most  alluring  lan- 
guage. Oblivion  of  every  disagreeable  circumstance  which  had 
happened  through  the  warmth  of  the  people  in  the  late  unhappy 
times,  was  recommended  in  the  strongest  terms. 

What  kind  of  behavior  might  have  been  expected  from  a 
Governor,  in  consequence  of  such  advices  from  home  ? 

At  such  a  time,  when  the  House  of  Representatives,  newly 
chosen  by  the  people,  and  a  house  which  thought  like  the  people, 
had  proceeded,  with  as  much  calm,  composed  deliberation  as 
was  ever  known,  to  the  choice  of  a  speaker,  would  it  be  expected 
that  the  Governor  should  negative  that  speaker  ?  Especially  as 
that  gentleman  had  been  a  long  time  in  great  esteem  in  the 
Province,  had  but  just  before  been  unanimously  chosen  upon 
the  Congress  at  New  York,  and  had  executed  that  trust  to  the 
universal  acceptance  of  the  Province. 

At  such  a  time,  when  the  two  houses  had  proceeded  with 
equal  solemnity  to  the  choice  of  counsellors,  and  had  completed 


204  DIARY.  [17(56. 

the  election,  could  it  be  believed  that  a  Governor  should,  by 
his  mighty  negative,  slaughter  six  of  the  list  at  a  blow ;  six  of 
the  most  steady,  capable,  and  active  friends  of  the  people  in  the 
whole  board? 

After  all  this,  which  was  borne  without  a  murmur,  does  it  not 
exceed  all  credibility  that  this  same  Governor  should  meet  the 
two  houses,  and  open  the  session  with  a  speech!  —  a  speech!  — 
a  speech !  I  want  words  to  express  my  sentiments  of  this 
speech ! 

December  8.  Monday.  Dined  at  Dr.  Tufts's ;  drank  tea  at 
Dr.  Hall's,  Pembroke ;  lodged  at  Captain  Little's,  Kingston.  I 
find  a  general  opposition  in  the  county  of  Plymouth  to  compen- 
sation. Jacobs  tells  me  that  Scituate  voted  against  it  with  great 
warmth.  Judge  Gushing,  moderator,  did  not  see  fit  to  say  a 
word,  nor  was  there  a  word  said  or  a  hand  up  in  favor  of  the 
bill,  though  they  had  voted  for  it  in  October.  Keen,  of  Pem- 
broke was  warm,  and  stumped  Soule,  the  moderator,  to  lay 
down  the  money  and  prevent  a  tax  upon  the  poor. 

Kingston  was  so  fixed  against  it,  that  they  would  not  call  a 
meeting.  The  more  considerate  and  sensible  people,  however, 
in  all  these  towns,  are  in  favor  of  it. 

Landlord  and  landlady  Little  are  full  of  politics.  Mr.  Little 
could  get  in  General  Winslow,  and  did  get  in  Mr.  Sever,  and 
Mr.  Sever  is  sensible  of  it.  We  had  over  the  affairs  of  col- 
lector of  excise.  Little  does  not  like  Judge  Cushing  nor  Briga- 
dier Ruggles,  because  they  opposed  his  collectorship,  &c. 

"  At  Plymouth,  the  Province  has  been  drawn  in  cleverly  to 
make  itself  guilty  of  the  riots.  Everybody  out  of  the  Province 
will  say  so.  The  Province  has  been  brought  to  pay  what  ought 
to  have  been  paid  by  Boston,  every  farthing  of  it." 

Paine.  "  The  mystery  of  iniquity  opens  more  now  in  time  of 
peace  than  it  did  in  time  of  confusion."  Sever  said  he  believed 
Goffe  won  Id  be  glad  to  punish  all  the  transgressors  in  the  late 
times,  lially  said  he  had  tried  to  persuade  GofTe  to  enter  a 
nolle  prosequi  against  the  rioters  in  Berkshire,  but  he  would  not, 
and  was  very  high,  &c.  Paine  said  the  continent  ought  to  have 
paid  the  damage. 

Nat.  Clap.  "  These  town-meeting  laws  are  the  most  awful 
things,  and  the  town  of  Boston  ought  to  be  stigmatized,  for 
setting  the  example." 


JEt.  31.]  DIARY.  205 

23.  Tuesday.  I  heard  yesterday,  for  the  first  time,  that  young 
Jonathan  Hayward,  the  son  of  Lieutenant  Joseph  Hayward  of 
the  south  precinct,  had  got  a  deputation  from  the  sheriff.  Cap- 
tain Thayer  was  the  person  who  went  to  the  sheriff  and  procured 
it  for  him.  Silas  Wild,  Thomas  Penniman,  Stephen  Penniman, 
Lieutenant  Hayward,  and  Zebulon  Thayer,  were  his  bondsmen. 
A  goodly  class !  a  clever  group !  a  fine  company !  a  bright  clus-  v*** 
ter ! 

But  what  will  be  the  consequences  of  this  deputation,  and 
what  were  the  causes  of  it?  My  brother's  disregard  and  neglect 
of  the  office,  and  his  neglect  to  pay  Greenleaf,  were  the  causes. 

1767.  March.  Saturday.  Went  with  Captain  Thayer  to 
visit  Robert  Peacock  and  his  poor,  distressed  family. 

We  found  them  in  one  chamber,  which  serves  them  for  kitchen, 
cellar,  dining-room,  parlor,  and  bedchamber.  Two  beds,  in  one  of 
which  lay  Peacock,  where  he  told  us  he  had  lain  for  seven  weeks 
without  going  out  of  it  further  than  the  fire.  He  had  a  little 
child  in  his  arms ;  another  bed  stood  on  one  side  of  the  chamber, 
where  lay  three  other  children.  The  mother  only  was  up,  by  a 
fire  made  of  a  few  chips  not  larger  than  my  hand ;  the  chamber 
excessive  cold  and  dirty. 

These  are  the  conveniences  and  ornaments  of  a  life  of  poverty, 
these  the  comforts  of  the  poor!  this  is  want,  this  is  poverty! 
these  the  comforts  of  the  needy,  the  bliss  of  the  necessitous. 

WTe  found,  upon  inquiry,  that  the  woman  and  her  two  oldest 
children  had  been  warned  out  of  Boston,  but  the  man  had  not, 
and  three  children  had  been  born  since. 

Upon  this  discovery,  we  waited  on  Colonel  Jackson,  the  first 
selectman  of  Boston,  and  acquainted  him  with  the  facts,  and 
that  we  must  be  excused  from  any  expense  for  their  support. 

When  I  was  in  that  chamber  of  distress,  I  felt  the  meltings 
of  commiseration.     This  office  of  overseer  of  the  poor  leads  a       1/ 
man  into  scenes  of  distress,  and  is  a  continual  exercise  of  the 
benevolent  principles  in  his  mind ;  his  compassion  is  constantly 
excited,  and  his  benevolence  increased. 

April  4.  Saturday.  Suits  generally  spring  from  passion. 
Jones  vs.  Bigelow,  Cotton  and  Nye,  arose  from  ambition.  Jones 
and  Bigelow  were  competitors  for  elections  in  the  town  of 
Weston.  Cotton  and  Nye  were  rivals  at  Sandwich.  Such 
rivals  have  no  friendship  for  each   other ;    from   such  rivalries 

VOL.    II.  18 


206  DIARY.  [176  7. 

originate  contentions,  quarrels,  and  suits.  Actions  of  defama- 
tion are  the  usual  fruits  of  such  competitions.  What  affection 
can  there  be  between  two  rival  candidates  for  the  confidence 
of  a  town  ?  The  famous  action  of  slander,  at  Worcester,1 
between  Hopkins  and  Ward  of  Rhode  Island,  sprouted  from 
the  same  stock.     There  the  aim  was  at  the  confidence  of  the 

Colony- 
Poor  Nye,  of  Sandwich,  seems  dejected.     I  should  suspect, 
by  his  concern,  that  Cotton  gained  ground  against  him.     He 
seems  to  be  hipped ;  it  frets,  and  worries,  and  mortifies  him ;  he 
can't  sleep  a  nights ;  his  health  is  infirm. 

Cotton  is  insane,  wild ;  his  proposal  of  giving  his  house  and 
farm,  at  Sandwich,  to  the  Province,  is  a  proof  of  insanity.  He 
has  relations  that  are  poor.  John  Cotton  is  now  poor  enough. 
He  has  a  brother,  Josiah  Cotton  the  minister,  whom  he  procured 
to  be  removed  to  Woburn,  and  thereby  to  be  ruined,  who  is  very 
poor,  maintained  by  charity.  Roland  was  Josiah's  ruin,  yet  he 
did  not  choose  to  give  his  estate  to  Josiah  ;  besides,  his  behavior 
at  Boston,  upon  that  occasion,  was  wild :  his  sitting  down  at 
the  council  table,  with  his  hat  on,  and  calling  for  his  deed  and  a 
justice  to  acknowledge  it,  when  the  council  was  sitting.  Cot- 
ton's method  of  getting  papers  signed  by  members,  in  order  to 
demolish  poor  Nye,  is  new.  The  certificate  from  Murray  and 
Foster,  if  genuine,  is  a  mean,  scandalous  thing.  It  was  mean 
in  Murray  and  Foster  to  sign  that  paper.  For  one  representa- 
tive to  give  a  constituent  a  weapon  to  demolish  another  repre- 
sentative, is  ungentlemanlike. 

8.  Wednesday.  Mounted  my  horse,  in  a  very  rainy  morning, 
for  Barnstable,  leaving  my  dear  brother  Cranch  and  his  family 
at  my  house,  where  they  arrived  last  night,  and  my  wife,  all 
designing  for  Weymouth  this  afternoon,  to  keep  the  Fast  with 
my  father  Smith  and  my  friend  Tufts.  Arrived  at  Dr.  Tufts's, 
where  I  found  a  fine  wild  goose  on  the  spit,  and  cranberries 
stewing  in  the  skillet  for  dinner.  Tufts,  as  soon  as  he  heard 
that  Cranch  was  at  Braintree,  determined  to  go  over  and  bring 
him  and  wife  and  child,  and  my  wife  and  child  over,  to  dine 
upon  wild  goose,  and  cranberry  sauce. 

Proceeded,  without  baiting,  to  Jacobs's,  where  I  dined ;  lodged 

1  See  page  152. 


Mr-  SI.]  DIARY.  207 

at  Howland's ;  rode  next  day ;  baited  at  Ellis's ;  dined  at  New- 
comb's,  and  proceeded  to  Barnstable ;  lodged  at  Howes  s,  and 
feel  myself  much  better  than  I  did  when  I  came  from  home ; 
but  I  have  had  a  very  wet,  cold,  dirty,  disagreeable  journey  of 
i  t.  Now  I  am  on  the  stage,  and  the  scene  is  soon  to  open,, 
what  part  shall  I  act?  The  people  of  the  county,  I  find,  are 
of  opinion  that  Cotton  will  worry  Nye.  But  Nye  must  come 
off  with  flying  colors. 

May.  Saturday  night.  At  Howland's,  in  Plymouth.  Re- 
turned this  day  from  Barnstable.  The  case  of  Cotton  and  Nye, 
at  Sandwich,  is  remarkable.  Cotton  has  been  driving  his  inter- 
est. This  driving  of  an  interest  seldom  succeeds.  Jones,  of 
Weston,  by  driving  his,  drove  it  all  away.  Where  two  persons 
in  a  town  get  into  such  a  quarrel,  both  must  be  very  unhappy;  — 
reproaching  each  other  to  their  faces,  relating  facts  concerning 
each  other  to  their  neighbors.  These  relations  are  denied,  repeat- 
ed, misrepresented,  additional  and  fictitious  circumstances  put  to 
them,  passions  inflamed ;  malice,  hatred,  envy,  pride,  fear,  rage, 
despair,  all  take  their  turns. 

Father  and  son,  uncle  and  nephew,  neighbor  and  neighbor, 
friend  and  friend,  are  all  set  together  by  the  ears.  My  clients 
have  been  the  sufferers  in  both  these  representative  causes. 
The  Court  was  fixed  in  the  Sandwich  case.  Cotton  is  not  only 
a  tory,  but  a  relation  of  some  of  the  Judges,  Cushing  particularly. 
Cushing  married  a  Cotton,  sister  of  John  Cotton,  the  Register 
of  Deeds  at  Plymouth.  Cushing  was  very  bitter ;  he  was  not 
for  my  arguing  to  the  jury  the  question,  whether  the  words  were 
actionable  or  not ;  he  interrupted  me ;  stopped  me  short ;  snapped 
me  Up  :  —  «  Keep  to  the  evidence ;  keep  to  the  point ;  don't  ram- 
ble all  over  the  world  to  ecclesiastical  councils ;  don't  misrepre- 
sent the  evidence."  This  was  his  impartial  language.  Oliver 
began  his  speech  to  the  jury  with,  —  "  A  disposition  to  slander, 
and  defamation,  is  the  most  cursed  temper  that  ever  the  world 
was  plagued  with,  and  I  believe  it  is  the  cause  of  the  greatest 
part  of  the  calamities  that  mankind  labor  under."  This  was 
the  fair,  candid,  impartial  judge.  They  adjudged  solemnly  that 
I  should  not  dispute  to  the  jury,  whether  the  words  were  action- 
able or  not. 

Spent  the  evening  at  Mr.  Hovey's,  with  Deacon  Foster  and  Dr. 
Thomas.     The  Deacon  was  very  silent,  the  Doctor  pretty  sociable. 


208  DIARY.  [1768. 

Monday  morning.     A  fine  sun  and  air. 

Gushing,  at  Barnstable,  said  to  me,  —  happy  is  he  whom  other 
V  men's  errors  render  wise.      Otis,  by  getting  into  the   General 

Court,  has  lost  his  business. 

Felix  quern  faciunt  aliena  pericula  eautum. 

Other  men's  dangers,  errors,  miscarriages,  mistakes,  misfor- 
tunes. 

1768.  January  30.  Saturday  night.  To  what  object  are  my 
views  directed  ?  What  is  the  end  and  purpose  of  my  studies, 
journeys,  labors  of  all  kinds,  of  body  and  mind,  of  tongue  and 
pen? 

Am  I  grasping  at  money  or  scheming  for  power?  Am  I 
planning  the  illustration  of  my  family  or  the  welfare  of  my 
country?  These  are  great  questions.  In  truth,  I  am  tossed 
about  so  much  from  post  to  pillar,  that  I  have  not  leisure  and 
tranquillity  enough  to  consider  distinctly  my  own  views,  objects, 
and  feelings.  I  am  mostly  intent,  at  present,  upon  collecting  a 
library ;  and  I  find  that  a  great  deal  of  thought  and  care,  as 
well  as  money,  are  necessary  to  assemble  an  ample  and  well 
chosen  assortment  of  books. 

But,  when  this  is  done,  it  is  only  a  means,  an  instrument. 
Whenever  I  shall  have  completed  my  library,  my  end  will  not 
be  answered.  Fame,  fortune,  power,  say  some,  are  the  ends 
intended  by  a  library.  The  service  of  God,  country,  clients, 
fellow  men,  say  others.     Which  of  these  lie  nearest  my  heart  ? 

"  Self  love  but  serves  the  virtuous  mind  to  wake, 
As  the  small  pebble  stirs  the  peaceful  lake ; 
The  centre  moved,  a  circle  straight  succeeds, 
Another  still,  and  still  another  spreads; 
Friend,  parent,  neighbor,  first  it  will  embrace, 
His  country  next,  and  next  all  human  race." 

I  am  certain,  however,  that  the  course  I  pursue,  will  neither 
lead  me  to  fame,  fortune,  power,  nor  to  the  service  of  my  friends, 
clients,  or  country.  What  plan  of  reading,  or  reflection,  or  busi- 
ness, can  be  pursued  by  a  man  who  is  now  at  Pownalborough, 
then  at  Martha's  Vineyard,  next  at  Boston,  then  at  Taunton, 
presently  at  Barnstable,  then  at  Concord,  now  at  Salem,  then 
at  Cambridge,  and  afterwards  at  Worcester?     Now  at  Sessions, 


JEt.  32.]  DIARY.  209 

then  at  Pleas,  now  in  Admiralty,  now  at  Superior  Court,  then 
in  the  gallery  of  the  House  ?  What  a  dissipation  must  this  be ! 
Is  it  possible  to  pursue  a  regular  train  of  thinking  in  this  desul- 
tory life?  By  no  means.  It  is  a  life  of  "here  and  everywhere" 
to  use  the  expression  that  is  applied  to  Othello  by  Desdemona's 
father.1  Here,  and  there,  and  everywhere, —  a  rambling,  roving, 
vagrant,  vagabond  life  ;  a  wandering  life.  At  Mein's  book-store, 
at  Bowes's  shop,  at  Dana's  house,  at  Fitch's,  Otis's  office,  and 
the  clerk's  office,  in  the  court  chamber,  in  the  gallery,  at  my  own 
fire,  I  am  thinking  on  the  same  plan. 

1  This  is  said  by  Roderigo  to  Desdemona's  father  :  — 

"  Your  daughter,  if  you  have  not  given  her  leave, 
I  say  again,  hath  made  a  gross  revolt ; 
Tying  her  duty,  beauty,  wit,  and  fortune, 
In  an  extravagant  and  wheeling  stranger 
Of*  here  and  everywhere." 


18*  N 


f 


210  DIARY.  [17C8. 


Extract  from  the  Autobiography. 

[In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1768,  my  friends  in  Boston  were 
very  urgent  with  me  to  remove  into  town.  I  was  afraid  of  my 
health ;  but  they  urged  so  many  reasons,  and  insisted  on  it  so 
much,  that,  being  determined  at  last  to  hazard  the  experiment,  I 
wrote  a  letter  to  the  town  of  Braintree,1  declining  an  election  as 
one  of  their  selectmen,  and  removed  in  a  week  or  two  with  my 
family  into  the  White  House,  as  it  was  called,  in  Brattle  Square, 
which  several  of  the  old  people  told  me  -was  a  good  omen,  as 
Mr.  Bollan  had  lived  formerly  in  the  same  house  for  many  years. 
The  year  before  this,  that  is,  in  1767,  my  son  John  Quincy  Adams 
was  born,  on  the  eleventh  day  of  July,  at  Braintree ;  and,  at  the 
request  of  his  grandmother  Smith,  christened  by  the  name  of 
John  Quincy,  on  the  day  of  the  death  of  his  great  grandfather, 
John  Quincy  of  Mount  Wollaston. 

In  the  course  of  this  year,  1768,  my  friend,  Mr.  Jonathan 
Sewall,  who  was  then  Attorney- General,  called  on  me,  in  Brattle 
street,  and  told  me  he  was  come  to  dine  with  me.  This  was 
always  an  acceptable  favor  from  him ;  for,  although  we  were  at 
antipodes  in  politics,  we  had  never  abated  in  mutual  esteem,  or 
cooled  in  the  warmth  of  our  friendship.  After  dinner,  Mr.  Sewall 
desired  to  have  some  conversation  with  me  alone,  and  proposed 
adjourning  to  the  office.  Mrs.  Adams  arose,  and  chose  to  adjourn 
to  her  chamber.  We  were  accordingly  left  alone.  Mr.  Sewall 
then  said  he  waited  on  me,  at  that  time,  at  the  request  of  the 
Governor,  Mr.  Bernard,  who  had  sent  for  him  a  few  days  before, 
and  charged  him  with  a  message  to  me.  The  office  of  Advocate- 
General  in  the  Court  of  Admiralty  was  then  vacant,  and  the  Gov- 
ernor had  made  inquiry  of  gentlemen  the  best  qualified  to  give 
him  information,  and  particularly  of  one  of  great  authority, 
meaning  Lieutenant-Governor  and  Chief  Justice  Hutchinson,2 

1  Extract  from  the  town  records  of  Braintree,  1768,  7  March:  —  "Voted,  The 
thanks  of  the  town  be  given  to  John  Adams,  Esquire,  for  his  services  as  select- 
man in  said  town  for  two  years  past." 

2  And  yet,  Hutchinson,  knowing  all  this,  was  not  above  putting  the  following 
version  of  this  transaction  into  his  third  volume.  It  is  proper,  however,  to  keep 
in  mind  that  a  commission  as  a  justice  of  peace  was  of  far  more  value  at  this 
time  than  it  now  is. 

"  Mr.  Adams  is  said  to  have  been  at  a  loss  which  side  to  take.  Mr.  Sewall, 
who  was  with  the  government,  would  have  persuaded  him  to  be  on  the  same 


Mt.  32.]  DIARY.  211 

and,  although  he  was  not  particularly  acquainted  with  me  him- 
self, the  result  of  his  inquiries  was,  that,  in  point  of  talents, 
integrity,  reputation,  and  consequence  at  the  bar,  Mr.  Adams 
was  the  best  entitled  to  the  office,  and  he  had  determined, 
accordingly,  to  give  it  to  me.  It  was  true,  he  had  not  power 
to  give  me  more  than  a  temporary  appointment,  till  his  Majesty's 
pleasure  should  be  known ;  but  that  he  would  give  immediately 
all  the  appointment  in  his  power,  and  would  write  an  immediate 
recommendation  of  me  to  his  Majesty,  and  transmit  it  to  his 
ministers,  and  there  was  no  doubt  I  should  receive  the  King's 
commission  as  soon  as  an  answer  could  be  returned  from  Eng- 
land ;  for  there  had  been  no  instance  of  a  refusal  to  confirm  the 
appointment  of  a  Governor  in  such  cases. 

Although  this  offer  was  unexpected  to  me,  I  was  in  an  instant 
prepared  for  an  answer.  The  office  was  lucrative  in  itself,  and 
a  sure  introduction  to  the  most  profitable  business  in  the  Pro- 
vince ;  and  what  was  of  more  consequence  still,  it  was  a  first 
_step  in  the  ladder  of  royal  favor  and  promotion.  But  I  had  long 
weighed  this  subject  in  my  own  mind.  For  seven  years  I  had 
been  solicited  by  some  of  my  friends  and  relations,  as  well  as 
others,  and  offers  had  been  made  me,  by  persons  who  had  influ- 
ence, to  apply  to  the  Governor  or  to  the  Lieutenant-Governor 
to  procure  me  a  commission  for  the  peace.  Such  an  officer 
was  wanted  in  the  country,  where  I  had  lived,  and  it  would  have 
been  of  very  considerable  advantage  to  me.  But  I  had  always 
rejected  these  proposals,  on  account  of  the  unsettled  state  of  the 
country  and  my  scruples  about  laying  myself  under  any  restraints 
or  obligations  of  gratitude  to  the  government  for  any  of  their 
favors.  The  new  statutes  had  been  passed  in  Parliament,  laying 
duties  on  glass,  paint,  &c.  and  a  board  of  commissioners  of  the 
revenue  was  expected,  which  must  excite  a  great  fermentation 
in  the  country,  oT  the  consequences  of  which  I  could  see  no  end. 

My  answer  to  Mr.  Sewall  was  very  prompt,  "  That  I  was 
sensible  of  the  honor  done  me  by  the  Governor ;  but  must  be 
excused  from  accepting  his  offer."     Mr.  Sewall  inquired,  "  Why, 

side,  and  promised  him  to  desire  Governor  Bernard  to  make  him  a  justice  of 
peace.  The  Governor  took  time  to  consider  of  it.  and  having,  as  Mr.  Adams 
conceived,  not  taken  proper  notice  of  kirn,  or  given  him  offence  on  some  former 
occasion,  he  no  longer  deliberated,  and  ever  after  joined  in  opposition.  Hutch- 
inson, hi.  296. 


212  DIARY.  [1768. 

what  was  my  objection  ?  "  I  answered,  that  he  knew  very  well 
my  political  principles,  the  system  I  had  adopted,  and  the  con- 
nections and  friendships  I  had  formed  in  consequence  of  them. 
He  also  knew  that  the  British  government,  including  the  King, 
his  Ministers,  and  Parliament,  apparently  supported  by  a  great 
majority  of  the  nation,  were  persevering  in  a  system  wholly 
inconsistent  with  all  my  ideas  of  right,  justice,  and  policy,  and 
therefore  I  could  not  place  myself  in  a  situation  in  which  my 
duty  and  my  inclination  would  be  so  much  at  variance.  To 
this  Mr.  Sewall  returned,  that  he  was  instructed  by  the  Governor 
to  say  that  he  knew  my  political  sentiments  very  well,  but  they 
should  be  no  objection  with  him.  I  should  be  at  full  liberty  to 
entertain  my  own  opinions,  which  he  did  not  wish  to  influence 
by  this  office.  He  had  offered  it  to  me  merely  because  he  believed 
I  was  the  best  qualified  for  it,  and  because  he  relied  on  my  integ- 
rity. I  replied,  This  was  going  as  far  in  the  generosity  and 
liberality  of  his  sentiments  as  the  Governor  could  go,  or  as  I 
could  desire,  if  I  could  accept  the  office,  but  that  I  knew  it  would 
lay  me  under  restraints  and  obligations  that  I  could  not  submit 
to,  and  therefore  I  could  not  in  honor  or  conscience  accept  it. 

Mi-.  Sewall  paused,  and,  then  resuming  the  subject,  asked, 
"  Why  are  you  so  quick  and  sudden  in  your  determination  ? 
You  had  better  take  it  into  consideration,  and  give  me  an 
answer  at  some  future  day."  I  told  him  my  answer  had  been 
ready,  because  my  mind  was  clear,  and  my  determination 
decided  and  unalterable.  That  my  advice  would  be  that  Mr. 
Fitch  should  be  appointed,  to  whose  views  the  office  would  be 
perfectly  agreeable.  Mr.  Sewall  said  he  should  certainly  give 
me  time  to  think  of  it.  I  said  that  time  would  produce  no 
change,  and  he  had  better  make  his  report  immediately.  We 
parted,  and  about  three  weeks  afterwards  he  came  to  me  again, 
and  hoped  I  had  thought  more  favorably  on  the  subject;  that 
the  Governor  had  sent  for  him,  and  told  him  the  public  business 
suffered,  and  the  office  must  be  filled.  I  told  him  my  judgment 
and  inclination  and  determination  were  unalterably  fixed,  and 
that  I  had  hoped  that  Mr.  Fitch  would  have  been  appointed 
before  that  time.  Mr.  Fitch,  however,  never  was  appointed. 
He  acted  for  the  Crown,  by  the  appointment  of  the  Judge,  from 
day  to  day,  but  never  had  any  commission  from  the  Crown,  or 
appointment  of  the  Governor. 


Mr.  32.]  DIARY.  213 

This  year,  1768,  I  attended  the  Superior  Court  at  Worcester, 
and  the  next  week  proceeded  to  Springfield,  in  the  county 
of  Hampshire,  where  I  was  accidentally  engaged  in  a  cause 
between  a  negro  and  his  master,  which  was  argued  by  me, 
I  know  not  how;  but  it  seems  it  was  in  such  a  manner  as 
engaged  the  attention  of  Major  Hawley,  and  introduced  an 
_acquaintance  which  was  soon  after  strengthened  into  a  friend- 
ship  that  continued  till  his  death. 

During  my  absence  on  this  circuit,  a  convention *  sat  in  Bos- 
ton, the  commissioners  of  the  customs  had  arrived,  and  an  army 
landed.2  On  my  return,  I  found  the  town  full  of  troops,  and,  as 
Dr.  Byles,  of  punning  memory,  expressed  it,  our  grievances  red- 
dressed.  Through  the  whole  succeeding  Fall  and  Winter,  a 
regiment  was  exercised  by  Major  Small,  in  Brattle  Square, 
directly  in  front  of  my  house.  The  spirit-stirring  drum  and 
the  ear-piercing  fife  aroused  me  and  my  family  early  enough 
every  morning,  and  the  indignation  they  excited,  though  some- 
what soothed,  was  not  allayed  by  the  sweet  songs,  violins  and 
flutes,  of  the  serenading  Sons  of  Liberty  under  my  windows  in 
the  evening.  In  this  way  and  a  thousand  others,  I  had  sufficient 
intimations  that  the  hopes  and  confidence  of  the  people  were 
placed  in  me  as  one  of  their  friends ;  and  I  was  determined  that, 

1  This  convention  was  proposed  in  a  regular  town  meeting  of  the  citizens  of 
Boston,  held  on  the  12th  and  continued  on  the  13th  of  September^  A  circular 
letter  was  addressed  on  the  14th,  by  the  selectmen,  to  the  selectmen  of  the  other 
towns,  proposing  the  2 2d  as  the  day  of  meeting  for  the  convention.  In  this  paper 
the  error  was  committed  of  assigning  among  the  really  good  reasons  for  the  call, 
the  obviously  false  one  of  "  an  apprehension  of  an  approaching  war  with  France." 
The  consequence  was,  that  an  advantage  was  given  to  the  loyalists,  of  which  they 
availed  themselves  effectively  to  weaken  the  moral  force  of  the  measure,  although 
more  than  a  hundred  towns  were  represented  under  only  a  week's  notice.  Gor- 
don speaks  of  the  convention  as  having  been  a  failure,  whilst  Hutchinson,  on  the 
other  hand,  affirms  that  it  made  a  greater  advance  towards  a  revolution  in  gov- 
ernment than  any  preceding  measures  in  any  of  the  Colonies.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  apprehension  of  it  was  the  main  reason  for  General  Gage's 
change  of  orders,  by  which  a  greater  proportion  of  the  troops  were  stationed  in 

_the  town,  instead  of  at  the  castle.     Gordon,  i.  244.     Hutchinson,  iii.  205.     Brad- 

~jo7d7i7m: 

2  "  About  one  o'clock  at  noon,  October  the  first,  the  troops  began  landing,  under 
cover  of  the  ship's  cannon,  without  molestation  ;  and,  having  effected  it,  marched 
into  the  Common  with  muskets  charged,  bayonets  fixed,  drums  beating,  fifes 
playing,  &c.  making,  with  the  train  of  artillery,  upward  of  seven  hundred  men." 
Gordon,  i.  247. 

The  population  of  Boston,  at  this  period,  did  not  exceed  sixteen  thousand 
souls.  It  had  been  retrograde  during  the  preceding  twenty-five  years.  Snow's 
History  of  Boston,  p.  254. 


214  DIARY.  [1768. 

so  far  as  depended  on  me,  they  should  not  be  disappointed ;  and 
that  if  I  could  render  them  no  positive  assistance,  at  least  I 
would  never  take  any  part  against  them. 

My  daily  reflections  for  two  years,  at  the  sight  of  those  soldiers 
before  my  door,  were  serious  enough.  Their  very  appearance  in 
Boston  was  a  strong  proof  to  me,  that  the  determination  in 
Great  Britain  to  subjugate  us  was  too  deep  and  inveterate  ever 
to  be  altered  by  us ;  for  every  thing  we  could  do  was  misrepre- 
sented, and  nothing  we  could  say  was  credited.  On  the  other 
hand,  I  had  read  enough  in  history  to  be  well  aware  of  the  errors 
to  which  the  public  opinions  of  the  people  were  liable  in  times 
of  great  heat  and  danger,  as  well  as  of  the  extravagances  of  which 
the  populace  of  cities  were  capable  when  artfully  excited  to  pas- 
sion, and  even  when  justly  provoked  by  oppression.  In  ecclesi- 
astical controversies  to  which  I  had  been  a  witness,  in  the 
contest  at  Woburn  and  on  Martha's  Vineyard,  and  especially 
in  the  trial  of  Hopkins  and  Ward,  which  I  had  heard  at  Wor- 
cester, I  had  learned  enough  to  show  me,  in  all  their  dismal 
colors,  the  deceptions  to  which  the  people  in  their  passions  are 
liable,  and  the  total  suppression  of  equity  and  humanity  in  the 
human  breast,  when  thoroughly  heated  and  hardened  by  party 
spirit. 

The  danger  I  was  in  appeared  in  full  view  before  me ;  and  I 
very  deliberately,  and,  indeed,  very  solemnly,  determined  at  all 
events  to  adhere  to  my  principles  in  favor  of  my  native  country, 
which,  indeed,  was  all  the  country  I  knew,  or  which  had  been 
known  by  my  father,  grandfather,  or  great  grandfather';  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  I  never  would  deceive  the  people,  nor  conceal 
from  them  any  essential  truth,  nor,  especially,  make  myself  sub- 
servient to  any  of  their  crimes,  follies,  or  eccentricities.  These 
rules,  to  the  utmost  of  my  capacity  and  power,  I  have  invariably 
and  religiously  observed  to  this  day.1 

I_was  solicited  to  go  to  the  town  meetings  and  harangue  there. 
This  I  constantly  refused.  My  friend,  Dr.  Warren,  the  most 
frequently  urged  me  to  this.  My  answer  to  him  always  was, 
"Thai  way  madness  lies."  The  symptoms  of  our  greal  friend, 
Otis,  at  that  time,  suggested  to  Warren  a  sufficient  comment  on 
those  words,  at  which  he  always  smiled,  and  said,  "  It  was  true." 

_}_  21  February,  1805. 


^t.  32.]  DIARY.  215 

Although  I  had  never  attended  a  meeting,  the  town  was  pleased 
to  choose  me  upon  their  committee  to  draw  up  instructions  to 
their  representatives,  this  year,  1768,  and  the  next,  1769.  The 
committee  always  insisted  on  my  preparing  the  draught,  which 
1  did,  and  the  instructions  were  adopted  without  alteration  by 
the  town.  They  will  be  found  in  the  Boston  Gazette  for  those 
years,1  and,  although  there  is  nothing  extraordinary  in  them  of 
matter  or  style,  they  will  sufficiently  show  the  sense  of  the  pub- 
lic at  that  time. 

In  the  fall  of  the  year  1768,  a  great  uproar  was  raised  in 
Boston  on  account  of  the  unlading  in  the  night  of  a  cargo  of 
wines  from  the  sloop  Liberty,  from  Madeira,  belonging  to  Mr. 
Hancock,  without  paying  the  customs.  Mr.  Hancock  was  pro- 
secuted upon  a  great  number  of  libels,  for  penalties  upon  acts 
of  Parliament,  amounting  to  ninety  or  an  hundred  thousand 
pounds  sterling.  He  thought  fit  to  engage  me  as  his  counsel 
and  advocate,  and  a  painful  drudgery  I  had  of  his  cause.2  There 
were  few  days  through  the  whole  winter,  when  I  was  not  sum- 

1  They  will  be  given  in  another  portion  of  these  volumes. 

2  A  full  report  of  the  proceedings  in  this  cause,  and  of  his  own  elaborate  argu- 
ment, remains  among  the  papers  of  Mr.  Adams.  The  most  interesting  point  of 
the  defence  is  here  subjoined.  The  prosecution  was  based  on  the  statute  4  Geo. 
3,  ch.  15,  s.  87,  to  which  allusion  is  made  in  the  beginning. 

"  But  among  the  group  of  hardships  which  attend  this  statute,  the  first  that 
ought  always  to  be  mentioned,  and  that  ought  never  to  be  forgotten,  is,  — 

"  1.  That  it  was  made  without  our  consent.  My  client,  Mr.  Hancock,  never 
consented  to  it ;  he  never  voted  for  it  himself,  and  he  never  voted  for  any  man 
to  make  such  a  law  for  him.  In  this  respect,  therefore,  the  greatest  consolation 
of  an  Englishman  suffering  under  any  law,  is  torn  from  him ;  I  mean  the  reflec- 
tion that  it  is  a  law  of  his  own  making,  a  law  that  he  sees  the  necessity  of  for 
the  public.  Indeed,  the  consent  of  the  subject  to  all  laws  is  so  clearly  necessary 
that  no  man  has  yet  been  found  hardy  enough  to  deny  it.  The  patrons  of 
these  acts  allow  that  consent  is  necessary ;  they  only  contend  for  a  consent  by 
construction,  by  interpretation,  a  virtual  consent.  But  this  is  only  deluding 
men  with  shadows  instead  of  substances.  Construction  has  made  treasons  where 
the  law  has  made  none.  Constructions  and  arbitrary  distinctions  made,  in  short, 
only  for  so  many  by-words,  so  many  cries  to  deceive  a  mob,  have  always  been 
the  instruments  of  arbitrary  power,  the  means  of  lulling  and  ensnaring  men  into 
their  own  servitude ;  for  whenever  we  leave  principles  and  clear,  positive  laws, 
and  wander  after  constructions,  one  construction  or  consequence  is  piled  upon 
another,  until  we  get  at  an  immense  distance  from  fact  and  truth  and  nature, 
lost  in  the  wild  regions  of  imagination  and  possibility,  where  ai-bitrary  power 
sits  upon  her  brazen  throne,  and  governs  with  an  iron  sceptre.  It  is  a  hardship, 
therefore,  scarcely  to  be  endured,  that  such  a  penal  statute  should  be  made  to 
govern  a  man  and  his  property  without  his  actual  consent,  and  only  upon  such  a 
wild  chimera  as  a  virtual  and  constructive  consent." 

See  Hutchinson's  account  of  this  case  of  the  Liberty,  and  the  proceedings 
of  the  town  thereon.     Vol.  hi.  p.  189,  et  seq.     Also  Gordon,  i.  231  -  236. 


216  DIARY.  [1769. 

moned  to  attend  the  Court  of  Admiralty.  It  seemed  as  if  the 
officers  of  the  Crown  were  determined  to  examine  the  whole 
town  as  witnesses.  Almost  every  day  a  fresh  witness  was  to 
be  examined  upon  interrogatories.  They  interrogated  many  of 
his  near  relations  and  most  intimate  friends,  and  threatened  to 
summon  his  amiable  and  venerable  aunt,  the  relict  of  his  uncle 
Thomas  Hancock,  who  had  left-  the  greatest  part  of  his  fortune 
to  him.  I  was  thoroughly  weary  and  disgusted  with  the  court, 
the  officers  of  the  Crown,  the  cause,  and  even  with  the  tyrannical 
bell  that  dangled  me  out  of  my  house  every  morning ;  and  this 
odious  cause  was  suspended  at  last  only  by  the  battle  of  Lex- 
ington, which  put  an  end,  forever,  to  all  such  prosecutions.] 


1769.     August  10.     Boston.     John  Tudor,  Esq.  came  to  me, 


and  for  the  third  time  repeated  his  request  that  I  would  take 
his  son  William  into  my  office.  I  was  not  fond  of  the, proposal, 
as  I  had  but  ten  days  before  taken  Jonathan  Williams  Austin 
for  three  years.  At  last,  however,  I  consented,  and  Tudor  is  to 
come  to-morrow  morning. 

What  shall  I  do  with  two  clerks  at  a  time  ?  and  what  will  the 
bar  and  the  world  say  ?  As  to  the  last  I  am  little  solicitous,  but 
my  own  honor,  reputation,  and  conscience,  are  concerned  in  doing 
my  best  for  their  education  and  advancement  in  the  world ;  for 
their  advancement  I  can  do  little ;  for  their  education  much,  if 
I  am  not  wanting  to  myself  and  them. 

11.  Friday.  Mr.  Tudor :  came,  for  the  first  time,  and  attended 
the  office  all  day,  and  paid  me  ten  pounds  sterling.  In  the  morn- 
ing I  went  to  take  a  view  of  Mr.  Copley's  pictures,  and  afterwards 
to  hear  news  of  the  letters  arrived  in  Scot,  The  mystery  of 
iniquity  seems  to  be  unravelled. 

I  spent  the  evening  at  Mr.  William  Cooper's.  The  Doctor 
came  in  and  was  very  social.  He  came  from  a  meeting  of  the 
Overseers  of  the  College  at  Cambridge,  which  was  called  to 
advise  the  Corporation  to  proceed  to  the  choice  of  a  President. 

14.  Sunday.     At  Mr.  Quincy's.2     Here  is  solitude  and  retire- 

1  The  late  Judge  William  Tudor,  an  interesting  notice  of  whom  is  inserted  in 
the  eighteenth  volume  of  Collections  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society, 
p.  285'. 

2  Mr.  Norton  Quiney,  the  uncle  of  Mrs.  Adams.     His  father,  Colonel  John 


Mr.  33.]  DIARY.  217 

ment.  Still,  calm,  and  serene,  cool,  tranquil,  and  peaceful, — the 
cell  of  the  hermit ;  out  at  one  window  you  see  Mount  Wollaston, 
the  first  seat  of  our  ancestors,  and  beyond  that,  Stony  Field 


Hill,1  covered  over  with  corn  and  fruits  ;  out  at  the  other  window, 
arTorchard,  and,  beyond  that,  the  large  marsh  called  the  broad 
meadows ;  from  the  east  window  of  the  opposite  chamber,  you 
see  a  fine  plain  covered  with  corn,  and  beyond  that  the  whole 
harbor  and  all  the  islands;  from  the  end  window  of  the  east 
chamber,  you  may  see  with  a  prospect-glass  every  ship,  sloop, 
schooner,  and  brigantine,  that  comes  in  or  goes  out. 

Heard  Mr.  Wibird  upon  resignation  and  patience  under  afflic- 
tions, in  imitation  of  the  ancient  prophets  and  apostles.  A 
sermon  calculated  for  my  uncle's  family,  whose  funeral  was 
attended  last  week. 

In  the  afternoon,  Elizabeth  Adams,  the  widow  of  Micajah 
Adams,  lately  deceased,  was  baptized  and  received  into  lull 
communion  with  the  church.  She  never  knew  that  she  was 
not  baptized  in  her  infancy,  till  since  her  husband's  decease, 
when  her  aunt  came  from  Lynn  and  informed  her. 

Mr.  Wibird  prayed  that  the  loss  of  her  husband  might  be 
sanctified  to  her.  This  she  bore  with  some  firmness ;  but  when 
he  came  to  pray  that  the  loss  might  be  made  up  to  her  little 
fatherless  children,  the  tears  could  no  longer  be  restrained. 
Then  the  congregation  sang  a  hymn  upon  submission  under 
afflictions,  to  the  tune  of  the  funeral  thought.  The  whole, 
together,  wTas  a  moving  scene,  and  left  scarcely  a  dry  eye  in 
the  house.  After  meeting  I  went  to  Colonel  Quincy's,2  to  wait 
on  Mr.  Fiske 3  of  Salem,  seventy-nine  years  old. 

This  Mr.  Fiske,  and  his  sister,  Madam  Marsh,4  the  former 
born  in  the  very  month  of  the  revolution  under  Sir  Edmund 
Andros,  and  the  latter  ten  years  before  that,  made  a  very  vener- 
able appearance. 

Quincy,  had  died  two  years  before,  and  had  left  him  possessor  of  the  farm  here 
described,  which  he  occupied  until  his  death,  in  1801. 

1  This  makes  part  of  the  farm  afterwards  occupied  by  Mr.  Adams,  and  where 
he  died. 

2  Josiah  Quincy. 

3  Samuel  Fiske,  pastor  successively  of  the  first  and  third  churches  at  Salem. 
He  died  on  the  seventh  of  April  of*  the  following  year,  aged  81. 

4  Ann  Fiske  was  married  to  Rev.  Joseph  Marsh,  the  successor  of  her  father, 
(as  pastor)  in  Braintree,  30  June,  1709.  At  this  time  she  must  have  been 
ninety  years  old.     Rev.  Mr.  Lund  Century  Sermons.     Appendix,  p.  106. 

VOL.    II.  19 


218  DIARY.  [1769. 

14.  Monday.1  Dined  with  three  hundred  and  fifty  Sons  of 
Liberty,  at  Robinson's,  the  sign  of  Liberty  Tree,  in  Dorchester. 
We  had  two  tables  laid  in  the  open  field,  by  the  barn,  with 
between  three  and  four  hundred  plates,  and  an  awning  of  sail- 
cloth over  head,  and  should  have  spent  a  most  agreeable  day, 
had  not  the  rain  made  some  abatement  in  our  pleasures.  Mr. 
Dickinson,  the  farmer's  brother,  and  Mr.  Reed,  the  Secretary  of 
New  Jersey,2  were  there  ;  both  cool,  reserved,  and  guarded,  all 
day.  After  dinner  was  over  and  the  toasts  drunk,  we  were 
diverted  with  Mr.  Balch's  mimicry.  He  gave  us  the  lawyer's 
head,  and  the  hunting  of  a  bitch  fox.  We  had  also  the  Liberty 
Song — that  by  the  farmer,  and  that  by  Dr.  Church,  and  the  whole 
company  joined  in  the  chorus.  This  is  cultivating  the  sensa- 
tions  of  freedom.  There  was  a  large  collection  of  good  company. 
Otis  and  Adams  are  politic  in  promoting  these  festivals ;  for  they 
tinge  the  minds  of  the  people ;  they  impregnate  them  with  the 
sentiments  of  liberty ;  they  render  the  people  fond  of  their  lead- 
ers in  the  cause,  and  averse  and  bitter  against  all  opposers.  To 
the  honor  of  the  Sons,  I  did  not  see  one  person  intoxicated,  or 
near  it.3 

Between  four  and  five  o'clock  the  carriages  were  all  got  ready, 
and  the  company  rode  off  in  procession,  —  Mr.  Hancock  first,  in 
his  chariot,  and  another  chariot  bringing  up  the  rear.  I  took 
my  leave  of  the  gentlemen,  and  turned  off  for  Taunton,  oated  at 
Doty's,  and  arrived  long  after  dark  at  Noice's ;  there  I  put  up. 
I  should  have  been  at  Taunton,  if  I  had  not  turned  back,  in  the 
morning,  from  Roxbury,  but  I  felt  as  if  I  ought  not  to  lose  this 

1  The  anniversary  of  the  union  and  firmly  combined  association  of  the  "  True 
Sons  of  Liberty."  A  full  account  of  this  festivity  is  found  in  the  Evening 
Post  and  the  Gazette  of  21  August. 

2  Probably  Joseph  Reed  of  Philadelphia,  and  not  Secretary  of  New  Jersey. 
In  the  lately  published  biography  of  this  gentleman  it  is  stated  that  it  was  John 
Dickinson  himself  in  whose  company  he  came  to  Boston  at  this  time.  But  it  is 
scarcely  possible  that  it  should  have  been  he  who  was  present  and  toasted  at  this 
entertainment,  without  any  notice  in  the  newspapers  of  his  presence.  Life  of 
J.  Reed,  by  his  grandson,  vol.  i.  p.  40. 

3  The  following,  among  the  forty-five  regular  toasts  given  upon  the  occasion, 
may  serve  as  specimens  of  the  temper  of  the  assembly : 

38.  The  speedy  removal  of  all  task-masters,  and  the  redress  of  all  grievances. 

39.  The  republic  of  letters. 

40.  The  oppressed  and  distressed  protestants. 

43.  The  abolition  of  all  craft  and  low  cunning  in  Church  and  State. 
y/  45.  Strong  halters,  firm  blocks,  and  sharp  axes,  to  such  as  deserve  either. 

(.1  discharge  of  cannon,  and  three  cheers.) 


JEt.  33.]  DIARY.  219 

feast;  as  if  it  was  my  duty  to  be  there.  I  am  not  able  to  con- 
jecture of  what  consequence  it  was  whether  I  was  there  or  not. 
Jealousies  arise  from  little  causes,  and  many  might  suspect  that 
I  was  not  hearty  in  the  cause,  if  I  had  been  absent,  whereas 
none  of  them  are  more  sincere  and  steadfast  than  I  am. 

15.  Tuesday.  Rode  to  Taunton,  sixteen  miles,  before  nine 
o'clock,  though  I  stopped  and  breakfasted  at  Hayward's,  in 
Easton,  nine  miles  from  Taunton.  Spent  all  the  leisure  mo- 
ments I  could  snatch,  in  reading  a  Debate  in  Parliament,  in 
1744,  upon  a  motion  to  inquire  into  the  conduct  of  Admi- 
ral Matthews  and  Vice- Admiral  Lestock  in  the  Mediterranean, 
when  they  had,  and  neglected,  so  fine  an  opportunity  of  destroy- 
ing the  combined  fleets  of  France  and  Spain  off  Toulon. 

September  2.  Saturday  night.  Though  this  book  has  been 
in  my  pocket  this  fortnight,  I  have  been  too  slothful  to  make  use 
of  it.  Dined  at  Mr.  Smith's.  Heard  that  Messrs.  Otis  and 
Adams  went  yesterday  to  Concert  Hall,  and  there  had  each  of 
them  a  conference  with  each  of  the  commissioners,  and  that  all 
the  commissioners  met  Mr.  Otis  this  morning,  at  six  o'clock,  at 
the  British  Coffee  House.1  The  cause  and  end  of  these  con- 
ferences are  subjects  of  much  speculation  in  town. 

3.  Sunday.  Heard  Dr.  Cooper  in  the  forenoon,  Mr.  Cham- 
pion of  Connecticut  in  the  afternoon,  and  Mr.  Pemberton  in  the 
evening  at  the  charity  lecture.  Spent  the  remainder  of  the 
evening  and  supped  with  Mr.  Otis,  in  company  with  Mr.  Adams, 
Mr.  William  Davis,  and  Mr.  John  Gill.  The  evening  spent  in 
preparing  for  the  next  day's  newspaper,  —  a  curious  employment, 
cooking  up  paragraphs,  articles,  occurrences,  &c,  working  the 
political  engine!  Otis  talks  all;  he  grows  the  most  talkative 
man  alive ;  no  other  gentleman  in  company  can  find  a  space  to 
put  in  a  word ;  as  Dr.  Swift  expressed  it,  he  leaves  no  elbow 
room.  There  is  much  sense,  knowledge,  spirit,  and  humor  in 
his  conversation ;  but  he  grows  narrative,  like  an  old  man; 
abounds  with  stories. 

4.  Monday.     Spent  the  evening  at  Dr.  Pecker's,  with  the  club. 

1  The  Commissioners  of  the  Customs,  Henry  Hutton,  Charles  Paxton,  William 
Burch,  and  John  Robinson,  The  probable  cause  of  this  meeting  will  be  found 
explained  in  Tudor's  Life  of  James  Otis,  p.  360.  The  publication  by  Mr.  Otis, 
which  led  to  the  personal  assault  by  Robinson,  was  made  in  the  Boston  Gazette 
of  the  fourth  of  September.  The  difficulty  took  place  on  the  evening  of  the 
fifth. 


220  DIARY.  [17G9. 

Mr.  Otis  introduced  a  stranger,  a  gentleman  from  Georgia, 
recommended  to  him  by  the  late  Speaker  of  the  House  in  that 
Province.  Otis  indulged  himself  in  all  his  airs ;  attacked  the 
selectmen,  Inches  and  Pemberton,  for  not  calling  a  town  meeting 
to  consider  the  letters  of  the  Governor,  General,  Commodore, 
Commissioners,  Collector,  Comptroller,  &c.  Charged  them  with 
timidity,  haughtiness,  arbitrary  dispositions,  and  insolence  of 
office.  But  not  the  least  attention  did  he  show  to  his  friend  the 
Georgian.  No  questions  concerning  his  Province,  their  measures 
against  the  Revenue  Acts,  their  growth,  manufactures,  husbandly, 
commerce.  No  general  conversation  concerning  the  continental 
opposition ;  nothing  but  one  continued  scene  of  bullying,  banter- 
ing, reproaching,  and  ridiculing  the  selectmen,  airs  and  vapors 
about  his  moderatorship  and  membership,  and  Cushing's  speak- 
ership. There  is  no  politeness  nor  delicacy,  no  learning  nor 
ingenuity,  no  taste  or  sense  in  this  kind  of  conversation. 

6.  Wednesday.  Mr.  Cudworth  told  me,  on  the  town-house 
steps,  that  Mr.  Charles  Paxton,  the  commissioner,  told  him  this 
day  that  it  was  possible  he  might  be  sent  with  some  process  on 
board  a  man  of  war,  and  he  advised  him,  as  a  friend,  not  to 
attempt  to  take  any  man  from  on  board  the  man  of  war,  for 
"  you  have  no  right  to,  and  if  you  attempt  it  you  will  never  come 
away  alive,  and  1  want  to  see  Otis,  the  deputy  sheriff,  to  give 
him  the  same  advice."  Cudworth  told  this  to  Otis,  in  my  hear- 
ing, and  Otis  went  directly  to  Mr.  Paxton's,  as  I  since  hear,  and 
Mr.  Paxton  gave  him  the  same  advice. 

October  19.  Thursday.  Last  night  I  spent  the  evening  at 
the  house  of  John  Williams,  Esq.  the  revenue  officer,  in  company 
with  Mr.  Otis,  Jonathan  Williams,  Esq.  and  Mr.  McDaniel,  a 
Scotch  gentleman,  who  has  some  connection  with  the  commis- 
sioners, as  clerk  or  something.  Williams  is  as  sly,  secret,  and 
cunning  a  fellow  as  need  be.  The  turn  of  his  eye  and  cast  of 
his  countenance  is  like  T.  of  Braintree.  In  the  course  of  the 
evening  he  said,  that  he  knew  that  Lord  Townsend  borrowed 
money  of  Paxton  when  in  America,  to  the  amount  of  five  hun- 
dred pounds  sterling  at  least,  that  is  not  paid  yet ;  he  also  said, 
in  the  course  of  the  evening,  that  if  he  had  drank  a  glass  of 
wine  that  came  out  of  a  seizure,  he  would  take  a  puke  to  throw 
it  up ;  he  had  such  a  contempt  for  the  thirds  of  seizures.  He 
affects  to  speak  slightly  of  the  commissioners,  and  of  their  con- 


JEt.  34.]  DIARY.  221 

duct,  though  guardedly,  and  to  insinuate  that  his  connections, 
and  interest,  and  influence  at  home  with  the  Boards,  &c.  are 
greater  than  theirs. 

McDaniel  is  a  composed,  grave,  steady  man  to  appearance ; 
but  his  eye  has  its  fire  still,  if  you  view  it  attentively.  Otis 
bore  his  part  very  well ;  conversible  enough,  but  not  extravagant, 
not  rough,  nor  sour. 

The  morning  at  Bracket's,  upon  the  case  of  the  whale.  The 
afternoon,  at  the  office,  posting  books. 

24.  Sunday  last  I  rode  to  Braintree,  in  the  morning,  and  heard 
Mr.  Gay  of  Hingham,  forenoon  and  afternoon,  upon  these  words 
in  the  Proverbs :  "  The  hoary  head  is  a  crown  of  glory,  if  it  be 
found  in  the  way  of  righteousness." 

The  good  old  gentleman  had  been  to  the  funeral  of  his  aged 
brother,  at  Dedham,  and  seemed  to  be  very  much  affected.  He 
said,  in  his  prayer,  that  God  in  the  course  of  his  Providence  was 
admonishing  him  that  he  must  very  soon  put  off  this  tabernacle, 
and  prayed  that  the  dispensation  might  be  sanctified  to  him ; 
and  he  told  the  people,  in  the  introduction  to  his  sermon,  that 
this  would  probably  be  the  last  exhortation  they  would  ever  hear 
from  him,  their  old  acquaintance.1  I  have  not  heard  a  more 
affecting  or  more  rational  entertainment,  on  any  Sabbath,  for 
many  years. 

Dined  with  my  friend  and  uncle,  Mr.  Quincy,  and  returned 
after  meeting  to  Boston. 

November.  Saturday,  after  attending  Court  in  the  morn- 
ing, I  dined  by  particular  invitation  at  Mr.  Winthrop's,  the 
Clerk  of  the  Superior  Court,  with  all  the  bar, —  Messrs.  Dana, 
Kent,  Otis,  Fitch,  .Reed,  S.  Quincy,  B.  Gridley,  Cazneau, 
Blowers. 

Otis,  B.  Gridley,  Kent,  and  S.  Quincy,  were  the  principal 
talkers.  Otis  talked  the  most,  B.  Gridley  next,  Kent  the  next, 
and  S.  Quincy  next ;  the  rest  of  the  company  said  very  little. 

B.  Gridley  told  us  a  story  of  his  uncle  Jeremiah,  the  late  head 
of  the  bar :  "  When  I  was  a  school-boy  at  Master  Lovell's,  Mr. 
Gridley,  my  uncle,  used  to  make  me  call  at  his  office  sometimes 

1  He  lived  to  preach,  thirteen  years  later,  a  sermon  from  the  text  in  Joshua 
xiv.  10 :  "  I  am  this  day  fourscore  and  five  years  old ; "  which  has  been  reprinted 
within  a  few  years,  bearing  the  title  of  the  "  Old  Man's  Calendar."  Dr.  Gay 
died  in  1787,  at  the  age  of  ninety. 

19* 


222  DIARY.  [17G9. 

to  repeat  my  lesson  to  him.  I  called  there  one  oay  for  that  pur- 
pose.    '  Well,  Ben !  what  have  you  to  say,  Ben  ? '  says  he. 

" '  I  am  come  to  say  my  lesson,  sir,  to  you,'  says  I. 

" '  Ay,  Ben,  what  book  have  you  there  under  your  arm  ? ' 

" '  Virgil,  sir.' 

" '  Ay,  Ben,  is  that  the  poet  Virgil  ? ' 

« '  Yes,  sir.' 

" '  Well,  Ben,  take  it  and  read  to  me,  Ben ;  read  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  iEneid,  Ben.' 

"  '  Yes,  sir.'     So  I  opened  my  book  and  began : 

" '  Arma,  virumque  cano,  Trojae  qui  primus  ab  oris.' 

" '  Arma,  virumque  cano,  Ben  !  you  blockhead  !  Does  John 
Lovell  teach  you  to  read  so?  —  read  again.' 

"  So  I  began  again,  '  Arma  virumque  cano  — ' 

" '  Cano,  you  villain !  cano,'  and  gave  me  a  tremendous  box  on 
the  ear. 

" '  Arma  virumque  cano,  you  blockhead,  is  the  true  reading.' 

"  Thinks  I,  what  is  this  ?  I  have  blockheading  and  boxing 
enough  at  Master  Lovell' s,  I  won't  have  it  repeated  here ;  and 
in  a  great  passion,  I  threw  the  Virgil  at  his  head,  hit  Mm  in  the 
face,  and  bruised  his  lip,  and  ran  away. 

" '  Ben !  Ben !  you  blockhead !  you  villain !  you  rascal,  Ben ! ' 

"  However,  away  I  went,  and  went  home. 

"  That  evening  uncle  Jeremy  came  to  our  house,  and  sat  down 
with  my  father. 

" '  Brother,  I  have  something  to  say  to  you  about  that  young 
rogue  of  a  son  of  yours,  that  Ben.  He  came  to  my  office,  I  bid 
him  read  a  line  in  Virgil,  and  he  read  it  wrong,  and  I  boxed 
him ;  and  he  threw  his  Virgil  in  my  face  and  wounded  me,  he 
bruised  me  in  my  lip,  —  here  is  the  mark  of  it !  You  must  lick 
him,  you  must  thrash  him,  brother ! ' 

"  I  was  all  this  time  a  listening,  and  heard  my  father  justify  me. 

" '  Ben  did  right,'  says  he ;  '  you  had  no  right  to  box  him,  you 
was  not  his  master,  and  if  he  read  wrong,  you  should  have  taught 
him  how  to  read  right,  not  have  boxed  him.' 

" '  Ay,  then  I  find  you  justify  the  rogue.' 

" '  Yes,'  says  father,  '  I  think  he  did  right.' 

" '  Ay,  then  you  wont  thrash  him  for  it,  will  you  ? ' 

" '  No !  I  think  he  ought  not  to  be  thrashed ;  I  think  you  ought 
not  to  have  boxed  him.' 


jEt.  34.]  DIARY.  223 

"  '  What,  justify  the  young  villain  in  throwing  his  book  at  me, 
and  wounding  me  in  this  manner ! ' 

"  About  two  or  three  evenings  afterwards,  uncle  Jeremy  was  at 
club  with  Jo  Green,  and  John  Lovell,  and  others,  and  began 
with  great  solemnity  and  sobriety,  — '  Jo,  what  shall  I  do  ?  two 
or  three  days  ago  I  was  guilty  of  a  bad  action,  and  I  don't  know 
how  to  repair  it.  I  boxed  a  little  boy,  a  nephew  of  mine,  very 
unrighteously,  and  he  is  so  little,  so  mere  a  child,  that  I  can't  ask 
his  pardon.'  And  so  in  solemn  sadness  he  told  the  whole  story 
to  the  club." 

Whether  there  is  truth  in  any  part  of  this  story  or  not,  I  can't 
say;  but  if  it  is  mere  fiction,  there  are  certainly  strong  marks 
of  ingenuity  in  the  invention.  The  pride,  obstinacy,  and  sauci- 
ness  of  Ben,  are  remembered  in  Ben,  in  the  circumstance  of 
throwing  the  Virgil.  The  same  temper  in  his  father  is  pre- 
served in  the  circumstance  of  his  justifying  it.  The  sudden- 
ness and  imperiousness  of  Jeremiah,  in  the  boxing;  and  his  real 
integrity,  candor,  benevolence,  and  good-nature,  in  repenting  of 
it  at  club  and  wishing  to  make  reparation. 

B.  Gridley,  after  this,  gave  us  another  story  of  Colonel  Byfield, 
and  his  marrying  a  sailor,  which  occasioned  a  great  laugh. 

Upon  the  whole,  this  same  Ben  Gridley  discovered  a  capacity, 
a  genius,  real  sentiment,  fancy,  wit,  humor,  judgment,  and  obser- 
vation ;  yet  he  seems  to  be  totally  lost  to  the  world.  He  has  no 
business  of  any  kind,  lies  abed  till  ten  o'clock,  drinks,  laughs 
and  frolics,  but  neither  studies  nor  practises  in  his  profession.1 

Otis  spent  almost  all  the  afternoon  in  telling  two  stories. 
One,  of  Gridley's  offending  the  Suffolk  Inferior  Court,  in  the 
dispute  about  introducing  demurrers,  and  of  his  making  the 
amende  honorable,  making  concessions,  &c.  before  that  con- 
temptible tribunal ;  and  another  about  a  conversation  between 
Pratt,  Kent,  and  him; — Kent's  asking  the  question,  What  is  the 
chief  end  of  man  ?  and  Pratt's  answer,  To  provide  food,  &c.  for 
other  animals.  Before  dinner,  Kent  proposed  his  project  of  an 
act  of  parliament  against  devils,  like  to  that  against  witches. 
Otis  catched  at  it,  and  proposed  the  draught  of  a  bill.  Be  it 
enacted,  &c.  that  whereas  many  of  the  subjects  of  this  realm 

1  Benjamin  Gridley  signed  the  Addresses  to  Hutchinson  and  to  Gage,  in  1774, 
1775  ;  was  proscribed  in  1778,  and  went  to  England.  Six  of  the  ten  members 
of  the  bar,  mentioned  in  this  day's  record,  became  loyalists. 


224  DIARY.  [1709. 

have  heretofore,  time  out  of  mind,  believed  in  certain  imaginary 
beings  called  devils,  therefore  be  it  enacted,  that  no  one  shall 
mention  the  devil  hereafter,  &c.  on  pain  of  high  treason,  &c. 

Thus  are  men's  brains  eternally  at  work,  according  to  the 
proclamation  of  King  James.  I  don't  think  the  world  can 
furnish  a  more  curious  collection  of  characters  than  those  that 
made  up  this  company.  Otis,  Kent,  Dana,  Gridley,  Fitch, 
Winthrop,  &c. 

December  23.  Saturday  night.  At  my  office,  reading  Sydney. 
I  have  been  musing,  this  evening,  upon  a  report  of  the  case  of 
the  four  sailors  who  were  tried  last  June,  before  the  special  Court 
of  Admiralty,  for  killing  Lieutenant  Panton.* .    A  publication 

*  [During  my  last  residence  in  Boston,  two  cases  occurred  of  an  extraordinary 
character,  in  which  I  was  engaged,  and  which  cost  me  no  small  portion  of  anxiety. 
That  of  the  four  sailors  who  killed  Lieutenant  Panton  of  the  Hose  frigate.  These 
were  both  before  special  courts  of  admiralty,  held  in  consequence  of  the  statute. 
The  four  sailors  were  acquitted,  as  their  conduct  was  adjudged  to  be  in  self- 
defence,  and  the  action  justifiable  homicide.  The  other  was  the  trial  of  Ansel  I 
Nickerson,  for  the  murder  of  three  or  four  men  on  board  a  vesseTT  This  was, 
and  remains  still,  a  mysterious  transaction.  I  know  not,  to  this  day,  what  judg- 
ment to  form  of  his  guilt  or  innocence  ;  and  this  doubt.  I  presume,  Mas  the  prin- 
ciple of  acquittal.     He  requested  my  assistance,  and  it  was  given.] 

These  cases  are  both  of  them  mentioned  by  Hutchinson.  The  first,  in  pages 
231,  232,  the  other,  in  pages  419,  420,  of  his  third  volume.  It  may  not  be 
without  its  value  to  the  curious,  to  have  the  opportunity  to  contrast  with  his 
version  of  Corbet's  case  the  following  account  written  at  a  late  period  in  the  life 
of  the  author,  and  without  any  knowledge  of  what  had  been  said  in  the  history. 
It  is  contained  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Judge  "William  Tudor,  dated  30  Decem- 
ber, 1816  : 

'I  cannot  say  whether  I  ought  to  laugh,  or  cry,  or  scold,  in  reporting  the  trial 
of  Michael  Corbet  and  his  three  comrades.  You  must  remember  it.  A  volume 
would  be  necessary  to  relate  this  cause  as  it  ought  to  be,  but  never  will  be 
related.  The  trial  was  before  a  special  court  of  vice-admiralty,  instituted  by  a 
special  act  of  Parliament  for  the  trial  of  piracy  and  murder  on  the  high  seas. 
The  court  consisted  of  Governors  Bernard  and  Wentworth,  Lieutenant-Governor 
and  Chief  Justice  Hutchinson,  Judge  of  Admiralty  Auchmuty,  Commodore  Hood, 
and  certain  counsellors  from  Massachusetts  Bay,  New  Hampshire,  and  Rhode 
Island,  to  the  number  of  fifteen. 

Mr.  Otis  had  been  engaged  with  me  in  behalf  of  the  prisoners ;  but  his 
unhappy  distemper  was  then  in  one  of  its  unlucid  intervals,  and  I  could  hardly 
persuade  him  to  converse  with  me  a  few  minutes  on  the  subject ;  and  he  con- 
stantly and  finally  refused  to  appear  publicly  in  the  cause. 

The  whole  burden  of  responsibility  was  thus  east  upon  me.  You  may  easily 
believe  I  was  anxious ;  the  lives  of  tour  honest  men  in  my  hands,  and  a  sympa- 
thizing world  looking  to  me  for  exertions  to  preserve  them.  I  determined  to 
plead  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court,  and,  if  that  should  be  overruled,  demand 
a  trial  by  jury.  As  each  of  my  clients  must  plead  for  himself,  I  was  obliged  to 
write  four  pleas,  one  for  each,  and  each  consisting  of  sheets  of  paper  setting 
forth  charters,  acts  of  parliament,  common  law,  and  ancient  usages,  which  com- 
pelled me  to  sit  up  more  than  one  night  to  transcribe.     The  Court  met ;  prison- 


JEt.  34.]  DIARY.  225 

only  of  the  record,  (I  mean  the  articles,  plea  to  the  jurisdiction, 
testimonies  of  witnesses,  &c.)  would  be  of  great  utility.  The 
arguments  that  were  used  are  scarcely  worth  publishing ;  those 
which  might  be  used,  would  be  well  worth  the  perusal  of  the 
public.  A  great  variety  of  useful  learning  might  be  brought 
inlo  a  history  of  that  case,  and  the  great  curiosity  of  the  world 
after  the  case,  would  make  it  sell.  I  have  half  a  mind  to  under- 
take it. 

The  great  questions  concerning  the  right  of  juries  in  the  Col- 
onies, upon  a  comparison  of  the  three  statutes,  and  concerning 
the  right  of  impressing  seamen  for  his  Majesty's  service,  whether 
with  or  without  warrants  from  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty,  upon 

ers  ordered  to  the  bar.  I  presented  and  read  my  pleas.  No  counsel  for  the 
Crown  ordered  to  answer  these  pleas,  not  a  word  said  at  the  bar  or  on  the 
bench  for  them  or  against  them,  when  Hutchinson,  not  slow-rising,  but  starting 
up,  moved  that  the  Court  should  adjourn  to  the  council  chamber.  Every  vote 
was  ready,  and  away  went  their  Excellencies,  Honors,  and  learned  Judges,  to 
secret  conclave.  They  sat  late,  and  it  was  propagated  through  the  town  that 
they  had  determined  to  summon  a  jury.  Jonathan  Sewall  himself,  the  Advocate- 
General,  said  he  believed  they  would  grant  a  jury. 

The  next  morning,  however,  the  judgment  was  pronounced  by  the  President, 
Governor  Bernard,  that  the  Court  had  overruled  the  plea  to  the  jurisdiction ; 
no  reason  was  given,  not  another  word  was  said  by  the  President  or  any  other 
member  of  the  court,  in  justification  or  explication  of  the  decree.  The  cause 
was  opened  and  stated  by  the  Advocate-General  in  a  very  honorable  manner ; 
the  witnesses  called,  examined,  and  cross-examined ;  and  here  I  ought  to 
observe,  in  honor  of  the  morals  of  seamen,  there  was  no  contradiction  or  varia- 
tion in  the  testimonies.  British  and  American  sailors,  all  agreed  in  every  cir- 
cumstance. 

It  then  became  my  turn  to  speak  in  defence  of  the  prisoners.  I  had  taken 
more  pains  in  that  case  than  in  any  other,  before  or  since;  I  had  appealed  to 
Heaven  and  earth ;  I  had  investigated  all  laws,  human  and  divine ;  I  had 
searched  all  the  authorities  in  the  civil  law,  the  law  of  nature  and  nations,  the 
common  law,  history,  practice,  and  every  thing  that  could  have  any  relation  to 
the  subject.  All  my  books  were  on  the  table  before  me,  and  I  vainly  felt  as  if 
I  could  shake  the  town  and  the  world.  A  crowded  audience  attending,  still  as 
midnight,  in  eager  expectation. 

I  had  scarcely  risen  and  said,  — 

"  May  it  please  your  Excellencies  and  your  Honors, 

"  My  defence  of  the  prisoners,  is,  that  the  melancholy  action  for  which  they 
stand  accused  is  justifiable  homicide,  and  therefore  no  crime  at  all,"  and  pro- 
duced one  authority  very  plump  to  that  purpose,  —  when  Hutchinson  again 
darted  up,  and  moved  that  the  Court  should  adjourn  to  the  council  chamber ! 
No  reason  was  given ;  not  a  word  was  said ;  the  Pope's  bull  was  implicitly 
and  unanimously  obeyed,  and  away  marched  their  Excellencies  and  Honors  to 
the  council  chamber.  Dismal  was  the  anxiety  of  the  town,  dreading  a  sentence 
of  death  the  next  morning.  Alas,  for  me,  my  glass  bubble  was  burst !  my  horde 
,1,  siirt»i  was^fissolvein  all  the  inflammable  gas  was  escaped  from  my  balloon, 
and  down  I  dropt  like  Pilatre  des  Rosiers. 

Never  was  a  more  gloomy  assembly  of  countenances  painted  with  terror  anil 

o 


226  DIARY.  [1770. 

orders  of  the  King  in  council,  are  very  important.  Such  a 
pamphlet  might  suggest  alterations  in  the  statutes,  and  might 
possibly  procure  us,  for  the  future,  the  benefit  of  juries  in  such 
cases ;  and  the  world  ought  to  know,  at  least  the  American  part 
of  it,  more  than  it  does  of  the  true  foundation  of  impresses,  if 
they  have  any. 

1770.     January  1(5.     At  my  office  all  day. 

Last  evening  at  Dr.  Pecker's,  with  the  club. 

Otis  is  in  confusion  yet;  he  loses  himself;  he  rambles  and 
wanders  like  a  ship  without  a  helm ;  attempted  to  tell  a  story 
which  took  up  almost  all  the  evening;  the  story  may,  at  any 
time,  be  told  in  three  minutes  with  all  the  graces  it  is  capable 

horror,  than  appeared  in  the  audience  next  morning.  The  Court  appeared ; 
the  prisoners  were  ordered  to  the  bar.  The  President  arose,  and  pronounced 
the  unanimous  sentence  of  the  court,  —  that  the  killing  Lieutenant  Panton  was 
ustifiable  homicide  in  necessary  self-defence.  Auchmuty  squealed  out,  "The 
judgment  of  the  Courtis  unanimous,"  and  not  another  word  was  said. 

Now,  sir,  was  the  conduct  of  Hutchinson  that  of  a  "  good  judicial  character  ?  " 
You  may  say  I  write  romance  and  satire.  I  say  that  true  history,  in  this  case, 
is  the  most  surprising  romance  and  the  keenest  satire.  But  I  have  not  yet 
explained  the  secret.  First  and  last,  it  was  Fear.  Hutchinson  dreaded,  (and 
the  apprehension  of  Hutchinson  was  the  apprehension  of  all,)  the  public  inves- 
tigation, before  the  people,  of  the  law  applicable  to  that  case.  They  dared  not 
pronounce  judgment  in  favor  of  impressment  in  any  possible  case  Such  a 
judgment  would,  at  that  time,  have  been  condemned,  reprobated,  and  execra- 
ted, not  only  in  New  England  and  all  the  other  Colonies,  but  throughout  the 
three  kingdoms.  It  would  have  accelerated  the  revolution  more  than  even 
the  impeachment  of  the  judges,  or  Hutchinson's  foolish  controversy  about  the 
omniscience  and  omnipotence  and  infinite  goodness  of  Parliament  did  after- 
wards. It  would  have  spread  a  wider  flame  than  Otis's  ever  did,  or  could  have 
done. 

But  there  is  a  secret  behind,  that  has  never  been  hinted  in  public,  and  that 
Hutchinson  dreaded  should  be  produced  before  the  public.  You  know,  Mr. 
Tudor,  that  I  had  imported  from  London,  and  then  possessed,  the  only  complete 
set  <>f  the  British  Statutes  at  Large,  that  then  existed  in  Boston,  and.  as  I  believe, 
in  all  the  Colonies.  In  that  work  is  a  statute  which  expressly  prohibits  impress- 
ments in  America ;  almost  the  only  statute  in  which  the  word  or  idea  of  impress- 
ment is  admitted.  The  volume  which  contains  that  statute,  doubled  down  in 
dog's  ears,  I  had  before  me,  on  the  table,  with  a  heap  of  other  books.  I  was 
determined  that  if  the  law  of  God,  of  nature,  of  nations,  of  the  common  law  of 
England,  and  our  American  prescriptions  and  charters,  could  not  preserve  the 
lives  of  my  clients,  that  statute  should,  if  it  could.  The  conclave  dreaded  the 
publication  of  that  statute,  which  they  intended  to  get  repealed,  and  which  they 
and  their  successors  have  since  procured  to  be  repealed.' 

In  the  book  of  admiralty  eases,  kept  by  Mr.  Adams,  is  an  abstract  of  all  the 
authorities  collected  by  him  in  his  preparation  lor  this  case,  as  well  as  a  minute 
account  of  Lieutenant-Governor  Hutchinson's  action  in  the  cause.  As  very  few 
law  proceedings,  prior  to  the  Revolution,  have  been  preserved  in  Massachusetts, 
and  as  they  may  be  interesting  to  the  profession  at  this  day,  the  notes,  just  as  they 
stand  in  the  original,  have  been  placed  in  the  Appendix  to  this  volume.  B. 


^Et.  34.]  DIARY.  007 

of,  but  he  took  an  hour.  I  fear  he  is  not  in  his  perfect  mind. 
The  nervous,  concise,  and  pithy,  were  his  character  till  lately ; 
now  the  verbose,  round-about,  and  rambling,  and  long-winded. 
He  once  said  he  hoped  he  should  never  see  T.  H.  in  heaven. 
Dan  Waldo  took  offence  at  it,  and  made  a  serious  affair  of  it ; 
said  Otis  very  often  bordered  upon  profaneness,  if  he  was  not 
strictly  profane.  Otis  said,  if  he  did  see  H.  there,  he  hoped  it 
would  be  behind  the  door.  "  In  my  father's  house  are  many 
mansions,"  some  more  and  some  less  honorable. 

In  one  word,  Otis  will  spoil  the  club.  He  talks  so  much,  and 
takes  up  so  much  of  our  time,  and  fills  it  with  trash,  obsceneness, 
profaneness,  nonsense,  and  distraction,  that  we  have  none  left  for 
rational  amusements  or  inquiries. 

He  mentioned  his  wife ;  said  she  was  a  good  wife,  too  good 
for  him ;  but  she  was  a  tory,1  a  high  tory;  she  gave  him  such 
curtain  lectures,  &c.  In  short,  I  never  saw  such  an  object  of 
admiration,  reverence,  contempt,  and  compassion,  all  at  once,  as 
this.  I  fear,  I  tremble,  I  mourn,  for  the  man  and  for  his  country ; 
many  others  mourn  over  him,  with  tears  in  their  eyes. 

Monday.  February  26,  or  thereabouts.  Rode  from  Wey- 
mouth ;  —  stopped  at  my  house,  Veasey's  blacksmith  shop,  my 
brother's,  my  mother's,  and  Robinson's. 

These  five  stops  took  up  the  day.  When  I  came  into  town, 
I  saw  a  vast  collection  of  people  near  Liberty  Tree ;  inquired, 
and  found  the  funeral  of  the  child  lately  killed  by  Richardson  2 

1  Miss  Ruth  Cunningham  sympathized  with  the  loyalists,  and  married  her 
daughter  to  a  British  officer.  Of  course,  this  was  a  root  of  bitterness  to  James 
Otis,  and  aggravated  his  tendencies.     See  Tudor's  Life,  p.  20. 

2  In  the  mob  collected  before  the  house  of  one  of  the  shopkeepers,  who  had 
determined  to  violate  the  non-importation  agreement.  Hutchinson's  version  of 
the  affair  is  as  follows :  — 

"  One  of  the  neighbors  (Ebenezer  Richardson)_found  fault  with  the  proceed- 
ings, which  provoked  the  mob  to  drive  him  into  his  house  for  shelter.  Having 
been  a  land-waiter  or  inferior  custom-house  officer,  and,  before  that,  an  informer 
against  illicit  traders,  he  was  peculiarly  obnoxious  to  the  people.  The  mob  sur- 
rounded his  house,  threw  stones  and  brickbats  through  the  windows,  and,  as  it 
appeared  upon  trial,  were  forcing  their  way  in,  when  he  fired  upon  them  and 
-killed  ji  boy  of  eleven  or  twelve  years  of  age.  He  was  soon  seized,  and  another 
person  with  Tnm  who  happened  to  be  in  the  house.  They  were  in  danger  of 
being  sacrificed  to  the  rage  of  the  people,  being  dragged  through  the  streets,  and 
a  halter  having  been  prepared ;  but  some,  more  temperate  than  the  rest,  advised 
to  carry  them  before  a  justice  of  peace,  who  committed  them  to  prison. 

"  The  boy  that  was  killed,  was  the  son  of  a  poor  German.  A  grand  funeral 
was,  however,  judged  very  proper  for  him.     Young  and  old,  some  of  all  ranks 


228  DIARY.  [1770. 

was  to  be  attended.  Went  into  Mr.  Rowe's  and  warmed  me, 
and  then  went  out  with  him  to  the  funeral.  A  vast  number  of 
boys  walked  before  the  coffin ;  a  vast  number  of  women  and 
men  after  it,  and  a  number  of  carriages.  My  eyes  never  beheld 
such  a  funeral ;  the  procession  extended  further  than  can  be  well 
imagined. 

This  shows  there  are  many  more  lives  to  spend,  if  wanted,  in 
V      the  service  of  their  country. 

It  shows,  too,  that  the  faction  is  not  yet  expiring ;  that  the 
ardor  of  the  people  is  not  to  be  quelled  by  the  slaughter  of  one 
child  and  the  wounding  of  another. 

At  club,  this  evening,  Mr.  Scott  and  Mr.  Gushing  gave  us  a 
most  alarming  account  of  Otis.  He  has  been,  this  afternoon, 
raving  mad ;  raving  against  father,  wife,  brother,  sister,  friend, 
&c. 

and  orders,  attended  in  a  solemn  procession  from  liberty  tree  to  the  town-house, 
and  then  to  the  common  burying-ground." 

This  account  should  be  compared  with  that  of  Gordon,  i.  27C,  and  Bradford, 
i.  205. 


Mt.  31.]  DIAKY.  229 


It  is  a  little  remarkable  that  no  notice  is  taken  in  the  Diary  of  the  case  of 
Captain  Preston  and  the  soldiers,  for  several  years  after  the  time  at  which  it 
occurred.  Here  recourse  must  be  had  to  the  Autobiography,  which  gives  the 
following  narrative. 


o 


[The  year  1770  was  memorable  enough  in  these  little  annals 
of  my  pilgrimage.  The  evening  of  the  fifth  of  March  I  spent 
at  Mr.  Henderson  Inches's  house,  at  the  south  end  of  Boston,  in 
company  with  a  club  with  whom  I  had  been  associated  for  sev- 
eral years.  About  nine  o'clock  we  were  alarmed  with  the  ring- 
ing of  bells,  and,  supposing  it  to  be  the  signal  of  fire,  we  snatched 
our  hats  and  cloaks,  broke  up  the  club,  and  went  out  to  assist  in 
quenching  the  fire,  or  aiding  our  friends  who  might  be  in  danger. 
In  the  street  we  were  informed  that  the  British  soldiers  had  fired 


_on  the  inhabitants,  killed  some  and  wounded  others,  near  the 
town-house.  A  crowd  of  people  was  flowing  down  the  street 
to  the  scene  of  action.  When  we  arrived,  we  saw  nothing  but 
some  field-pieces  placed  before  the  south  door  of  the  town-house, 
and  some  engineers  and  grenadiers  drawn  up  to  protect  them. 
Mrs.  Adams  was  then  in  circumstances  to  make  me  apprehen- 
sive of  the  effect  of  the  surprise  upon  her,  who  was  alone,  except- 
ing her  maids  and  a  boy,  in  the  house.  Having  therefore  surveyed 
round  the  town-house,  and  seeing  all  quiet,  I  walked  down  Boyl- 
ston  Alley  into  Brattle  Square,  where  a  company  or  two  of 
regular  soldiers  were  drawn  up  in  front  of  Dr.  Cooper's  old 
church,  with  their  muskets  all  shouldered,  and  their  bayonets  all 
fixed.  I  had  no  other  way  to  proceed  but  along  the  whole  front 
in  a  very  narrow  space  which  they  had  left  for  foot  passengers. 
Pursuing  my  way,  without  taking  the  least  notice  of  them,  or 
they  of  me,  any  more  than  if  they  had  been  marble  statues,  I 
went  directly  home  to  Cole  Lane. 

My  wife  having  heard  that  the  town  was  still  and  likely  to 
continue  so,  had  recovered  from  her  first  apprehensions,  and  we 
had  nothing  but  our  reflections  to  interrupt  our  repose.  These 
reflections  were  to  me  disquieting  enough.  Endeavors  had  been 
systematically  pursued  for  many  months,  by  certain  busy  charac- 
tersjjtojexcite  quarrels,  rencounters,  and  combats,  single  or  com- 

VOL.  II.  20 


230  DIAHY.  [1770. 

pound,  in  the  night,  between  the  inhabitants  of  the  lower  class 
and  the  soldiers,  and  at  all  risks  to  enkindle  an  immortal  hatred 
between  them.  I  suspected  that  this  was  the  explosion  which 
had  been  intentionally  wrought  up  by  designing  men,  who  knew 
what  they  were  aiming  at  better  than  the  instruments  employed. 
If  these  poor  tools  should  be  prosecuted  for  any  of  their  illegal 
conduct,  they  must  be  punished.  If  the  soldiers  in  self-defence 
should  kill  any  of  them,  they  must  be  tried,  and,  if  truth  was 
respected  and  the  law  prevailed,  must  be  acquitted.  To  depend 
upon  the  perversion  of  law,  and  the  corruption  or  partiality  of 
juries,  would  insensibly  disgrace  the  jurisprudence  of  the  country 
and  corrupt  the  morals  of  the  people.  It  would  be  better  for  the 
whole  people  to  rise  in  their  majesty,  and  insist  on  the  removal 
of  the  army,  and  take  upon  themselves  the  consequences,  than 
to  excite  such  passions  between  the  people  and  the  soldiers  as 
would  expose  both  to  continual  prosecution,  civil  or  criminal, 
and  keep  the  town  boiling  in  a  continual  fermentation.  The 
real  and  full  intentions  of  the  British  government  and  nation 
were  not  yet  developed;  and  we  knew  not  whether  the  town 
would  be  supported  by  the  country ;  whether  the  Province  would 
be  supported  by  even  our  neighboring  States  of  New  England ; 
nor  whether  New  England  would  be  supported  by  the  continent. 
These  were  my  meditations  in  the  night. 

The  next  morning,  I  think  it  was,  sitting  in  my  office,  near 
the  steps  of  the  town-house  stairs,  Mr.  Forrest  came  in,  who 
was  then  called  the  Irish  Infant.  I  had  some  acquaintance 
with  him.  With  tears  streaming  from  his  eyes,  he  said,  "  I  am 
come  with  a  very  solemn  message  from  a  very  unfortunate  man, 
Captain  Preston,  in  prison.  He  wishes  for  counsel,  and  can_get 
none.  I  have  waited  on  Mr.  Quincy,  who  says  he  will  engage, 
if  you  will  give  him  your  assistance ;  without  it,  he  positively 
will  not.  Even  Mr.  Auchmuty  declines,  unless  you  will  engage." 
I  had  no  hesitation  in  answering,  that  counsel  ought  to  be  the 
very  last  thing  that  an  accused  person  should  want  in  a  free 
country ;  that  the  bar  ought,  in  my  opinion,  to  be  independent 
and  impartial,  at  all  times  and  in  every  circumstance,  and  that 
persons  whose  lives  were  at  stake  ought  to  have  the  counsel 
they  preferred.  But  he  must  be  sensible  this  would  be  as 
important  a  cause  as  was  ever  tried  in  any  court  or  country  of 
the  world ;  and  that  every  lawyer  must  hold  himself  responsible 


JEi:  34.]  DIARY.  231 

not  only  to  his  country,  but  to  the  highest  and  most  infallible  of 
all  tribunals,  for  the  part  he  should  act.  He  must,  therefore, 
expect  from  me  no  art  or  address,  no  sophistry  or  prevarication, 
in  such  a  cause,  nor  any  thing  more  than  fact,  evidence,  and 
law  would  justify.  "  Captain  Preston,"  he  said,  "requested  and 
desired  no  more ;  and  that  he  had  such  an  opinion  from  all  he 
had  heard  from  all  parties  of  me,  that  he  could  cheerfully  trust 
his  life  with  me  upon  those  principles."  "  And,"  said  Forrest, 
"  as  God  Almighty  is  my  judge,  I  believe  him  an  innocent  man." 
I  replied,  "  that  must  be  ascertained  by  his  trial,  and  if  he  thinks 
he  cannot  have  a  fair  trial  of  that  issue  without  my  assistance, 
without  hesitation,  he  shall  have  it." 

Upon  this,  Forrest  offered  me  a  single  guinea  as  a  retaining 
fee,  and  I  readily  accepted  it.  From  first  to  last  I  never  said  a 
word  about  fees,  in  any  of  those  cases,  and  I  should  have  said 
nothing  about  them  here,  if  calumnies  and  insinuations1  had  not 
been  propagated  that  I  was  tempted  by  great  fees  and  enormous 
sums  of  money.  Before  or  after  the  trial,  Preston  sent  me  ten 
guineas,  and  at  the  trial  of  the  soldiers  afterwards,  eight  guineas 
more,  which  were  all  the  fees^Ijever  received  or  were  offered  to 
me,  and  I  should  not  have  said  any  thing  on  the  subject  to  my 
clients  if  they  had  never  offered  me  any  thing.  This  was  all 
the  pecuniary  reward  I  ever  had  for  fourteen  or  fifteen  days 
labor  in  the  most  exhausting  and  fatiguing  causes  I  ever  tried, 
for  hazarding  a  popularity  very  general  and  very  hardly  earned, 
and  for  incurring  a  clamor,  popular  suspicions  and  prejudices,2 
which  are  not  yet  worn  out,  and  never  will  be  forgotten  as  long 
as  the  history  of  this  period  is  read. 

It  was  immediately  bruited  abroad  that  I  had  engaged  for 
Preston  and  the  soldiers,  and  occasioned  a  great  clamor,  which 
the  friends  of  government  delighted  to  hear,  and  slily  and  secretly 

1  Hutchinson,  who  in  his  third  volume  has  done  much  to  embody,  in  a  perma- 
nent form,  these  floating  insinuations  of  the  day  against  the  leading  men  of  the 
patriotic  party,  alludes  to  this  affair  in  the  following  insidious  manner : 

"  Captain  Preston  had  been  well  advised  to  retain  two  gentlemen  of  the  law, 
who  were  strongly  attached  to  the  cause  of  liberty,  and  to  stick  at  no  reasonable 
fees  for  that  purpose ;  and  this  measure  proved  of  great  service  to  him." 

2  A  remarkable  proof  of  the  extent  to  which  these  were  canned,  and  the 
effect  which  they  had  even  upon  the  nearest  relatives  of  the  parties  engaged 
for  Captain  Preston,  is  to  be  found  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Josiah  Quincy,  Jr. 
bv  his  father.  22  March,  1770.  See  Memoir  of  Josiah  Quincy,  Jr.  by  his  son, 
p!  34. 


2:J2  DIARY.  [itto. 

fomented  with  all  their  art.  The  trial  of  the  soldiers  was  con- 
tinued for  one  term,  and  in  the  mean  time_an  election  came  on 
for  a  representative  of  Boston.  Mr.  Otis  had  resigned.  Mr. 
Bowdoin  was  chosen  in  his  stead.  At  the  general  election,  Mr. 
Bowdoin  was  chosen  into  the  council,  and  Mr.  Hutchinson,  then 
Governor,  did  not  negative  him.  A  town  meeting  was  called 
for  the  choice  of  a  successor  to  Mr.  Bowdoin.  Mr.  Ruddock,  a 
very  respectable  justice  of  the  peace,  who  had  risen  to  wealth 
and  consequence  by  a  long  course  of  industry  as  a  master  ship- 
wright, was  set  up  in  opposition  to  me.  Notwithstanding  the 
late  clamor  against  me,  and  although  Mr.  Ruddock  was  very 
popular  among  all  the  tradesmen  and  mechanics  in  town,  I  was 
chosen  by  a  large  majority ._ 

I  had  never  been  at  a  Boston  town  meeting,  and  was  not  at 
this,  until  messengers  were  sent  to  me  to  inform  me  that  I  was 
chosen.  I  went  down  to  Faneuil  Hall,  and  in  a  few  words 
expressive  of  my  sense  of  the  difficulty  and  danger  of  the  times, 
of  the  importance  of  the  trust,  and  of  my  own  insufficiency  to 
fulfil  the  expectations  of  the  people,  I  accepted  the  choice. 
Many  congratulations  were  offered,  which  I  received  civilly, 
but  they  gave  no  joy  to  me.  I  considered  the  step  as  a  devotion 
of  my  family  to  ruin,  and  myself  to  death ;  for  I  could  scarce 
perceive  a  possibility  that  I  should  ever  go  through  the  thorns 
and  leap  all  the  precipices  before  me  and  escape  with  my  life^ 

At  this  time  I  had  more  business  at  the  bar  than  any  man  in 
y  the  Province.  My  health  was  feeble.  I  was  throwing  away  as 
bright  prospects  as  any  man  ever  had  before  him,  and  I  had 
devoted  myself  to  endless  labor  and  anxiety,  if  not  to  infamy 
and  to  death,  and  that  for  nothing,  except  what  indeed  was  and 
ought  to  be  all  in  all,  a  sense  of  duty.  In  the  evening,  I  expressed 
to  Mrs.  Adams  all  my  apprehensions.  That  excellent  lady,  who 
has  always  encouraged  me,  burst  into  a  flood  of  tears,  but  said 
she  was  very  sensible  of  all  the  danger  to  her  and  to  our  children, 
as  well  as  to  me,  but  she  thought  I  had  done  as  I  ought ;  she 
was  very  willing  to  share  in  all  that  was  to  come,  and  to  place 
her  trust  in  Providence. 

I  immediately  attended  the  General  Court  at  Cambridge,  to 
which  place  the  Governor  had  removed  it,  to  punish  the  town 
of  Boston,  in  obedience  however,  as  he  said  I  suppose  truly,  to 
an  instruction  he  had  received  from  the  King.     The  proceedings 


Mr.  34.]  DIARY.  233 

of  the  legislature,  at  that  time  and  place,  may  be  seen  in  their 
journals,  if  they  are  not  lost.  Among  other  things  will  be  found 
a  labored  controversy,  between  the  House  and  the  Governor, 
concerning  these  words :  "  In  General  Court  assembled,  and  by 
the  authority  of  the  same."  I  mention  this  merely  on  account 
of  an  anecdote,  which  the  friends  of  government  circulated  with 
diligence,  of  Governor  Shirley,  who  then  lived  in  retirement  at 
his  seat  in  Roxbury.  Having  read  this  dispute,  in  the  public 
prints,  he  asked,  "  Who  has  revived  those  old  words  ?  They  were 
•xpunged  during  my  administration."  He  was  answered,  "  The 
Boston  seat."  "  And  who  are  the  Boston  seat  ?  "  "  Mr.  Crush- 
ing, Mr.  Hancock,  Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  and  Mr.  John  Adams." 
"  Mr.  dishing  I  knew,  and  Mr.  Hancock  I  knew,"  replied  the 
old  Governor,  "  but  where  the  devil  this  brace  of  Adamses  came 
from,  I  know  not."  This  was  archly  circulated  by  the  ministe- 
rialists, to  impress  the  people  with  the  obscurity  of  the  original 
of  the  par  nobile  fratrum,  as  the  friends  of  the  country  used  to 
call  us,  by  way  of  retaliation. 
_Thiswa^  to  me  a  fatiguing  session ; J  for  they  put  me  upon  all 

1  A  brief  recital  of  the  political  movements  of  this  session  will  show  not  only 
the  active  part  taken  in  them  by  the  writer,  but  also  the  extent  of  the  influence 
exerted  by  the  "  Boston  seat,"  which  from  small  beginnings  had  grown  to  a  great 
height.  It  had  been  customary  for  years  to  rely  upon  some  one  person  as  a 
guide  in  the  legal  and  constitutional  questions  that  might  come  up  in  the  con- 
troversies with  the  Executive.  Thus,  although  Samuel  Adams  was  now  the 
master  mover,  John  Adams  seems  to  have  this  year  succeeded  to  the  post  of 
_lgffal  adviser,  which  had  been  filled  by  Oxenbridge  Thacher  and  James  Otis. 
The  following'  abstract,  taken  from  the  journal  of  the  House  for  the  year,  will 
serve  to  show  the  share  which  he  took  in  the  proceedings :  — 
_  1770.  June  6.  John  Adams,  Esq.  returned  a  member  from  Boston,  in  the 
room  of  the  Honorable  James  Bowdoin,  Esq.  now  a  member  of  the  council  board, 
making  his  appearance  in  the  House  ;  Ordered,  That  Mr.  Hancock  attend  Mr. 
Adams  to  the  gentlemen  appointed  to  administer  the  oaths, 

Who  reported  that  he  had  taken  the  oaths  and  subscribed  the  declaration 
required  by  act  of  parliament,  and  then  Mr.  Adams  took  his  seat  in  the  House. 

June  8.  A  committee  appointed  to  state  the  reasons  for  adhering  to  the  reso- 
lution that  it  is  not  expedient  to  proceed  to  business  while  the  General  Court  is 
held  out  of  the  town-house  in  Boston.     The  members  were,  — 

Major  Hawley,  Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  John  Adams,  Esq.  Mr.  Pickering,  Mr. 
Leonard,  Capt.  Mitchel,  Capt.  Sumner,  Mr.  Hobson,  and  Capt.  Denny. 

June  14.  A  committee  to  prepare  a  message  to  his  Honor  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor,  setting  forth  that  the  House  cannot  recede  from  its  resolution,  and 
praying  his  Honor,  if  determined  not  to  remove  the  assembly  to  Boston,  that  he 
would  give  the  members  leave  to  go  home.     The  members  were,  — 

Mr.  Speaker  (Cushing),  Major  Hawley,  Samuel  Adams,  Capt.  Sheafle,  and 
John  Adams. 

(Of  this  committee,  three  of  the  five  persons  belonged  to  the  Boston  seat.) 

20* 


034  DIARY.  [1770. 

the  drudgery  of  managing  all  the  disputes;  and  an  executive 
court  had  a  long  session,  which  obliged  me  to  attend  almost 

June  15.  A  committee  to  present  the  draft  of  the  message  reported  by  the 
preceding  committee.  The  members,  Mr.  Hancock,  Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  Capt. 
Brown,  John  Adams,  and  David  Ingersoll.     (Three  out  of  five  from  Boston.) 

After  the  Recess. 
July  25.     A  committee  to  wait  on  his  Honor  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  and  to 
solicit  him  to  remove  the  General  Assembly  to  the  town-house  in  Boston.     The 
members,  Mr.   Hancock,  Mr.  Adams,  Capt.  Keene,  Mr.  Hall,  and  Mr.  John 
Adams.     (Three  out  of  five  from  Boston.) 

Ju|y  26.  A  committee  to  prepare  an  answer  to  the  Speech  of  his  Honor  the 
Lieutenant-Governor.  The  members,  Mr.  Speaker,  Mr.  Hancock,  Mr.  Leonard, 
Mr.  S.  Adams,  Mr.  John  Adams,  Capt.  Dennie,  and  Major  Gallison.  (This 
includes  all  four  of  the  Boston  seat.) 

The  House  prorogued  until 
September  27.     A  committee  to  consider  what  is  proper  to  be  done  respect- 
ing the  speech  of  the  Lieutenant-Governor.     The  members,  Mr.  Speaker,  Mr. 
Samuel  Adams,  Major  Foster,  Mr.  Dennie,  Mr.  John  Adams,  Mr.  Hancock, 
Major  Godfrey,  Colonel  Warren,  and  Mr.  Hobson.     (All  the  Boston  seat.) 

October  4.  A  committee  to  prepare  a  message  to  his  Honor  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor.  The  members,  Mr.  Hancock,  Mr.  John  Adams,  Mr.  David  Ingersol, 
Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  and  Capt.  Fuller.     (Three  of  the  Boston  seat.) 

October  5.  A  committee  to  consider  the  message  of  his  Honor,  of  the  fourth 
instant.  The  members,  Colonel  Murray,  Colonel  Gerrish,  Mr.  John  Adams, 
Brigadier  Preble,  and  Mr.  Samuel  Adams.     (Two  from  the  Boston  seat.) 

This  was  in  the  morning.     After  dinner,  Colonel  Murray  reported,  from  this 

committee,  its  unanimous  opinion  that  his  Honor's  message  was  not  satisfactory. 

Read  and  accepted,  and  ordered,  That  Mr.  John  Adams,  Mr.  S.  Adams,  Mr. 

Hancock,  Mr.  David  Ingersol,  and  Mr.  Bullen,  be  a  committee  to  prepare  an 

address.  . 

(Yet,  immediately  after  this  vote,  a  change  of  feeling  manifests  itself,  which 
the  journal  does  not  explain,  neither  is  it  quite  clear  what  the  form  was,  upon 
which  the  decision  was  made.     The  language  of  the  journal  is,  —  ) 

The  House  took  into  further  consideration  the  report  of  the  committee  on  his 
Honor's  speech,  and  the  question  being  put,  it  passed  in  the  negative. 

(But,  whatever  mav  have  been  the  precise  shape  of  the  question,  there  can 
be  little  doubt  that  it  "involved  the  alternative  of  an  utter  and  absolute  refusal 
to  legislate,  or  of  a  surrender  to  the  Lieutenant-Governor.  The  writer  of  the 
Diary  elsewhere  says,  that,  throughout  this  session,  the  parties  in  the  General 
Court  were  almost  equal. _  And  it  is  very  certain  that  the  majority  was  not  pre- 
pared at  this  moment  to  go  a  step  further  towards  disorganization.  Apart  from 
this,  however,  a  change  of  policy,  on  the  part  of  the  opposition,  had  grown  out  of 
the  fact  that  they  now  learnt  that  the  Lieutenant-Governor  was  involved,  by  the 
government  at  home,  in  a  difficulty  of  a  still  more  important  character.  Orders 
had  come  that  the  fort  at  Castle  William  should  be  occupied  by  the  King's  troops, 
and  the  provincial  garrison  dismissed.  A  suspension  of  the  legislative  functions, 
at  such  a  moment,  would  have  been  a  relief  to  the  Executive,  who  had  assumed 
the  responsibility  of  the  transfer.  All  these  considerations  united  to  recommend 
procrastination,  so  the  majority,  by  a  vote  of  fifty-nine  to  twenty-nine,  contented 
themselves  with  entering  a  protest  and  proceeding  to  business.  In  the  minority, 
however,  are  found  the  names  of  most  of  the  leading  men  of  the  patriotic  party. 
John  Adams's  is  not  in  the  lists.  The  omission  is  explained  in  the  record 
of  the  next  day,  by  which  it  seems  that  an  unusual  privilege  of  explanation  was 
accorded  to  him.) 


Mr.  34.]  DIARY.  235 

constantly  there  upon  a  number  of  very  disagreeable  causes. 
Not  long  after  the  adjournment  of  the  General  Court,  came  on 

October  16.  A  committee  to  consider  the  state  of  the  Province.  The  mem- 
bers were,  Mr.  S.  Adams,  Major  Hawley,  Mr.  J.  Adams,  Mr.  Hancock,  Colonel 
Wortbington,  Mr.  Pickering,  Colonel  Warren,  and  Colonel  Whitcomb.  (Three 
Boston  members.) 

Colonel  Warren  moved  to  the  House,  that  the  members,  who  were  absent 
when  the  resolution  passed  to  proceed  to  business  out  of  the  town-house  in 
Boston,  might  have  leave  to  declare  their  opinion  thereon  in  the  House. 

And  the  question  being  put,  it  passed  in  the  affirmative. 

Whereupon  Colonel  Warren  and  Mr.  John  Adams,  who  had  been  absent, 
declared  their  opinions  against  the  resolution. 

The  House  was  moved  that  his  Honor  be  addressed,  praying  that  he  would 
appoint  a  day  of  solemn  prayer  and  humiliation. 

Ordered,  That  Mr.  John  Adams,  Mr.  Danielson,  and  Colonel  Warren,  be  a 
committee  to  prepare  an  address  accordingly. 

October  1 7.  His  Honor's  message  of  this  forenoon  was  read  again,  according 
to  order,  and  thereupon 

Ordered,  That  Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  Mr.  John  Adams,  Colonel  Warren,  Mr. 
Hancock,  and  Colonel  Prescott,  be  a  committee  to  prepare  another  message,  to 
request  a  more  explicit  answer  to  the  message  of  the  15th. 

The  committee,  of  the  16th,  reported.     Report  read  and  recommitted. 

Mr.  Adams  was  excused  from  serving,  and  Dr.  Holten  appointed  in  his  place. 

November  2.  Ordered,  That  Mr.  Leonard,  Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  Mr.  John 
Adams,  Major  Hawley,  and  Mr.  Ingersol  of  Great  Barrington,  consider  the 
message  of  his  Honor,  and  report. 

(This  is  the  controversy  referred  to  in  the  text,  relating  to  the  words,  "  In 
General  Court  assembled.")     Bradford,  i.  237. 

__Nigember  7.  A  committee  of  correspondence  with  the  agent  and  others,  in 
Great  Britain,  and  also  with  the  Speakers  of  the  several  assemblies  or  commit- 
tees of  correspondence.  The  members,  Mr.  Speaker,  Mr.  Hancock,  Mr.  Hall, 
Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  Mr.  John  Adams.  (This  embraces  the  four  Boston  mem- 
bers.) 

November  13.  A  committee  to  prepare  a  remonstrance  against  the  allowance 
of  the  Treasurer's  accounts.  The  members,  Mr.  John  Adams,  Mr.  Samuel 
Adams,  Dr.  Wheaton,  Dr.  Holten,  and  Mr.  Gardner. 

November  14.  A  committee  on  burning  the  securities  redeemed  by  the 
Treasurer.  The  members,  Mr.  Speaker,  Mr.  Hancock,  Mr.  John  Adams,  Mr. 
Samuel  Adams. 

November  15.  A  committee  to  present  the  answer  of  the  House  to  the  mes- 
sage of  his  Honor,  of  the  8th  instant.  The  members,  Mr.  J.  Adams,  Major 
Hawley,  Captain  Thayer,  Mr.  Porter,  and  Mr.  Gardner. 

November  16.  Resolved,  That  Mr.  Speaker,  Mr.  Hancock,  Captain  Heath, 
Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  Mr.  John  Adams,  Captain  Thayer,  Mr.  Bachelor,  Mr. 
Howe,  and  Mr.  White,  be  a  committee  to  prepare  a  plan  for  the  encouragement 
of  arts,  agriculture,  manufactures,  and  commerce,  and  report  at  the  next  session. 

1771.  April  16.  Mr.  J.  Adams,  Mr.  Leonard,  Major  Hawley,  Mr.  Ingersol, 
and  Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  be  a  committee  to  inquire  into  the  validity  of  the  bonds 
usually  given  by  the  Treasurer. 

(The  committees  specified,  embrace  all  but  one  of  those  raised  during  the 
year  upon  questions  of  any  public  importance.  Although  a  person  wholly  new 
to  legislation,  and  at  the  time  very  much  engaged  in  his  professional  duties, 
including  the  defence  of  Captain  Preston  and  the  soldiers,  it  appears  that  John 

Adams  was_placed  upon  as  many  committees  as  his  more  experienced  associate 

and  kinsman.     The  great  preponderance  of  the  Boston  members,  in  the  con- 


236  DIARY.  [1770. 

the  trials  of  Captain  Preston  and  the  soldiers.  I  shall  say  little 
of  these  cases.  Preston's  trial  was  taken  down,  in  short  hand, 
and  sent  to  England,  but  was  never  printed  here.  I  told  the 
court  and  jury,  in  both  causes,  that,  as  I  was  no  authority,  I 
would  propose  to  them  no  law  from  my  own  memory,  but  would 
read  to  them  all  I  had  to  say  of  that  nature  from  books,  which 
the  court  knew,  and  the  counsel  on  the  other  side  must  acknow- 
ledge, to  be  indisputable  authorities.  This  rule  was  carefully 
observed,  but  the  authorities  were  so  clear  and  full,  that  no 
question  of  law  was  made.  The  juries  in  both  cases,  in  my 
opinion,  gave  correct  verdicts.  It  appeared  to  me,  that  the 
greatest  service  which  could  be  rendered  to  the  people  of  the 
town,  was  to  lay  before  them  the  law  as  it  stood,  that  they 
might  be  fully  apprized  of  the  dangers  of  various  kinds  which 
must  arise  from  intemperate  heats  and  irregular  commotions. 
Although  the  clamor  was  very  loud  among  some  sorts  of  people, 
it  has  been  a  great  consolation  to  me,  through  life,  that  I  acted 
in  this  business  with  steady  impartiality,  and  conducted  it  to  so 
happy  an  issue.] 

Ipswich,  June  19.  Tuesday  morning.  Rambled  with  Kent 
round  Landlord  Treadwell's  pastures,  to  see  how  our  horses 
fared.  We  found  them  in  the  grass  up  to  their  eyes; — excel- 
lent pastures.  This  hill,  on  which  stand  the  meeting-house  and 
court-house,  is  a  fine  elevation,  and  we  have  here  a  fine  air,  and 
the  pleasant  prospect  of  the  winding  river  at  the  foot  of  the  hill. 

25.  Boston.  Blowers.  "  In  the  reign  of  Richard  II.  or  Henry 
VI.  you  may  find  precedents  for  any  thing."  This  observation 
was  echoed  from  some  tory,  who  applied  it  to  a  late  quotation 
of  the  House  of  Representatives. 

It  is  true,  Richard  II.  and  Henry  VI.  were  weak  and  worth- 
less princes,  and  their  parliaments  were  bold  and  resolute ;  but 
weak  princes  may  arise  hereafter,  and  then  there  will  be  need 
of  daring  and  determined  parliaments.  The  reigns  of  Richard 
II.  and  Henry  VI.  were  the  reigns  of  evil  counsellors  and  favor- 
ites, and  they  exhibit  notable  examples  of  the  public  mischiefs 

struction  of  all  of  them,  is  also  remarkable,  considering  the  low  ratio  which  the 
population  of  the  town  then  bore  to  that  of  the  Province. 

The  questions  involved  in  the  controversies  of  this  session  cannot  be  explained 
here.  They  will  be  found  fully  detailed  in  Hutchinson,  vol.  iii.  pp.  291-307. 
Gordon,  vol.  i.  pp.  304  -  306.     Bradford,  vol.  i.  pp.  218  -  239.) 


^Et.  34.]  DIARY.  237 

arising  from  such  administrations,  and  of  national  and  parlia- 
mentary vengeance  on  such  wicked  minions. 

26.  Last  of  service;  very  little  business  this  court;  the  bar 
and  the  clerks  universally  complain  of  the  scarcity  of  business ; 
so  little  was,  perhaps,  never  known  at  July  Term.1  The  cause 
must  be  the  non-importation  agreement,  and  the  declension  of 
trade.  So  that  the  lawyers  lose  as  much  by  this  patriotic  mea- 
sure as  the  merchants  and  tradesmen. 

Stephens,  the  Connecticut  hemp  man,  was  at  my  office,  with 
Mr.  Counsellor  Powell  and  Mr.  Kent.  Stephens  says,  that  the 
whole  colony  of  Connecticut  has  given  more  implicit  observance 
to  a  letter  from  the  selectmen  of  Boston  than  to  their  Bibles  for 
some  years  ;  and  that,  in  consequence  of  it,  the  country  is  vastly 
happier  than  it  was ;  for  every  family  has  become  a  little  man- 
ufactory-house, and  they  raise  and  make  within  themselves  many 
things  for  which  they  used  to  run  in  debt  to  the  merchants  and 
traders.  So  that  nobody  is  hurt  but  Boston  and  the  maritime 
towns. 

"  I  wish  there  was  a  tax  of  five  shillings  sterling  on  every  button 
from  England.  It  would  be  vastly  for  the  good  of  this  country, 
&c.  As  to  all  the  bustle  and  bombast  about  tea,  it  has  been 
begun  by  about  half  a  dozen  Holland  tea-smugglers,  who  could 
not  find  so  much  profit  in  their  trade  since  the  ninepence  was 
taken  off  in  England."  Thus  he.  Some  sense  and  some  non- 
sense ! 

27.  Wednesday  morning.  Very  fine,  likely  to  be  hot;  at  my 
office  early.     The  only  way  to  compose  myself  and  collect  my 

1  In  connection  with  a  Diary,  minute  points  of  personal  history  are  not  out 
of  place.  Among  the  papers  of  Mr.  Adams  remains  a  series  of  accounts  of  the 
clerks'  fees  in  the  common  pleas  and  superior  courts,  which  are  now  curious, 
as  showing  the  rate  of  advance  of  a  prospering  lawyer  at  that  day,  and  also  the 
fluctuations  caused  by  the  times.  They  commence  in  1761,  and  continue  until 
Mr.  Adams  was  drawn  off  from  practice.  An  abstract  of  those  in  the  inferior 
court,  being  complete,  is  given.     The  others  show  less  variation. 

1761.  Eight  entries,  &c. 

1762.  Thirty-six  do. 

1763.  Seventy-nine  do. 

1764.  Forty-three  do. 

1765.  Seventy-three  do. 

1766.  Sixty-two  do. 

1767.  Fifty-nine  do. 


1.     S.     (1. 

1.   s.   d. 

5  17    4 

1768. 

Seventy-seven  do. 

54    8  10 

25  13     2 

1769. 

One  hundred  and 

55     3    0 

nine  entries. 

82  19     6 

29  13  10 

1770. 

Ninety-four  do. 

68    8     6 

52    9     8 

1771. 

Seventy-five  do. 

65  16     4 

42  13    4 

1772. 

Sixty-three  do. 

52    4     2 

47     2     2 

1773. 

Ninety-seven  do. 

67    4     3 

238  DIARY.  [1770. 

thoughts,  is  to  sit  clown  at  my  table,  place  my  Diary  before  me, 
and  take  my  pen  into  my  hand.  This  apparatus  takes  off  my 
attention  from  other  objects.  Pen,  ink,  and  paper,  and  a  sitting 
posture,  are  great  helps  to  attention  and  thinking. 

Took  an  airing  in  the  chaise  with  my  brother,  Samuel  Adams, 
who  returned  and  dined  with  me.  He  says  he  never  looked 
forward  in  his  life;  never  planned,  laid  a  scheme,  or  formed  a 
design  of  laying  up  any  thing  for  himself  or  others  after  him. 

I  told  him  I  could  not  say  that  of  myself.  "  If  that  had  been 
true  of  me,  you  would  never  have  seen  my  face."  And  I  think 
this  was  true;  I  was  necessitated  to  ponder  in  my  youth,  to 
consider  of  ways  and  means  of  raising  a  subsistence,  food  and 
raiment,  and  books,  and  money  to  pay  for  my  education  to  the 
bar.  So  that  I  must  have  sunk  into  total  contempt  and  obscur- 
ity, if  not  perished  for  want,  if  I  had  not  planned  for  futurity ; 
and  it  is  no  damage  to  a  young  man  to  learn  the  art  of  living 
early,  if  it  is  at  the  expense  of  much  musing,  and  pondering, 
and  anxiety. 

28.  Thursday.  Mr.  Goldthivaite.  "  Do  you  call  to-morrow 
and  dine  with  us  at  Flax  Pond,  near  Salem.  Rowe,  Davis, 
Brattle,  and  half  a  dozen  as  clever  fellows  as  ever  were  born,  are 
to  dine  there  under  the  shady  trees  by  the  pond,  upon  fish,  and 
bacon,  and  pease,  &c. ;  and  as  to  the  Madeira,  nothing  can 
come  up  to  it.  Do  you  call.  We  '11  give  a  genteel  dinner,  and 
fix  you  off  on  your  journey." 

Rumors  of  ships  and  troops,  a  fleet  and  an  army,  ten  regi- 
ments, and  a  number  of  line-of-battle  ships,  were  talked  of  to^ 
day.     If  an  armament  should  come,  what  will  be  done  by  the 
people  ?  will  they  oppose  them  ? 

"  If,  by  supporting  the  rights  of  mankind,  and  of  invincible 
truth,  I  shall  contribute  to  save  from  the  agonies  of  death  one 
unfortunate  victim  of  tyranny,  or  of  ignorance  equally  fatal, 
his  blessing  and  tears  of  transport  will  be  a  sufficient  consolation 
to  me  for  the  contempt  of  all  mankind."  Essay  on  Crimes  and 
Punishments, l  page  42. 

1  This  passage  was  used  in  the  December  following  with  much  force  in 
the  introduction  of  the  argument  in  defence  of  Captain  Preston  and  the  soldiers. 
His  son,  John  Quincy  Adams,  said  of  it :  — 

"  The  writer  has  often  heard  from  individuals,  who  had  been  present  among 
the  crowd  of  spectators  at  the  trial,  the  electrical  effect  produced  upon  the  jury 


JEt.  34.]  DIARY.  939 

I  have  received  such  blessing,  and  enjoyed  such  tears  of  trans- 
port ;  and  there  is  no  greater  pleasure  or  consolation.  Journey- 
ing to  Plymouth,  at  a  tavern,  I  found  a  man  who  either  knew  me 
before,  or  by  inquiring  of  some  person  then  present,  discovered 
who  I  was.  He  went  out  and  saddled  my  horse  and  bridled  him, 
and  held  the  stirrup  while  I  mounted.  "  Mr.  Adams,"  says  he, 
"as  a  man  of  liberty,  I  respect  you;  God  bless  you!  I'll  stand 
by  you  while  I  live,  and  from  hence  to  Cape  Cod  you  wont 
find  ten  men  amiss." 

A  few  years  ago,  a  person  arraigned  for  a  rape  at  Worcester, 
named  me  to  the  court  for  his  counsel.  I  was  appointed,  and 
the  man  was  acquitted,  but  remanded  in  order  to  be  tried  on 
another  indictment  for  an  assault  with  intention  to  ravish. 
When  he  had  returned  to  prison,  he  broke  out,  of  his  own 
accord,  "  God  bless  Mr.  Adams  ;  God  bless  his  soul.  I  am  not 
to  be  hanged,  and  I  don't  care  what  else  they  do  to  me."  Here 
was  his  blessing  and  his  transport,  which  gave  me  more  pleasure 
when  I  first  heard  the  relation,  and  when  I  have  recollected  it 
since,  than  any  fee  would  have  done. 

This  was  a  worthless  fellow ;  but  nihil  humanum,  alienum. 
His  joy,  which  I  had  in  some  sense  been  instrumental  in  pro- 
curing, and  his  blessings  and  good  wishes,  occasioned  very 
agreeable  emotions  in  the  heart. 


This  afternoon  Mr.  William  Frobisher  gave  me  a  narration 
of  his  services  to  the  Province,  in  introducing  the  manufacture 
of  potashes  and  pearlashes ;  and  of  his  unsuccessful  petitions 
to  the  General  Court  for  a  compensation.  He  says  he  has  suf- 
fered in  his  fortune  by  his  labors  and  expenses,  and  has  been 
instrumental  of  introducing  and  establishing  the  manufacture, 
and  can  obtain  nothing ;  that  twenty-five  thousand  pounds' 
worth  of  potashes  have  been  exported  from  this  town  yearly  for 
five  years  past,  and  more  than  that  quantity  for  the  last  two 
years,  as  appears  by  the  custom-house  books,  and  Mr.  Sheaff, 
the  collector,  was  his  informer ;  that  he  has  invented  a  method 
of  making  potashes  in  much  greater  quantity  and  better  quality 
than  heretofore  has  been  done  from  the  same  materials,  without 

and  upon  the  immense  and  excited  auditory,  by  the  first  sentence  with  which  he 
opened  his  defence,  which  was  the  following  citation  from  the  then  recently 
published  work  of  Beccaria."      National  Portrait  Gallery,  article,  John  Adams. 


240  DIARY.  [1770. 

any  augmentation  of  expense ;  that  he  wen'«  to  Hingham  and 
worked  with  Mr.  Lincoln  a  month,  and  has  a  certificate  from 
him  to  the  foregoing  purpose ;  that  his  new  method  separates 
from  the  potash  a  neutral  salt  that  is  very  pure,  and  of  valuable 
use  in  medicine,  &c. ;  and  that  if  his  method  was  adopted,  no 
Russian  potash  would  sell  at  any  market  where  American  was 
to  be  had.     Thus  projectors,  ever  restless. 

29.  Friday.  Began  my  journey  to  Falmouth  in  Casco  Bay. 
Baited  my  horse  at  Martin's  in  Lynn,  where  I  saw  T.  Fletcher 
and  his  wife,  &c.  Dined  at  Goodhue's,  in  Salem,  where  I  fell 
in  company  with  a  stranger,  his  name  I  knew  not;  he  made 
a  genteel  appearance,  was  in  a  chair  himself  with  a  negro 
servant ;  seemed  to  have  a  general  knowledge  of  American 
affairs ;  said  he  had  been  a  merchant  in  London ;  had  been  at 
Maryland,  Philadelphia,  New  York,  &c.  One  year  more,  he 
said,  would  make  Americans  as  quiet  as  lambs  ;  they  could  not 
do  without  Great  Britain,  they  could  not  conquer  their  luxury, 
&c.  Oated  my  horse,  and  drank  balm  tea  at  Treadwell's  in 
Ipswich,  where  I  found  Brother  Porter,  and  chatted  with  him 
half  an  hour,  then  rode  to  Rowley,  and  lodged  at  Captain 
Jewett's.  Jewett  "  had  rather  the  House  should  sit  all  the  year 
round,  than  give  up  an  atom  of  right  or  privilege.  The  Gov- 
ernor can't  frighten  the  people  with,  &c." 

30.  Saturday.  Arose  not  very  early,  and  drank  a  pint  of 
new  milk,  and  set  off;  oated  my  horse  at  Newbury,  rode  to 
Clark's,  at  Greenland  meeting-house,  where  I  gave  him  hay  and 
oats,  and  then  set  off  for  Newington ;  turned  in  at  a  gate  by 
Colonel  March's,  and  passed  through  two  gates  more  before  I 
came  into  the  road  that  carried  me  to  my  uncle's.1  I  found  the 
old  gentleman,  in  his  eighty-second  year,  as  hearty  and  alert  as 
ever,  his  son  and  daughter  well,  their  children  grown  up,  and 


1  "  My  father's  eldest  brother,  Joseph  Adams,  minister  of  that  town.  My  uncle 
had  been  a  great  admirer  of  Doctor  Mather  and  was  said  to  affect  an  imitation 
ot  his  voice,  pronunciation,  and  manner  in  the  pulpit.  His  sermons,  though 
delivered  in  a  powerful  and  musical  voice,  consisted  of  texts  of  Scripture, 
quoting  chapter  and  verse,  delivered  memoriter,  and  without  notes.  In  con- 
versation, he  was  vain  and  loquacious,  though  somewhat  learned  and  entertain- 
ing."    Extract  of  a  Letter  to  David  Sewall,  31  December,  1821. 

Joseph  Adams  lived  until  he  was  ninety-three.  Notices  of  him  are  found  in 
Allen's  Biographical  Dictionary,  and  in  Doctor  Belknap's  History  of  New 
Hampshire. 


^Et.  34.]  DIARY.  241 

every  thing  strange  to  me.  I  find  I  had  forgot  the  place  ;  it  is 
seventeen  years,  I  presume,  since  I  was  there.  My  reception 
was  friendly,  cordial,  and  hospitable,  as  I  could  wish ;  took  a 
cheerful,  agreeable  dinner,  and  then  set  off  for  York  over  Bloody 
Point  Ferry,  a  way  I  never  went  before,  and  arrived  at  Wood- 
bridge's  half  an  hour  after  sunset. 

I  have  had  a  very  unsentimental  journey  excepting  this  day 
at  dinner  time  ;  have  been  unfortunate  enough  to  ride  alone  all 
the  way,  and  have  met  with  very  few  characters  or  adventures. 

Soon  after  I  alighted  at  Woodbridge's  in  York,  Mr.  Winthrop, 
Mr.  Sewall,  and  Mr.  Farnham,  returned  from  an  excursion  they 
had  made  to  Agamenticus,  on  a  party  of  pleasure.  It  is  the 
highest  mountain  in  this  part  of  the  world ;  seen  first  by  sailors, 
coming  in  from  sea.  It  is  in  the  town  of  York,  about  seven 
miles  from  the  court-house.  They  talk  much  this  evening  of 
erecting  a  beacon  upon  it. 

I  forgot  yesterday  to  mention,  that  I  stopped  and  inquired  the 
name  of  a  pond  in  Wenham,  which  I  found  was  Wenham 
Pond,  and  also  the  name  of  a  remarkable  little  hill  at  the  mouth 
of  the  pond,  which  resembles  a  high  loaf  of  our  country  brown 
bread,  and  found  that  it  is  called  Peters's  Hill  to  this  day  from 
the  famous  Hugh  Peters,  who  about  the  year  1640  or  before 
preached  from  the  top  of  that  hillock  to  the  people  who  congre- 
gated round  the  sides  of  it,  without  any  shelter  for  the  hearers, 
before  any  buildings  were  erected  for  public  worship.1 

By  accidentally  taking  this  new  route,  I  have  avoided  Ports- 
mouth, and  my  old  friend  the  Governor  of  it.  But  I  must  make 
my  compliments  to  him  as  I  return.  It  is  a  duty;  —  he  is  my 
friend,  and  I  am  his.  I  should  have  seen  enough  of  the  pomps 
and  vanities  and  ceremonies  of  that  little  world,  Portsmouth, 
if  I  had  gone  there ;  but  formalities  and  ceremonies  are  an 
abomination  in  my  sight;  —  I  hate  them  in  religion,  government, 
science,  life. 

July  1.  Sunday.  Arose  early ;  at  Paul  Dudley  Woodbridge's. 
A  cloudy  morning.  Took  a  walk  to  the  pasture,  to  see  how  my 
horse  fared.     Saw  my  old  friend  and  classmate,  David  Sewall,3 

1  See  Dr.  Bentley's  description  of  Salem,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Collections,  vol, 
vi.  p.  254. 

2  For  the  following  account  of  this  gentleman,  the  Editor  is  indebted  to  the 
Rev.  S.  Sewall,  of  Burlington,  in  Massachusetts.     It  will  be  seen  by  it  that  Mr. 

VOL.    II.  21  P 


242  DIARY.  [1770. 

walking  in  his  garden.  My  little  mare  had  provided  for  herself, 
by  leaping  out  of  a  bare  pasture  into  a  neighboring  lot  of  mow- 
in«:-orround,  and  had  filled  herself  with  grass  and  water.  These 
are  important  materials  for  history,  no  doubt.  My  biographer 
will  scarcely  introduce  my  little  mare  and  her  adventures  in 
quest  of  food  and  water.  The  children  of  the  house  have  got  a 
young  crow,  a  sight  I  never  saw  before ;  —  the  head  and  bill  are 

SewalFs  hesitation,  hinted  at  in  the  next  paragraph,  was  only  momentary.  He 
died  a  few  months  before  the  author  of  this  Diary,  with  whom  he  kept  up  quite 
a  lively  correspondence  until  a  late  period  : 

"  Hon.  David  Sewall,  of  York,  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  third  generation 
from  Mr.  Henry  Sewall,  who  came  to  this  country  in  1634,  aided  in  the  settle- 
ment of  Newbury,  1635,  and  was  the  common  ancestor  of  all  the  Sewalls,  gen- 
erally  speaking,  in  New  England  and  Lower  Canada,  as  was  Mr.  John  Sewall 
of  Newbury,  his  second  son,  of  most  if  not  all  the  numerous  families  and  individ- 
uals of  the  name  of  Sewall  in  the  State  of  Maine.  Samuel  Sewall,  Esq.  of 
York,  a  son  of  John  of  Newbury,  was  a  ruling  elder  in  the  church  of  that  town, 
and  a  gentleman  of  distinguished  wisdom,  piety,  and  compassion  toward  the  poor 
and  distressed.  He  died  April  28,  1769,  aged  eighty-one;  leaving  seven  sons, 
of  whom  David,  the  subject  of  this  notice,  was  the  fifth.  He  was  born  at  York, 
October  7,  1735,  old  style;  was  graduated  at  Harvard  College,  1755,  and  fol- 
lowed the  profession  of  the  law,  which  he  practised  with  fidelity  and  reputation 
several  years.  He  was  appointed  a  justice  of  the  peace,  1762,  and  register  of 
probate,  1766.  In  the  revolutionary  contest,  he  cordially  espoused  the  cause  of 
his  country,  and  was  chosen  by  the  people,  in  1776,  a  member  of  the  legislative 
council  of  this  then  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  In  1777,  he  was  appointed 
a  justice  of  the  supreme  judicial  court  of  Massachusetts,  (then  styled  the  '  supe- 
rior court  of  judicature  ; ')  and  shortly  after  the  federal  constitution  went  into 
operation,  in  1789,  he  was  nominated  district  judge  of  the  United  States  court 
for  Maine,  an  office  which  he  accepted,  and  continued  to  sustain  till  1818,  when 
he  resigned.  And  it  has  been  remarked  concerning  him,  that,  during  the  long 
period  of  forty  years  and  upwards  that  he  was  a  judge,  he  never  failed  of 
attending  court  and  discharging  the  duties  of  his  high  station  a  single  term.  He 
died  October  22,  1825,  when  he  had  just  entered  the  ninety-first  year  of  his 
age.  President  Allen,  in  his  American  Biographical  and  Historical  Dictionary, 
gives  him  the  character  of  '  an  honest  lawyer,  a  learned  and  upright  judge,  a 
sincere  patriot,  and  an  exemplary  Christian.'  And  an  obituary  notice,  in  the 
Boston  Columbian  Centinel  of  November  2,  1825,  observes  of  him,  — '  He  was 
a  member  of  the  church  from  about  the  year  1768,  and  the  latter  part  of  his  life 
one  of  its  officers.  He  enjoyed  an  uncommon  degree  of  health,  of  calmness, 
and  serenity.  He  was  a  rare  instance  of  a  long,  uniform,  and  steady  life,  and 
unspotted  character  and  reputation.  His  religion  was  not  ostentatious,  but  of  a 
serious  and  practical  nature,  which  shone  forth  in  works  of  piety,  charity  and 
benevolence.  Though  he  left  no  children  to  mourn  his  loss,  yet  many  orphans 
and  widows  will  remember  his  kindness  and  charities  to  them,  and  will  call  him 
blessed.' 

"  The  esteem  and  profound  veneration  cherished  for  his  character,  where  he 
was  best  known,  were  manifested  at  his  funeral.  On  this  solemn  occasion,  his 
remains  were  conveyed  into  the  meeting-house  in  York,  where  a  large  concourse 
of  people  was  assembled  to  pay  him  their  last  respects ;  and  where,  prayer  being 
offered  by  Rev.  Mr.  Chandler  of  Eliot,  an  appropriate  discourse  was  delivered 
by  his  minister,  Rev.  Mr.  Dow,  from  Psalm  xii.  i  :  'Help,  Lord;  for  the  gotUy 
man  ceaseth ;  for  the  faithful  fail  from  among  the  children  of  men.' " 


^t.  34.]  DIARY.  243 

monstrous ;  the  legs  and  claws  are  long  and  sprawling.  But  the 
young  crow  and  the  little  mare  are  objects  that  will  not  interest 
posterity. 

Landlord  says,  "  David  Sewall  is  not  of  the  liberty  side  ;  the 
Moultons,  Lyman  s,  and  Sewalls,  and  Say  ward,  are  all  of  the 
prerogative  side.  They  are  afraid  of  their  commissions ;  and 
rather  than  hazard  them  they  would  ruin  the  country.  We  had 
a  fair  trial  of  them  when  we  met  to  return  thanks  to  the  ninety- 
two  anti-rescinders ; 1  none  of  them  voted  for  it,  though  none  of 
them  but  Sayward2  and  his  book-keeper  had  courage  enough  to 
hold  up  his  hand,  when  the  vote  was  put  the  contrary  way." 

This  same  landlord,  I  find,  is  a  high  son ;  he  has  upon  his 
sign-board,  "  Entertainment  for  the  Sons  of  Liberty"  under  the 
portrait  of  Mr.  Pitt.  Thus  the  spirit  of  liberty  circulates  through 
every  minute  artery  of  the  Province. 

Heard  Mr.  Lyman  all  day.  They  have  four  deacons  and 
three  elders  in  this  church.  Bradbury  is  an  elder,  and  Sayward 
is  a  deacon.  Lyman  preached  from  —  "  Which  things  the  angels 
desire  to  look  into." 

Drank  coffee  at  home  with  Mr.  Farnham,  who  came  in  to  see 
me ;  and  then  went  to  D.  SewalTs,  where  I  spent  an  hour  with 
Farnham,  Winthrop,  Sewall,  and  when  I  came  away,  took  a 
view  of  the  comet,  which  was  then  near  the  north  star ;  a  large 
bright  nucleus  in  the  centre  of  a  nebulous  circle. 

Came  home  and  took  a  pipe  after  supper  with  landlord,  who 
is  a  staunch,  zealous  son  of  liberty.  He  speaks  doubtfully  of 
the  new  counsellor,  Gowing  of  Kittery;  says  he  always  runs 
away,  till  he  sees  how  a  thing  will  go ;  says  he  will  lean  to  the 
other  side ;  says  that  he  (the  landlord)  loves  peace,  and  should 
be  very  glad  to  have  the  matter  settled  upon  friendly  terms, 
without  bloodshed  ;  but  he  would  venture  his  own  life,  and 
spend  all  he  had  in  the  world,  before  he  would  give  up. 

He  gives  a  sad  account  of  the  opposition  and  persecution  he 
has  suffered  from  the  tories,  for  his  zeal  and  firmness  against 
their  schemes;  says  they,  that  is,  the  Moultons,  Sewalls,  and 

1  Those  members  of  the  General  Court  who  refused  to  rescind  the  resolution 
of  the  preceding  House,  directing  a  circular  letter  to  be  sent  to  the  several 
assemblies  on  the  continent.  ThisTiacTgiven  so  great  offence  to  the  government 
at  home,  that  it  demanded  some  act  of  recantation.  The  vote  stood  ninety-two 
against,  and  seventeen  for,  rescinding. 

2  Jonathan  Sayward  was  one  of  the  seventeen  rescinders. 


244  DIARY.  [1770. 

Lymans,  contrived  every  way  to  thwart,  vex,  and  distress  him, 
and  have  got  a  thousand  pounds  sterling  from  him,  at  least; 
but  he  says  that  Providence  has  seemed  to  frown  upon  them,  — 
one  running  distracted,  and  another,  &c.  —  and  has  favored  him 
in  ways  that  he  did  not  foresee. 

2.  Monday  morning.  In  my  sulky  before  five  o'clock,  Mr. 
Winthrop,  Farnham,  and  D.  Sewall  with  me  on  horseback ; 
rode  through  the  woods,  the  tide  being  too  high  to  go  over  the 
beach  and  to  cross  Cape  Neddick  River ;  came  to  Littlefield's,  in 
Wells,  a  quarter  before  eight  o'clock ;  stopped  there  and  break- 
fasted. Afterwards,  Sewall  and  I  stopped  at  the  door  of  our 
classmate,  Hemmenway,1  whom  we  found  well  and  very  friendly, 
complaisant,  and  hospitable;  invited  us  to  alight,  to  stop  on  our 
return  and  take  a  bed  with  him ;  and  he  inquired  of  me  where  I 
lived  in  Boston ;  said  he  would  make  it  his  business  to  come 
and  see  me,  &c.  Rode  to  Patten's,  of  Arundel,  and  Mr.  Win- 
throp and  I  turned  our  horses  into  a  little  close,  to  roll  and  cool 
themselves,  and  feed  upon  white  honeysuckle.  Farnham  and 
Sewall  are  gone  forward  to  James  Sullivan's,2  to  get  dinner 
ready. 

Stopped  at  James  Sullivan's,  at  Biddeford,  and  drank  punch ; 
dined  at  Allen's,  a  tavern  at  the  bridge.  After  dinner,  Farnham, 
Winthrop,  Sewall,  Sullivan,  and  I,  walked  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
down  the  river  to  see  one  Poke,  a  woman  at  least  one  hun- 
dred and  ten  years  of  age,  some  say  one  hundred  and  fifteen. 
When  we  came  to  the  house,  nobody  was  at  home  but  the  old 
woman,  and  she  lay  in  bed  asleep  under  the  window.  We 
looked  in  at  the  window  and  saw  an  object  of  horror;  —  strong 
muscles  withered  and  wrinkled  to  a  degree  that  I  never  saw 
before.  After  some  tjme  her  daughter  came  from  a  neighbor's 
house,  and  we  went  in.  The  old  woman  roused  herself,  and 
looked  round  very  composedly  upon  us,  without  saying  a  word. 
The  daughter  told  her,  "  here  is  a  number  of  gentlemen  come  to 
see  you."     "  Gentlemen,"  says  the  old  antediluvian,  "  I  am  glad 

1  Of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hemmenway,  for  a  long  period  of  time  settled  over  this 
parish  in  Wells,  a  notice  is  given  in  Greenleaf's  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Maine, 
p.  22.  Also  in  the  Appendix,  No.  2,  of  the  same  volume,  is  an  extract  from  a 
funeral  sermon  preached  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Buckminster,  of  Portsmouth,  N.  H. 

2  Afterwards  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts.  A  brief  notice  of  his  life  is 
inserted  in  the  Collections  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  of  which  he 
was  the  first  President,  vol.  ii.  p.  252. 


JEt.  34.]  DIARY.  245 

to  see  them ;  I  want  them  to  pray  for  me ;  my  prayers,  I  fear, 
are  not  answered ;  I  used  to  think  my  prayers  were  answered, 
but  of  late  I  think  they  are  not;  I  have  been  praying  so  long 
for  deliverance ; —  Oh,  living  God,  come  in  mercy !  Lord  Jesus, 
come  in  mercy !  Sweet  Christ,  come  in  mercy !  I  used  to  have 
comfort  in  God,  and  set  a  good  example ;  but  I  fear,  &c." 

Her  mouth  was  full  of  large,  ragged  teeth,  and  her  daughter 
says,  since  she  was  one  hundred  years  old,  she  had  two  new 
double  teeth  come  out.  Her  hair  is  white  as  snow,  but  there 
is  a  large  quantity  of  it  on  her  head ;  her  arms  are  nothing  but 
bones  covered  over  with  a  withered,  wrinkled  skin  and  nerves ; 
in  short,  any  person  will  be  convinced,  from  the  sight  of  her,  that 
she  is  as  old  as  they  say,  at  least.  She  told  us  she  was  born  in 
Ireland,  within  a  mile  of  Derry ;  came  here  in  the  reign  of  King 
William.  She  remembers  the  reign  of  King  Charles  II.,  James 
II.,  William  and  Mary ;  she  remembers  King  James's  wars,  &c. 
but  has  got  quite  lost  about  her  age.  Her  daughter  asked  her 
how  old  she  was  ?  She  said,  "  upwards  of  threescore,  but  she 
could  not  tell." 

Got  into  my  chair,  after  my  return  from  the  old  woman ;  rode 
with  Elder  Bradbury  through  Sir  William  Pepperell's  woods ; 
stopped  and  oated  at  Milliken's,  and  rode  into  Falmouth,  and 
put  up  at  Mr.  Jonathan  Webb's,1,  where  I  found  my  classmate, 
Charles  Gushing,  Mr.  George  Lyde,  the  collector  here,  and  Mr. 
Johnson,  and  one  Mr.  Crocker. 

8.  Sunday.  This  week  has  been  taken  up  in  the  hurry  of 
the  court,  and  I  have  not  been  able  to  snatch  a  moment  to  put 
down  any  thing.  The  softly  people  where  I  lodge,  Don  Webb 
and  his  wife,  are  the  opposites  of  every  thing  great,  spirited,  and 
enterprising.  His  father  was  a  dissenting  parson,  and  a  relation 
of  mine  ;  a  zealous  puritan  and  famous  preacher.  This  son, 
however,  without  the  least  regard  to  his  education,  his  connect- 
ions, relations,  reputation,  or  examination  into  the  controversy, 
turns  about  and  goes  to  church,  merely  because  a  handful 
of  young,  foolish  fellows  here  took  it  into  their  heads  to  go. 
Don  never  was,  or  aimed  to  be,  any  thing  at  college  but  a  silent 
hearer  of  a  few  rakes,  and  he  continues  to  this  day  the  same 


1  Some  notice  of  this  person  is  found  in  Mr.  William  Willis's  recent  republi- 
cation of  the  Journal  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Smith,  p.  161,  note.    Also  of  Mr.  Lyde. 

21* 


246  DIARY.  [1770. 

man,  —  rather  the  same  softly  living  thing  that  creepeth  upon 
the  face  of  the  earth.  He  attempted  trade,  but  failed  in  that ; 
now  keeps  school  and  takes  boarders,  and  his  wife  longs  to  be 
genteel,  to  go  to  dances,  assemblies,  dinners,  suppers,  &c.  but 
cannot  make  it  out  for  want  thereof.  Such  imbecility  of  genius, 
such  poverty  of  spirit,  such  impotence  of  nerve,  is  often  accom- 
panied with  a  fribbling  affectation  of  politeness,  which  is  to  me 
completely  ridiculous.  "  Green  tea,  if  we  could  but  get  it." 
"  Madeira  wine,  if  I  could  but  get  it."  Collectors,  genteel  com- 
pany, dances,  late  suppers,  and  clubs,  &c.  &c. 

12.  Thursday  afternoon,  3  o'clock.  Got  into  my  desobligeant, 
to  go  home.  Two  or  three  miles  out  of  town  I  overtook  two  men 
on  horseback ;  they  rode  sometimes  before  me,  then  would  fall 
behind,  and  seemed  a  little  unsteady :  at  last  one  of  them  came 
up.  "  What  is  your  name  ?  "  "  Why ;  of  what  consequence  is  it 
what  my  name  is  ?  "  "  Why,"  says  he,  "  only  as  we  are  travelling 
the  road  together,  I  wanted  to  know  where  you  came  from,  and 
what  your  name  was."  I  told  him  my  name.  "  Where  did  you 
come  from?"  "Boston."  "Where  have  you  been?"  "To 
Falmouth."  "  Upon  a  frolic,  I  suppose  ?  "  "  No,  upon  business." 
"  What  business,  pray  ?  "     "  Business  at  Court." 

Thus  far  I  humored  his  impertinence.  "  Well  now,"  says  he, 
"  do  you  want  to  know  my  name  ?  "  "  Yes."  "  My  name  is 
Robert  Jordan ;  I  belong  to  Cape  Elizabeth,  and  am  now  going 
round  there.  My  forefathers  came  over  here  and  settled  a  great 
many  years  ago."  After  a  good  deal  more  of  this  harmless 
impertinence,  he  turned  off  and  left  me.  I  baited  at  Milliken's, 
and  rode  through  Saco  woods,  and  then  rode  from  Saco  Bridge, 
through  the  woods,  to  Patten's,  after  night.  Many  sharp,  steep 
hills,  many  rocks,  many  deep  ruts,  and  not  a  footstep  of  man, 
except  in  the  road ;  it  was  vastly  disagreeable.  Lodged  at 
Patten's. 

13.  Friday.  Arose  and  walked  with  Patten  to  see  the  neigh- 
boring fields  of  English  grass  and  grain  and  Indian  corn  con- 
suming before  the  worms.  A  long  black  worm  crawls  up  the 
stalk  of  rye  or  grass  and  feeds  upon  the  leaves.  The  Indian 
corn  looked  stripped  to  a  skeleton,  and  that  was  black  with  the 
worms.  I  found  that  they  prevail  very  much  in  Arundel  and 
Wells,  and  so  all  along  to  Portsmouth  and  to  Hampton. 

Stopped   two   hours   at    Mi-.  Hemmenway's,  and  then  rode 


Mr.  3i.]  DIARY.  247 

through  the  woods  in  excessive  heat  to  York.  Dined  at  Wood- 
bridge's,  who  was  much  elated  with  his  new  license,  and  after 
dinner  was  treating  his  friends,  —  some  of  them.  Spent  an 
hour  at  Mr.  Sewall's  with  Elder  Bradbury,  and  then  went  to 
Portsmouth,  crossed  the  ferry  after  nine  o'clock,  and  put  up  at 
Tilton's,  the  sign  of  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham.  A  very  good 
house.  I  will  call  no  more  at  Stavers's.  I  found  very  good 
entertainment  and  excellent  attendance,  a  very  convenient  house, 
a  spacious  yard,  good  stables,  and  an  excellent  garden,  full  of 
carrots,  beets,  cabbages,  onions,  cauliflowers,  &c.  This  Tilton's 
is  just  behind  the  State  House. 

14.  Saturday.  Arose  at  four ;  got  ready  as  soon  as  I  could, 
and  rode  out  of  town  a  few  miles  to  breakfast.  Breakfasted  at 
Lovett's  in  Hampton,  ten  miles  from  Portsmouth  and  twelve 
from  Newbury.  Threatened  with  a  very  hot  day.  I  hope  I 
shall  not  be  so  overcome  with  heat  and  fatigue  as  I  was  yester- 
day. I  fully  intended  to  have  made  a  long  visit  to  Governor 
Wentworth  upon  this  occasion  ;  but  he  was  unluckily  gone  to 
Wolfborough.     So  that  this  opportunity  is  lost. 

August  19.  Sunday.  Last  Friday  went  to  the  light-house 
with  the  committee  of  both  Houses. 

Mi*.  Royal  Tyler  began  to  pick  chat  with  me.  "  Mr.  Adams, 
have  you  ever  read  Doctor  South's  sermon  upon  the  Wisdom  of 
this  World  ?  "  "  No."  "  I  '11  lend  it  to  you."  "  I  should  be 
much  obliged."  "  Have  you  read  the  Fable  of  the  Bees  ?  " 
"  Yes,  and  the  Marquis  of  Halifax's  Character  of  a  Trimmer, 
and  Hurd's  Dialogue  upon  Sincerity  in  the  Commerce  of  Life,  and 
Machiavel,  and  Caesar  Borgia  —  Hard  if  these  are  not  enough." 
Tyler.  "  The  author  of  the  Fable  of  the  Bees  understood 
human  nature  and  mankind  better  than  any  man  that  ever  lived ; 
I  can  follow  him  as  he  goes  along.  Every  man  in  public  life  ought 
to  read  that  book,  to  make  him  jealous  and  suspicious,  &c." 

Yesterday  he  sent  the  book,  and  excellent  sermons  they  are ; 
concise,  and  nervous,  and  clear.  Strong  ebullitions  of  the  loyal 
fanaticism  of  the  times  he  lived  in,  at  and  after  the  restoration ; 
but  notwithstanding  those  things,  there  is  a  degree  of  sense  and 
spirit  and  taste  in  them  which  will  ever  render  them  valuable. 
The  sermon  which  Mr.  Tyler  recommended  to  my  perusal  is  a 
sermon  preached  at  Westminster  Abbey,  April  30,  1676,  from 
1  Corinthians,  iii.  19 :  "  For  the  wisdom  of  this  world  is  foolishness 


248  DIARY.  [1770. 

with  God."  The  Doctor  undertakes  to  show  what  are  those 
rules  or  principles  of  action,  upon  which  the  policy  or  wisdom 
in  the  text  proceeds,  and  he  mentions  four  rules  or  principles. 
1.  A  man  must  maintain  a  constant,  continued  course  of  dissim- 
ulation in  the  whole  tenor  of  his  behavior.  2.  That  conscience 
and  religion  ought  to  lay  no  restraint  upon  men  at  all,  when  it 
lies  opposite  to  the  prosecution  of  their  interest.  Or,  in  the 
words  of  Machiavel,  "  That  the  show  of  religion  was  helpful  to  the 
politician,  but  the  reality  of  it,  hurtful  and  pernicious."  3.  That 
a  man  ought  to  make  himself,  and  not  the  public,  the  chief,  if 
not  the  sole  end  of  all  his  actions.  4.  That  in  showing  kind- 
ness or  doing  favors,  no  respect  at  all  is  to  be  had  to  friendship, 
gratitude,  or  sense  of  honor;  but  that  such  favors  are  to  be  done 
only  to  the  rich  or  potent,  from  whom  a  man  may  receive  a  far- 
ther advantage,  or  to  his  enemies,  from  whom  he  may  otherwise 
fear  a  mischief. 

Mr.  Winthrop,  Mr.  Adams,  and  myself,  endeavored  to  recollect 
the  old  distich, — 

"  Gutta  cavat  lapidem  non  vi,  sed  stepe  cadendo." 

So  far  we  got,  but  neither  of  these  gentlemen  had  ever  heard  the 
other  part ;  I,  who  had  some  years  ago  been  very  familiar  with 
it,  could  not  recollect  it ;  but  it  is,  — 

"  Sic  homo  fit  doctus,  non  vi,  sed  saepe  legendo." 

Mr.  Mason  led  us  a  jaunt  over  sharp  rocks  to  the  point  of  the 
island  opposite  to  Nantasket,  where,  in  a  hideous  cavern  formed 
by  a  great  prominent  rock,  he  showed  us  the  animal  plant  or 
flower,  a  small,  spongy,  muscular  substance,  growing  fast  to  the 
rock,  in  figure  and  feeling  resembling  a  young  girl's  breast, jshoot- 
ing  out  at  the  top  of  it  a  flower,  which  shrinks  in  and  disappears 
upon  touching  the  substance. 

20.  Monday.  The  first  maxim  of  worldly  wisdom,  constant^ 
dissimulation,  may  be  good  or  evil  as  it  is  interpreted ;  if  it 
means  only  a  constant  concealment  from  others  of  such  of  our 
sentiments,  actions,  desires,  and  resolutions,  as  others  have  not 
a  right  to  know,  it  is  not  only  lawful,  but  commendable ; 
because  when  these  are  once  divulged,  our  enemies  may  avail 
themselves  of  the  knowledge  of  them  to  our  damage,  danger, 
and  confusion.     So  that  some  things,  which  ought  to  be  com- 


Mr  34.]  DIARY.  249 

municated  to  some  of  our  friends,  that  they  may  improve  them 
to  our  profit,  or  honor,  or  pleasure,  should  be  concealed  from  our 
enemies  and  from  indiscreet  friends,  lest  they  should  be  turned 
to  our  loss,  disgrace,  or  mortification.  I  am  under  no  moral  or 
other  obligation  to  publish  to  the  world,  how  much  my  expenses 
or  my  incomes  amount  to  yearly.  There  are  times  when,  and 
persons  to  whom,  I  am  not  obliged  to  tell  what  are  my  prin- 
ciples and  opinions  in  politics  or  religion.  There  are  persons 
whom  in  my  heart  I  despise;  others  I  abhor.  Yet  I  am  not 
obliged  to  inform  the  one  of  my  contempt,  nor  the  other  of  my 
detestation.  This  kind  of  dissimulation,  which  is  no  more  than 
concealment,  secrecy,  and  reserve,  or  in  other  words,  prudence 
and  discretion,  is  a  necessary  branch  of  wisdom,  and  so  far  from 
being  immoral  and  unlawful,  that  it  is  a  duty  and  a  virtue.  Yet 
even  this  must  be  understood  with  certain  limitations,  for  there 
are  times  when  the  cause  of  religion,  of  government,  of  liberty, 
the  interest  of  the  present  age  and  of  posterity,  render  it  a  neces- 
sary duty  for  a  man  to  make  known  his  sentiments  and  inten- 
tions boldly  and  publicly  ;  so  that  it  is  difficult  to  establish  any 
certain  rule,  to  determine  what  things  a  man  may,  and  what  he 
may  not  lawfully  conceal,  and  when.  But  it  is  no  doubt  clear, 
that  there  are  many  things  which  may  lawfully  be  concealed 
from  many  persons  at  certain  times,  and  on  the  other  hand,  there 
are  things,  which  at  certain  times,  it  becomes  mean  and  selfish, 
base  and  wicked,  to  conceal  from  some  persons. 

22.  Wednesday.  Rode  to  Cambridge,  in  company  with  Col- 
onel Severn  Ayers  and  Mr.  Hewitt,  from  Virginia,  Mr.  Bull  and 
Mr.  Trapier,  from  South  Carolina,  Messrs.  Cushing,  Hancock, 
Adams,  Tom  Brattle,  Dr.  Cooper,  and  William  Cooper.  Mr. 
Professor  Winthrop  showed  us  the  college,  the  hall,  chapel,  phi- 
losophy-room, apparatus,  library,  and  museum. 

We  all  dined  at  Stedman's,  and  had  a  very  agreeable  day. 

The  Virginia  gentlemen  are  very  full  and  zealous  in  the  cause 

of  American  liberty.  Colonel  Ayers  is  an  intimate  friend  of 
_Mr.  Patrick  Henry,  the  first  mover  of  the  Virginia  Resolves  in 
1765,  and  is  himself  a  gentleman  of  great  fortune,  and  of  great 
figure  and  influence  in  the  House  of  Burgesses.  Both  he  and 
Mr.  Hewitt  were  bred  at  the  Virginia  College,  and  appear  to  be 
men  of  genius  and  learning.  Ayers  informed  me,  that  in  the 
reign  of  Charles  II.  an  act  was  sent  over  from  England,  with  an 


250  DIARY.  [1-70. 

instruction  to  the  Governor,  and  he  procured  the  Assembly  to 
pass  it,  granting  a  duty  of  two  shillings  a  hogshead  upon  all 
tobacco  exported  from  the  Colony,1  to  his  Majesty  forever.  This 
duty  amounts  now  to  a  revenue  of  five  thousand  pounds  sterling 
a  year,  which  is  given,  part  to  the  Governor,  part  to  the  Judges, 
&c.  to  the  amount  of  about  four  thousand  pounds,  and  what 
becomes  of  the  other  one  thousand  is  unknown.  The  conse- 
quence of  this  is,  that  the  Governor  calls  an  Assembly  when  he 
pleases,  and  that  is  only  once  in  two  years. 

These  gentlemen  are  all  valetudinarians,  and  are  taking  the 
northern  tour  for  their  health. 


"  If  I  would  but  go  to  hell,  for  an  eternal  moment  or  so,  I  might  be  knighted." 

Shakspeare. 

The  good  of  the  governed  is  the  end,  and  rewards  and  pun- 
ishments are  the  means,  of  all  government.  The  government 
of  the  supreme  and  all-perfect  Mind,  over  all  his  intellectual  cre- 
ation, is  by  proportioning  rewards  to  piety  and  virtue,  and  pun- 
ishments to  disobedience  and  vice.  Virtue,  by  the  constitution 
of  nature,  carries  in  general  its  own  reward,  and  vice  its  own 
punishment,  even  in  this  world.  But,  as  many  exceptions  to 
this  rule  take  place  upon  earth,  the  joys  of  heaven  are  prepared, 
and  the  horrors  of  hell  in  a  future  state,  to  render  the  moral  gov- 
ernment of  the  universe  perfect  and  complete.  Human  govern- 
ment is  more  or  less  perfect,  as  it  approaches  nearer  or  diverges 
further  from  an  imitation  of  this  perfect  plan  of  divine  and  moral 
government. 

In  times  of  simplicity  and  innocence,  ability  and  integrity 
will  be  the  principal  recommendations  to  the  public  service, 
and  the  sole  title  to  those  honors  and  emoluments  which  are  in 
the  power  of  the  public  to  bestow.  But  when  elegance,  luxury, 
and  effeminacy  begin  to  be  established,  these  rewards  will  begin 
to  be  distributed  to  vanity  and  folly ;  but  when  a  government 
becomes  totally  corrupted,  the  system  of  God  Almighty  in  the 
government  of  the  world,  and  the  rules  of  all  good  government 
upon  earth,  will  be  reversed,  and  virtue,  integrity,  and  ability, 
will  become  the  objects  of  the  malice,  hatred,  and  revenge  of  the 

i  See  Chalmers's  Introd.  to  the  History  of  the  Revolt  of  the  American  Colonies, 
vol.  i.  p.  101. 


JEr.  35.]  DIARY.  251 

men  in  power,  and  folly,  vice,  and  villany  will  be  cherished  and 
supported.  In  such  times  you  will  see  a  Governor  of  a  Province, 
for  unwearied  industry  in  his  endeavors  to  ruin  and  destroy  the 
people,  whose  welfare  he  was  under  every  moral  obligation  to 
study  and  promote,  knighted  and  ennobled.1  You  will  see  a 
"  Philanthrop,"  for  propagating  as  many  lies  and  slanders  against 
his  country  as  ever  fell  from  the  pen  of  a  sycophant,  rewarded 
with  the  places  of  Solicitor- General,2  Attorney- General,  Advo- 
cate-General, and  Judge  of  Admiralty,  with  six  thousands  a 
year. 

You  will  see  seventeen  rescinders,3  wretches  without  sense  or 
sentiment,  rewarded  with  commissions  to  be  justices  of  peace, 
justices  of  the  common  pleas,  and  presently  justices  of  the 
King's  Bench.  The  consequence  of  this  will  be  that  the  iron 
rod  of  power  will  be  stretched  out  against  the  poor  people  in 
every4     .     .     . 

-  1771.  mnr  January  10.  Thursday.  Dined  at  the  Honorable  Johnr 
Erving's,5  with  Gray,  Pitts,  Hancock,  Adams,  Townsend,  J. 
Erving,  Jr.,  G.  Erving,  Boardman.  We  had  over  the  nomina- 
tions of  Nat  Hatch,  to  be  judge  of  the  common  pleas,  and 
Edmund  Quincy,  to  be  a  justice  of  the  quorum,  and  H.  Gray's 
story  of  a  letter  from  a  repentant  whig  to  him. 

H.  Gray.  "  The  General  Court  is  a  good  school  for  such  con- 
versation as  this."  That  is,  double-entendre,  affectation  of  wit, 
pun,  smut,  or  at  least  distant  and  delicate  allusions  to  what  may 
bear  that  name. 

Gray  said  he  could  sometimes  consent  to  a  nomination,  when 
he  could  not  advise  to  it,  and,  says  he,  "  I  can  illustrate  it  to 
you,  Mr.  Hancock  ; —  Suppose  a  young  gentleman  should  ask  his 
father's  consent,  that  he  should  marry  such  a  young  woman,  or 

1  Sir  Francis  Bernard. 

2  Jonathan  Sewall,  author  of  certain  articles  in  the  newspapers,  signed  Phi- 
lanthropos,  defending  Governor  Bernard. 

3  See  page  243,  note. 

4  This  article  remains  imperfect. 

5  John  Erving,  and  his  son  John  Erving,  Jr.  were  men  of  influence  in  the 
Province,  before  the  Revolution.  The  former  was  for  many  years  a  member  of 
the  Council,  and  has  already  been  once  mentioned  in  this  Diary.  All  three  of 
the  name  for  a  while  accommodated  themselves  to  the  revolutionary  spirit ;  but, 
when  they  came  to  a  pinch,  they  all  ranged  themselves  on  the  side  of  the  Crown. 
John  Erving,  the  younger,  received  the  distinction  of  a  nomination  by  mandamus 
to  the  Council,  was  banished  and  proscribed.     He  died  in  England,  in  1816. 

Sabine. 


252  DIARY.  [-1771. 

a  young  lady  should  ask  her  father's  consent  that  she  should 
many  such  a  young  man.  The  father  says,  I  cannot  advise  you 
to  have  a  person  of  his  or  her  character,  but,  if  you  have  a  desire, 
I  wont  oppose  it ;  you  shall  have  my  consent.  Now,  Mr.  Han- 
cock, I  know  this  simile  will  justify  the  distinction  to  a  young 
gentleman  of  your  genius." 

A  light  brush  happened,  too,  between  Pitts  and  Gray.  Pitts 
hinted  something  about  the  strongest  side.  Gray  ,said,  there 
were  two  or  three  of  us,  last  May,  that  were  midwives,  I  know; 
but  you  have  been  always  of  the  strongest  side ;  you  have  been 
so  lucky. 

February  7.  Friday.  Met  a  committee  of  the  House,  at  the 
representatives'  room,1  to  consider  of  a  plan  for  a  society  for 
encouraging  arts,  agriculture,  manufactures,  and  commerce, 
within  the  Province. 

Such  a  plan  may  be  of  greater  extent  and  duration,  than  at 
first  we  may  imagine.  It  might  be  useful  at  any  time.  There 
are,  in  this  Province,  natural  productions  enough.  Hemp,  silk, 
and  many  other  commodities,  might  be  introduced  here  and 
cultivated  for  exportation.  The  mulberry  tree  succeeds  as  well 
in  our  climate  and  soil  as  in  any. 

12.  Wednesday^  At  a  time  when  the  barriers  against  popery, 
erected  by  our  ancestors,  are  suffered  to  be  destroyed,  to  the 
hazard  even  of  the  Protestant  religion  ;  when  the  system  of  the 
civil  law,  which  has  for  so  many  ages  and  centuries  been  with- 
stood by  the  people  of  England,  is  permitted  to  become  fashion- 
able ;  when  so  many  innovations  are  introduced,  to  the  injury  of 
our  constitution  of  civil  government,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the 
great  securities  of  the  people  should  be  invaded,  and  their  fun- 
damental rights  drawn  into  question.  While  the  people  of  all  the 
other  great  kingdoms  in  Europe  have  been  insidiously  deprived 
of  their  liberties,  it  is  not  unnatural  to  expect  that  such  as  are 
interested  to  introduce  arbitrary  government,  should  see  with 
envy,  detestation,  and  malice,  the  people  of  the  British  empire, 
by  their  sagacity  and  valor,  defending  theirs  to  the  present  times. 

There  is  nothing  to  distinguish  the  government  of  Great  Bri- 
tain from  that  of  France  or  of  Spain,  but  the  part  which  the 
people  are,  by  the  constitution,  appointed  to  take  in  the  passing 

See  page  235,  note. 


yET.  3.-).]  DIARY.  253 

and  execution  of  laws.  Of  the  legislature,  the  people  constitute 
one  essential  branch  ;  and,  while  they  hold  this  power  unlimited, 
and  exercise  it  frequently,  as  they  ought,  no  law  can  be  made, 
and  continue  long  in  force,  that  is  inconvenient,  hurtful,  or  disa- 
greeable to  the  mass  of  the  society.  No  wonder,  then,  that 
attempts  are  made  to  deprive  the  freeholders  of  America,  and 
of  the  county  of  Middlesex,  of  this  troublesome  power,  so  danger- 
ous to  tyrants,  and  so  disagreeable  to  all  who  have  vanity  enough 
to  call  themselves  the  better  sort.  In  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice, too,  the  people  have  an  important  share.  Juries  are  taken, 
by  lot  or  by  suffrage,  from  the  mass  of  the  people,  and  no  man 
can  be  condemned  of  life,  or  limb,  or  property,  or  reputation, 
without  the  concurrence  of  the  voice  of  the  people.  As  the  con- 
stitution requires  that  the  popular  branch  of  the  legislature  should 
have  an  absolute  check,  so  as  to  put  a  peremptory  negative  upon 
every  act  of  the  government,  it  requires  that  the  common  people, 
should  have  as  complete  a  control,  as  decisive  a  negative,  in 
every  judgment  of  a  court  of  judicature.  No  wonder,  then,  that 
the  same  restless  ambition  of  aspiring  minds,  which  is  endeavor- 
ing to  lessen  or  destroy  the  power  of  the  people  in  legislation, 
should  attempt  to  lessen  or  destroy  it  in  the  execution  of  laws. 
The  rights  of  juries  and  of  elections  were  never  attacked  singly 
in  all  the  English  history.  The  same  passions  which  have  dis- 
liked one,  have  detested  the  other,  and  both  have  always  been 
exploded,  mutilated,  or  undermined  together. 

The  British  empire  has  been  much  alarmed,  of  late  years, 
with  doctrines  concerning  juries,  their  powers  and  duties,  which 
have  been  said,  in  printed  papers  and  pamphlets,  to  have  been 
delivered  from  the  highest  tribunals  of  justice.  Whether  these 
accusations  are  just  or  not,  it  is  certain  that  many  persons  are 
misguided  and  deluded  by  them  to  such  a  degree,  that  we  often 
hear  in  conversation  doctrines  advanced  for  law,  which,  if  true, 
would  render  juries  a  mere  ostentation  and  pageantry,  and  the 
Court  absolute  judges  of  law  and  fact.  It  cannot,  therefore,  be 
an  unseasonable  speculation,  to  examine  into  the  real  powers 
and  duties  of  juries,  both  in  civil  and  criminal  cases,  and  to 
discover  the  important  boundary  between  the  power  of  the  court 
and  that  of  the  jury,  both  in  points  of  law  and  of  fact. 

Every  intelligent  man  will  confess  that  cases  frequently  occur 
in  which  it  would  be  very  difficult  for  a  jury  to  determine  the 

VOL.    II.  22 


254  DIARY.  [17  71. 

question  of  law.  Long  chains  of  intricate  conveyances,  obscure, 
perplexed,  and  embarrassed  clauses  in  writings,  researches  into 
remote  antiquity  for  statutes,  records,  histories,  judicial  decisions, 
which  are  frequently  found  in  foreign  languages,  as  Latin  and 
French,  which  may  be  all  necessary  to  be  considered,  would 
confound  a  common  jury,  and  a  decision  by  them  would  be  no 
better  than  a  decision  by  lot ;  and,  indeed,  juries  are  so  sensible 
of  this,  and  of  the  great  advantages  the  judges  have  to  determine 
such  questions,  that,  as  the  law  has  given  them  the  liberty  of 
finding  the  facts  specially,  and  praying  the  advice  of  the  court 
in  the  matter  of  law,  they  very  seldom  neglect  to  do  it  when 
recommended  to  them,  or  when  in  any  doubt  of  the  law. 

But  it  will  by  no  means  follow  from  thence,  that  they  are 
under  any  legal,  or  moral,  or  divine  obligation,  to  find" a  special 
verdict,  when  they  themselves  are  in  no  doubt  of  the  law. 

The  oath  of  a  juror,  in  England,  is  to  determine  causes  "  accord- 
ing to  your  evidence."  In  this  Province,  "  according  to  law  and 
the  evidence  given  you."  It  will  be  readily  agreed,  that  the 
words  of  the  oath,  at  home,  imply  all  that  is  expressed  by  the 
words  of  the  oath  here  ;  and,  whenever  a  general  verdict  is 
found,  it  assuredly  determines  both  the  fact  and  the  law. 

It  was  never  yet  disputed  or  doubted  that  a  general  verdict, 
given  under  the  direction  of  the  court  in  point  of  law,  was  a  legal 
determination  of  the  issue.  Therefore,  the  jury  have  a  power  of 
deciding  an  issue  upon  a  general  verdict.  And,  if  they  have,  is 
it  not  an  absurdity  to  suppose  that  the  law  would  oblige  them 
to  find  a  verdict  according  to  the  direction  of  the  court,  against 
their  own  opinion,  judgment,  and  conscience  ? 

It  has  already  been  admitted  to  be  most  advisable  for  the  jury 
to  find  a  special  verdict,  where  they  are  in  doubt  of  the  law. 
But  this  is  not  often  the  case ;  a  thousand  cases  occur  in  which 
the  jury  would  have  no  doubt  of  the  law,  to  one  in  which  they 
would  be  at  a  loss.  The  general  rules  of  law  and  common  reg- 
ulations of  society,  under  which  ordinary  transactions  arrange 
themselves,  are  well  enough  known  to  ordinary  jurors.  The  great 
principles  of  the  constitution  are  intimately  known ;  they  are 
sensibly  felt  by  every  Briton ;  it  is  scarcely  extravagant  to  say  they 
are  drawn  in  and  imbibed  with  the  nurse's  milk  and  first  air. 

Now,  should  the  melancholy  case  arise  that  the  judges  should 
give  their  opinions  to  the  jury  against  one  of  these  fundamental 


JEt.  35.]  DIARY.  255 

principles,  is  a  juror  obliged  to  give  his  verdict  generally,  accord- 
ing to  this  direction,  or  even  to  find  the  fact  specially,  and  sub- 
mit the  law  to  the  court  ?  Every  man,  of  any  feeling  or  con- 
science, will  answer,  no.  It  is  not  only  his  right,  but  his  duty, 
in  that  case,  to  find  the  verdict  according  to  his  own  best  under- 
standing, judgment,  and  conscience,  though  in  direct  opposition 
to  the  direction  of  the  court.  A  religious  case  might  be  put,  of 
a  direction  against  a  divine  law. 

The  English  law  obliges  no  man  to  decide  a  cause  upon  oath 
against  his  own  judgment,  nor  does  it  oblige  any  man  to  take 
any  opinion  upon  trust,  or  to  pin  his  faith  on  the  sleeve  of  any 
mere  man. 

14.  Thursday.  Dined  at  Mr.  Hancock's,  with  the  members, 
Warren,  Church,  Cooper,  &c.  and  Mr.  Harrison,  and  spent  the 
whole  afternoon,  and  drank  green  tea,  from  Holland,  T  hope,  but 
don't  know. 

15.  Friday  evening.  Going  to  Mr.  Pitts's,  to  meet  the  Ken- 
nebec company,  —  Bowdoin,  Gardiner,  Hallowell,  and  Pitts. 
There  I  shall  hear  philosophy  and  politics,  in  perfection,  from  H. ; 
high  flying,  high  church,  high  state,  from  G. ;  sedate,  cool  mod- 
eration, from  B. ;  and  warm,  honest,  frank  whiggism,  from  P.  I 
never  spent  an  evening  at  Pitts's.  What  can  I  learn  to-night  ? 
Came  home,  and  can  now  answer  the  question ;  —  I  learned 
nothing.     The  company  was  agreeable  enough. 


[The  complicated  cares  of  my  legal  and  political  engagements,  the  slender 
diet  to  which  I  was  obliged  to  confine  myself,  the  air  of  the  town  of  Boston, 
which  was  not  favorable  to  me,  who  had  been  born  and  passed  almost  all  my 
life  in  the  country,  but  especially  the  constant  obligation  to  speak  in  public, 
almost  every  day  for  many  hours,  had  exhausted  my  health,  brought  on  a 
pain  in  nry  breast,  and,  a  complaint  in  my  lungs,  which  seriously  threatened  my 
life,  and  compelled  me  to  throw  off  a  great  part  of  the  load  of  business,  both 
public  and  private,  and  return  to  my  farm  in  the  country.  Early  in  the  Spring 
of  1771,  I  removed  my  family  to  Braintree,  still  Holding,  however,  an  office  in 
Boston.  The  air  of  my  native  spot,  and  the  fine  breezes  from  the  sea  on  one 
side,  and  the  rocky  mountains  of  pine  and  savin  on  the  other,  together  with  daily 
rides  on  horseback  and  the  amusements  of  agriculture,  always  delightful  to  me, 
soon  restored  my  health  in  a  considerable  degree.] 


y 


_ April  16.  Tuesday  evening.     Last  Wednesday,  my  furniture 
was  all  removed  to  Braintree.     Saturday  I  carried  up  my  wife 


256  DIARY.  [1771. 

and  youngest  child,  and  spent  the  Sabbath  there,  very  agreeably 
On  the  20th  or  25th  of  April,  1768,  I  removed  into  Boston.  In 
the  three  years  I  have  spent  in  that  town,  have  received  innumer- 
able civilities  from  many  of  the  inhabitants;  many  expressions 
of  their  good  will,  both  of  a  public  and  private  nature.  Of  these 
I  have  the  most  pleasing  and  grateful  remembrance.  I  wish  all 
the  blessings  of  this  life,  and  that  which  is  to  come,  to  the  worthy 
people  there,  who  deserve  from  mankind,  in  general,  much  better 
treatment  than  they  meet  with.  I  wish  to  God  it  was  in  my 
power  to  serve  them,  as  much  as  it  is  in  my  inclination.  But 
it  is  not;  —  my  wishes  are  impotent,  my  endeavors  fruitless  and 
ineffectual  to  them,  and  ruinous  to  myself.  What  are  to  be  the 
consequences  of  the  step  I  have  taken,  time  only  can  discover. 
Whether  they  shall  be  prosperous  or  adverse,  my  design  was 
good,  and  therefore  I  never  shall  repent  it. 

Monday  morning  I  returned  to  town,  and  was  at  my  office 
before  nine.  I  find  that  I  shall  spend  more  time  in  my  office 
than  ever  I  did.  Now  my  family  is  away,  I  feel  no  inclination 
at  all,  no  temptation,  to  be  anywhere  but  at  my  office.  I  am  in 
it  by  six  in  the  morning,  I  am  in  it  at  nine  at  night,  and  I  spend 
but  a  small  space  of  time  in  running  down  to  my  brother's  to 
breakfast,  dinner,  and  tea.  Yesterday,  I  rode  to  town  from 
Braintree,  before  nine,  attended  my  office  till  near  two,  then 
dined  and  went  over  the  ferry  to  Cambridge.  Attended  the 
House  the  whole  afternoon,  returned  and  spent  the  whole  even- 
ing in  my  office  alone,  and  I  spent  the  time  much  more  profita- 
bly, as  well  as  pleasantly,  than  I  should  have  done  at  club.  This 
evening  is  spending  the  same  way.  In  the  evening,  I  can  be  alone 
at  my  office,  and  nowhere  else ;  I  never  could  in  my  family. 

18.  Thursday.  Fast  day.  Tuesday  I  staid  at  my  office  in 
town  ;  yesterday,  went  up  to  Cambridge ;  returned  at  night  to 
Boston,  and  to  Braintree,  —  still,  calm,  happy  Braintree,  —  at  nine 
o'clock  at  night.  This  morning,  cast  my  eyes  out  to  see  what 
my  workmen  had  done  in  my  absence,  and  rode  with  my  wife 
over  to  Weymouth;  there  we  are  to  hear  young  Blake — a 
pretty  fellow. 

20.  Saturday.  Friday  morning  by  nine  o'clock  arrived  at  my 
office  in  Boston,  and  this  afternoon  returned  to  Braintree  ; 
arrived  just  at  tea  time ;  drank  tea  with  my  wife.  Since  this 
hour,  a  week  ago,  I  have  led  a  life  active  enough  :  have  been  to 


JEt.  35.]  DIARY.  257 

Boston  twice,  to   Cambridge  twice,  to    Weymouth  once,  and 
attended  my  office,  and  the  court  too. 

But  I  shall  be  no  more  perplexed  in  this  manner.  I  shall 
have  no  journeys  to  make  to  Cambridge,  no  General  Court  to 
attend ;  but  shall  divide  my  time  between  Boston  and  Braintree, 
between  law  and  husbandry;  —  farewell  politics.  Every  even- 
ing I  have  been  in  town,  has  been  spent  till  after  nine  at  my 
office.  Last  evening,  I  read  through  a  letter  from  Robert  Morris, 
barrister  at  law  and  late  secretary  to  the  supporters  of  the  Bill 
of  Rights,  to  Sir  Richard  Aston,  a  judge  of  the  King's  Bench  ; 
a  bold,  free,  open,  elegant  letter  it  is ;  annihilation  would  be  the 
certain  consequence  of  such  a  letter  here,  where  the  domination 
of  our  miniature  infinitesimal  deities  far  exceeds  any  thing  in 
England.  This  mettlesome  barrister  gives  us  the  best  account 
of  the  unanimity  of  the  King's  Bench,  that  I  have  ever  heard  or 
read.  According  to  him,  it  is  not  uncommon  abilities,  integrity 
and  temper,  as  Mr.  Burrow  would  persuade  us,  but  sheer  fear 
of  Lord  Mansfield,  the  Scottish  chief,  which  produces  this 
miracle  in  the  moral  and  intellectual  world  ;  that  is,  of  four 
judges  agreeing  perfectly  in  every  rule,  order,  and  judgment  for 
fourteen  years  together.  Four  men  never  agreed  so  perfectly  in 
sentiment  for  so  long  a  time  before.  Four  clocks  never  struck 
together  a  thousandth  part  of  the  time ;  four  minds  never 
thought,  reasoned,  and  judged  alike  before  for  a  ten  thousandth 
part. 

21.  Sunday.  Last  night  went  up  to  Braintree,  and  this 
evening  down  to  Boston.  Called  at  S.  Adams's,  and  found  Mr. 
Otis,  Colonel  Warren,  and  Doctor  Warren.  Otis  is  steady  and 
social  and  sober  as  ever,  and  more  so. 

22.  Monday.  In  the  morning  mounted  for  Worcester  with 
Pierpont,  Caleb  and  Robert  Davis,  Josiah  Quincy,  &c. ;  baited 
the  horses  at  Brewer's  and  at  Colonel  Buckminster's. 

25.  Thursday.  Dined  last  Monday  at  Brigham's  in  South- 
borough,  and  lodged  at  Furnasse's  in  Shrewsbury ;  next  day 
dined  at  Mr.  Putnam's,  in  Worcester,  and  at  same  place  dined 
on  Wednesday ;  this  day,  dined  at  Mr.  Paine's  with  much 
company.  At  about  two  o'clock  this  day  we  finished  the 
famous  cause  of_  Cutler  vs.  Pierpont  and  Davis  —  an  action  of 
trespass  for  compelling  the  plaintiff  to  store  his  goods  with  the 
committee  at  Boston,  and  carting  him,  &c.     We  had    stories 

22*  q 


258  DIARY.  [1771. 

about  Fort  George,  the  Duke  of  York,  and  a  warm  gentleman 
at  Cambridge,  Bob  Temple. 

The  Duke  of  York  was  in  a  battle  at  sea ;  a  cannon  ball  hit 
a  man's  head,  and  dashed  his  blood  and  brains  in  the  Duke's 
face  and  eyes.  The  Duke  started  and  leaped  quite  out  of  the 
rank.  The  officer  who  commanded  said  "  Pray,  your  Highness, 
don't  be  frightened."  The  Duke  replied,  "  Oh  sir,  I  am  not 
frightened,  but  I  wonder  what  business  that  fellow  had  here  ivith 
so  much  brains  in  his  head."  The  warm  gentleman  at  Cam- 
bridge was  Bob  Temple.  A  number  of  gentlemen  at  Cambridge, 
his  friends,  got  into  a  quarrel  and  squabble,  and  somebody 
knowing  that  all  had  a  great  esteem  of  Temple,  begged  him  to 
interpose  and  use  his  influence  to  make  peace.  At  last  he  was 
persuaded,  and  went  in  among  the  persons;  and  one  of  the  first 
steps  he  took  to  make  peace  was  to  give  one  of  the  persons  a 
blow  in  the  face  with  his  fist. 

Thus  the  defendants  are  to  be  laughed  and  storied  out  of  large 
damages,  no  doubt.  However,  the  jury  gave  none ;  they  could 
not  agree  ;  eight  were  for  defendant,  four  for  plaintiff.1 

\Iav  I.  Wednesday.  Saturday  1  rode  from  Martin's  in 
Northborough  to  Boston  on  horseback,  and  from  thence  to 
Braintree  in  a  chaise  ;  and  when  I  arrived  at  my  little  retreat, 
I  was  quite  overcome  with  fatigue.  Next  morning  felt  better, 
and  arose  early,  and  walked  up  Penn's  Hill,  and  then  round  by 
the  meadow  home.  After  meeting  in  the  afternoon,  Mr.  Tudor 
and  I  rambled  up  the  western  common  and  took  a  view  of  a 
place  which  I  have  never  seen  since  my  removal  to  Boston.  I 
felt  a  joy,  I  enjoyed  a  pleasure,  in  revisiting  my  old  haunts,  and 
recollecting  my  old  meditations,  among  the  rocks  and  trees, 
which  was  very  intense  indeed.  The  rushing  torrent,  the  pur- 
ling stream,  the  gurgling  rivulet,  the  dark  thicket,  the  rugged 
ledges  and  precipices,  are  all  old  acquaintances  of  mine.  The 
young  trees,  walnuts  and  oaks,  which  were  pruned  and  trimmed 
by  me,  are  grown  remarkably.  Nay,  the  pines  have  grown  the 
better  for  lopping. 

This  evening  at  the  bar  meeting,  I  asked  and  obtained  the 
unanimous  consent  of  the  bar  to  take  Mr.  Elisha  Thayer  of 
Braintree,  son  of  Captain  Ebenezer  Thayer,  Jr.,  as  a  clerk.     How 

1  The  verdict  ultimately  obtained  was  for  the  defendants. 


j!Et.  35.]  DIARY.  259 

few  years  are  gone  since  this  gentleman  was  pleased  to  call  me 
a  petty  lawyer  at  Major  Crosby's  Court!1  now  is  soliciting  me 
to  take  his  son,  and  complimenting,  &c.  me  with_being  the  first 
lawyer  in  the  Province,  as  he  did  in  express  words,  though  it 
was  but  a  compliment,  and  if  sincere  in  him  was  not  true,  but 
a  gross  mistake ;  nay,  what  is  more  remarkable  still,  compli- 
menting me  with  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  as 
he  did  by  assuring  me  in  words,  that  if  I  had  an  inclination  to 
come  from  Braintree,  he  would  not  stand  in  my  way.  Such  are 
the  mistakes  we  are  apt  to  make  in  the  characters  of  men,  and 
in  our  conjectures  of  their  future  fortune.  This,  however,  is  a 
wretched  triumph,  a  poor  victory,  a  small  antagonist  to  defeat ; 
and  I  have  very  few  of  this  kind  of  conquests  to  boast  of.  The 
Governor  tells  of  a  vast  number  of  these  changes  in  sentiment 
concerning  him,  and  will  be  able  to  tell  of  many  more. 

2.  Thursday.  The  triumphs  and  exultation  of  Ezekiel  Gold- 
thwait  and  his  pert  pupil,  Price,  at  the  election  of  a  Registrar 
of  Deeds,  are  excessive.2  They  crow  like  dung-hill  cocks  ;  they 
are  rude  and  disgusting.  Goldthwait  says  he  would  try  the 
chance  again  for  twenty  dollars,  and  he  would  get  it  by  a  major- 
ity of  one  hundred  votes,  even  in  this  town.  Nay  more,  he  says 
if  he  would  be  representative,  and  would  set  up,  he  would  be 
chosen  representative  before  Adams.  Adams  the  lawyer  don't 
succeed  in  the  interest  he  makes  for  people ;  he  is  not  successful. 
N.  B.  Very  true ! 

Price  says  to  me,  if  you  was  to  go  and  make  interest  for  me 
to  be  clerk  in  the  room  of  Cook,  I  should  get  it,  no  doubt. 
These  are  the  insults  that  I  have  exposed  myself  to,  by  a  very 
small  and  feeble  exertion  for  S.  Adams,  to  be  Registrar  of  Deeds. 
Thus  are  the  friends  of  the  people,  after  such  dangerous  efforts, 
and  such  successful  ones  too,  left  in  the  lurch  even  by  the  peo- 
ple themselves.  I  have  acted  my  sentiments  with  the  utmost 
frankness  at  the  hazard  of  all,  and  the  certain  loss  of  ten  times 
more  than  it  is  in  the  power  of  the  people  to  give  me,  for  the 
sake  of  the  people ;  and  now  I  reap  nothing  but  insult,  ridicule, 

1  See  page  110. 

2  On  Tuesday  last  the  Court  of  General  Sessions  of  the  peace  for  the  county 
of  Suffolk  opened  the  votes  of  the  freeholders  of  the  several  towns  in  said 
county  for  the  choice  of  registrar  of  deeds  and  conveyances  of  land,  and  upon 
sorting  and  counting  the  votes,  there  were  1590  ;  of  which  number  there  were 
for  Ezekiel  Goldthwait,    Esq.,  1123.    Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  467.     Gazette. 


260  DIARY.  [1771. 

and    contempt   for   it,    even    from  many    of  the    people  them- 
selves. 

However,  I  have  not  hitherto  regarded  consequences  to  myself. 
I  have  very  cheerfully  sacrificed  my  interest,  and  my  health,  and 
ease  and  pleasure,  in  the  service  of  the  people.  I  have  stood 
by  their  friends  longer  than  they  would  stand  by  them.  I  have 
stood  by  the  people  much  longer  than  they  would  stand  by  them- 
selves.    But  I  have  learned  wisdom  by  experience  ;  I  shall  cer- 


tainly become  more  retired  and  cautious ;  I  shall  certainly  mind 
my  own  farm  and  my  own  office. 

3.  Friday.  Last  evening  I  went  in  to  take  a  pipe  with  Brother 
Cranch,  and  there  I  found  Zab  Adams.  He  told  me  he  heard 
that  I  had  made  two  very  powerful  enemies  in  this  town,  and 
lost  two  very  valuable  clients,  Treasurer  Gray  and  Ezekiel 
Goldthwaite ;  and  that  he  heard  that  Gray  had  been  to  me  for 
my  account,  and  paid  it  off,  and  determined  to  have  nothing 
more  to  do  with  me.  Oh,  the  wretched,  impotent  malice !  they 
show  their  teeth,  they  are  eager  to  bite ;  but  they  have  not 
strength !  I  despise  their  anger,  their  resentment,  and  their 
threats.  But  I  can  tell  Mr.  Treasurer  that  I  have  it  in  my 
power  to  tell  the  world  a  tale,  which  will  infallibly  unhorse  him, 
whether  I  am  in  the  House  or  out.  If  this  Province  knew  that 
the  public  money  had  never  been  counted  these  twenty  years, 
and  that  no  bonds  were  given  last  year,  nor  for  several  years 
before,  there  would  be  so  much  uneasiness  about  it,  that  ]\tr. 
Gray  would  lose  his  election  another  year.1 

It  may  be  said  that  I  have  made  enemies  by  being  in  the 
General  Court.  The  Governor,  Lieutenant-Governor,  Gray, 
Goldthwaite,  the  gentry  at  Cambridge,  &c,  are  made  my  bitter 
foes.  But  there  is  nothing  in  this.  These  people  were  all  my 
foes  before,  but  they  thought  it  for  their  interest  to  disguise  it, 
but  now  they  think  themselves  at  liberty  to  speak  it  out.  But 
there  is  not  one  of  them  but  would  have  done  me  all  the  harm 
in  his  power  secretly  before. 

This  evening  Mr.  Otis  came  into  my  office  and  sat  with  me 
most  of  the  evening ;  more  calm,  more  solid,  decent  and  cautious 
than  he  ever  was,  even  before  his  late  disorders.  I  have 
this  week  had   an   opportunity  of  returning  an  obligation,  of 

1  This  probably  explains  the  motive  of  the  motion  made  by  the  writer  in  the 
General  Court.     See  page  236,  note. 


JEr.  85.]  DIARY.  261 

repaying  an  old  debt  to  that  gentleman,  which  has  given  me 
great  pleasure.  Mr.  Otis  was  one  of  the  three  gentlemen,  Mr. 
Gridley  and  Mr.  Thacher  were  the  other  two,  who  introduced 
me  to  practice  in  this  county.  I  have  this  week  strongly  recom- 
mended fourteen  clients  from  Wrentham,  and  three  or  four  in 
Boston,  to  him,  and  they  have  accordingly,  by  my  persuasion, 
engaged  him  in  their  causes ;  and  he  has  come  out  to  court,  and 
behaved  very  well.  So  that  I  have  now  introduced  him  to  prac- 
tice. This  indulgence  to  my  own  grateful  feelings  was  equally 
my  duty  and  my  pleasure. 

He  is  a  singular  man.  It  will  be  amusing  to  observe  his 
behavior,  upon  his  return  to  active  life,  in  the  senate  and  at  the 
bar,  and  the  influence  of  his  presence  upon  the  public  councils 
of  this  Province.1  I  was  an  hour  with  him  this  morning  at  his 
office ;  and  there  he  was  off  his  guard  and  reserve  with  me.  I 
find  his  sentiments  are  not  altered,  and  his  passions  are  not 
eradicated,  the  fervor  of  his  spirit  is  not  abated,  nor  the  irrita- 
bility of  his  nerves  lessened. 

9.  Thursday.  From  Saturday  to  Wednesday  morning  I  staid 
at  Braintree,  and  rode  walked,  rambled,  and  roamed.  Enjoyed 
a  serenity  and  satisfaction  to  which  I  have  been  three  years  a 
stranger. 

This  day,  arrived  Hall  from  London  with  news  of  the  com- 
mitment of  the  Mayor  and  Mr.  Alderman  Oliver  to  the  Tower 
by  the  House  of  Commons. 

I  read  this  morning  in  the  English  papers  and  the  Political 
Register  for  April,  all  the  proceedings  against  the  printers, 
Thompson  and  Wheble,  and  against  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen, 
Wilkes  and  Oliver.2  What  the  consequence  will  be  of  these 
movements,  it  is  not  easy  to  foresee  or  conjecture.3  A  struggle, 
a  battle  so  serious  and  determined,  between  two  such  bodies  as 
the  House  and  the  City,  must  produce  confusion  and  carnage, 


1  He  was  elected  this  year  to  the  House  in  place  of  the  writer,  who  had 
removed  to  Braintree.  But  it  was  only  to  show  the  flickering  of  the  expiring 
lamp.     The  public  career  of  James  Otis  was  already  run. 

2  Annual  Register,  1771,  pp.  63-70. 

3  The  immediate  consequence  was  the  complete  removal  of  all  future  restric- 
tion upon  the  publication  of  the  parliamentary  debates.  The  effect  of  this  in 
changing  the  British  constitution  is  yet  in  process  of  development.  A  brief 
but  clear  account  of  this  struggle  is  given  in  a  note  to  Woodfall's  edition  of  the 
Letters  of  Junius,  vol  hi.  p.  345. 


262  DIARY.  [1771. 

without  the  most  delicate  management  on  both  sides,  or  the 
most  uncommon  concurrence  of  accidents. 

14.  Tuesday.  Yesterday  came  to  town  with  my  wife ;  a  fine 
rain  all  night.  Captain  Bradford  sent  his  compliments,  and 
desired  me  to  meet  the  club  at  his  house  this  evening,  which  I 
did.  Doctor  Cooper,  Mr.  Lathrop,  Otis,  Adams,  Doctor  Green- 
leaf,  William  Greenleaf,  Doctor  Warren,  Thomas  Brattle,  Wil- 
liam Cooper,  C.  Bradford,  j^very^ pleasant  evening.  Otis  gave 
us  an  account  of  a  present  from  Doctor  Cumings  of  Concord 
to  Harvard  College  chapel,  of  a  brass  branch  of  candlesticks,  such 
as  Isaac  Royal,  Esq.  gave  to  the  Representatives'  room,  and  that 
it  was  sent  to  N.  Hurd's  to  have  an  inscription  engraved  on  it. 
The  inscription  is,  — 

In  sacelli  hujusce  ornatum  et  splendorem 
Phosphoron  hoc  munus,  benigne  contulit 
Cumings,  armiger,  medicus,  Concordiensis.1 

Danforth.  "  The  inscription  was  much  faulted  by  the  wits  at 
club,  and  as  it  was  to  be  a  durable  thing  for  the  criticisms  of 
strangers  and  of  posterity,  it  was  thought  that  it  ought  to  be 
altered."  Doctor  Cooper  mentioned  an  old  proverb,  that  an 
ounce  of  mother  wit  is  worth  a  pound  of  clergy.  Mr.  Otis 
mentioned  another,  which  he  said  conveyed  the  same  sentiment,  — 
An  ounce  of  prudence  is  worth  a  pound  of  wit.  This  produced 
a  dispute,  and  the  sense  of  the  company  was,  that  the  word  wit 
in  the  second  proverb  meant,  the  faculty  of  suddenly  raising 
pleasant  pictures  in  the  fancy  ;  but  that  the  phrase,  mother  wit, 
in  the  first  proverb,  meant  natural  parts,  and  clergy-acquired 
learning  —  book  learning.  Doctor  Cooper  quoted  another  pro- 
verb from  his  Negro  Glasgow, —  A  mouse  can  build  an  house 
without  trouble.  And  then  told  us  another  instance  of  Glasgow's 
intellect,  of  which  I  had  before  thought  him  entirely  destitute. 
The  Doctor  was  speaking  to  Glasgow  about  Adam's  Fall,  and 
the  introduction  of  natural  and  moral  evil  into  the  world,  and 
Glasgow  said,  they  had  in  his  country  a  different  account  of  this 
matter.  The  tradition  was,  that  a  dog  and  a  toad  were  to  run  a 
race,  and  if  the  dog  reached  the  goal  first,  the  world  was  to 

1  This  article  was  destroyed  by  fire  a  few  years  ago,  with  many  other  curious 
relics  belonging  to  the  University,  that  had  been  temporarily  stored  in  a  build- 
ing in  Cambridge. 


Ml:  36.]  DIARY.  263 

continue  innocent  and  happy;  but  if  the  toad  should  outstrip 
the  dog,  the  world  was  to  become  sinful  and  miserable.  Every- 
body thought  there  could  be  no  danger ;  but  in  the  midst  of  the 
career  the  dog  found  a  bone  by  the  way,  and  stopped  to  gnaw 
it ;  and  while  he  was  interrupted  by  his  bone,  the  toad,  constant 
in  his  malevolence,  hopped  on,  reached  the  mark,  and  spoiled 
the  world. 

15.  Wednesday.  Argued  before  the  Sessions  the  question, 
whether  the  Court  had  authority  by  law  to  make  an  allowance 
of  wages  and  expenses,  above  the  fees  established  by  law,  to  the 
jurors  who  tried  Captain  Preston  and  the  soldiers.  The  two 
Quincys,  Otis,  and  Adams,  argued.  Otis  is  the  same  man  he 
used  to  be. 

"  He  spares  not  friend  nor  foe,  but  calls  to  mind, 
Like  doomsday,  all  the  faults  of  all  mankind." 

He  will  certainly  soon  relapse  into  his  former  condition. 
He  trembles;  his  nerves  are  irritable;  he  cannot  bear  fatigue. 
"  Brother  A.  has  argued  so  prodigiously  like  a  representative, 
that  I  can't  help  considering  him  as  the  ghost  of  one,  &c." 

22.  Wednesday.  At  Plymouth ;  put  up  at  Witherell's,  near 
the  county-house  ;  lodged  with  Mr.  Angier,  where  we  had  a 
chamber  wholly  to  ourselves,  —  very  still  and  retired,  jery  serene 
and  happy.  Mrs.  Howland  and  her  family,  I  hear,  arc  very 
much  grieved  and  hurt  and  concerned  about  my  passing  by 
their  house.  But  my  health  is  my  excuse  for  all  my  removals. 
I  am  not  strong  enough  to  bear  the  smoke  and  dirt  and  noise 
of  Howland's,  and  their  late  hours  at  night. 

Heard  of  the  election  of  Colonel  Edson,  at  Bridgewater,  and 
Colonel  Gilbert,  of  Freetown,1  which  proves  to  me  that  the  sys- 
tem of  the  Province  will  be  different  this  year  from  what  it  was 
the  last.  The  House  was  very  near  equally  divided  the  whole 
of  the  last  session,  and  these  two  members  will  be  able  to  make 
a  balance  in  favor  of  timidity,  artifice,  and  trimming.     How 

1  These  were  of  the  government  side,  but  the  general  remark,  which  follows, 
is  hardly  just,  if  we  may  credit  Hutchinson,  who  says  of  this  period  : 

"  This  year,  particularly,  except  in  two  or  three  instances,  the  new  members  in 
the  House  were  in  opposition.  Several  gentlemen  remained  in  the  House,  who, 
in  common  times,  would  have  had  great  weight  on  the  other  side ;  but  now,  the 
great  superiority  in  number  against  them  caused  them  to  despair  of  success  from 
their  exertions,  and  in  most  cases  they  were  inactive."     Vol.  iii.  p.  338. 


264  DIARY.  [1771. 

easily  the  people  change,  and  give  up  their  friends  and  their 
interest ! 

29.  Wednesday.  General  election.  Went  to  Boston  and  to 
Qambridge,  and  returned  to  Boston  at  night. 

30.  Thursday.  Mounted  my  horse  for  Connecticut.*  Stopped^ 
and  chatted  an  hour  with  Tom  Crafts,  who  is  very  low  with 
rheumatism  and  an  hectic,  but  the  same  honest,  good  humored 
man  as  ever.  Stopped  again  at  little  Cambridge,  at  the  house 
by  the  meeting-house,  and  gave  my  horse  hay  and  oats  at 
Mr.  Jackson's.  Rode  alone.  My  mind  has  been  running  chiefly 
upon  my  farm  and  its  inhabitants  and  furniture,  my  horses,  oxen, 
cows,  swine,  walls,  fences,  &c.  I  have,  in  several  late  rambles, 
very  particularly  traced  and  pursued  every  swamp  and  spring 
upon  the  north  side  of  Perm's  hill,  from  its  source  to  its  outlet ; 
and  I  think  if  I  owned  the  whole  of  that  side  of  the  hill,  I  could 
make  great  improvements  upon  it  by  means  of  springs,  and 
descents,  and  falls  of  water. 

31.  Friday.     Lodged  at  Mr.  Putnam's,  in  Worcester. 

June  I.  Saturday.  Spent  the  day  at  Worcester,  in  riding 
about  with  Mr.  Putnam  to  see  his  farm.  He  does  what  he 
pleases  with  meadows  and  rivers  of  water ;  he  carries  round  the 
streams  wherever  he  pleases. 

Took  one  ride  up  to  Bogachoag  Hill  one  way,  and  another 
up  the  lane  by  Doolittle's  shop ;  and  I  found  that  great  alterations 
have  been  made,  and  many  improvements,  in  thirteen  years, — 
for  it  is  so  long  since  I  was  in  either  of  those  parts  of  the  town 
of  Worcester  before.  In  the  latter  road  I  missed  many  objects 
of  my  former  acquaintance,  many  shady  thickets  and  gloomy 
grottos,  where  I  have  sat  by  the  hour  together  to  ruminate  and 
listen  to  the  falls  of  water. 

This  pleasure  of  revisiting  an  old  haunt  is  very  great.  Mr. 
Putnam  says  he  was  lately  at  Danvers,  and  visited  the  very  path 
where  he  used  to  drive  the  cows  to  pasture  when  he  was  seven 
years  old.  It  gave  him  a  strange  feeling ;  it  made  him  feel 
young  —  seven  years  old. 

*  [I  was  advised  to  take  a  journey  to  the  Stafford  Springs,  in  Connecticut, 
then  in  as  much  vogue  as  any  mineral  springs  have  been  in  since.  I  spent  a 
few  days  in  drinking  the  waters,  and  made  an  excursion  through  Somers  and 
Windsor  down  to  Hartford,  and  the  journey  was  of  use  to  me,  whether  the 
waters  were  or  not.] 


JEt.  35.]  DIA11Y.  265 

I  visited  Dr.  Willard.  I  see  little  alteration  in  him  or  his 
wife  in  sixteen  years.  His  sons  are  grown  up ;  Sam,  the  eldest, 
who  has  been  to  college,  is  settled  at  Uxbridge,  in  the  practice 
of  physic ;  Levi  is  at  home. 

I  met  Colonel  Gardner  Chandler.  He  said  he  heard  I  was  in 
quest  of  health ;  if  I  found  more  than  I  wanted,  he  begged  a 
little.  No  poor  creature  ever  suffered  more  for  want  of  it.  Thus 
he  is  the  same  man.  Sixteen  years  I  have  been  a  witness  to  his 
continual  complaints  of  weakness  and  want  of  health. 

2.  Sunday.     Heard  Mr.  Wheeler,  late  minister  of  Harvard,  at 


Worcester  all  day.  Here  I  saw  many  laces  much  altered,  and 
many  others  not  at  all,  since  I  first  knew  this  place,  which  is 
now  sixteen  years.  Here  I  saw  many  young  gentlemen  who 
were  my  scholars  and  pupils  when  I  kept  school  here ;  —  John 
Chandler,  Esq.  of  Petersham,  Rufus  Chandler,  the  lawyer,1  Dr. 
William  Paine,  who  now  studies  physic  with  Dr.  Holyoke  of 
Salem,  Nat.  Chandler,  who  studies  law  with  Mr.  Putnam,  and 
Dr.  Thad.  Maccarty,  who  is  now  in  the  practice  of  physic  at 
Dudley ;  most  of  these  began  to  learn  Latin  with  me. 

Mem.  Gardner  Chandler,  yesterday,  said  that  many  regula- 
tions were  wanting,  but  the  town  of  Boston  more  than  any 
thing ;  and  that,  after  election,  everybody  used  to  be  inquiring 
who  were  chosen  counsellors,  —  very  anxious  and  inquisitive  to 
know ;  but  now,  nobody  asked  any  thing  about  it,  nobody  cared 
any  thing  about  it.  And  Putnam  said,  yesterday,  he  did  not 
like  the  town  of  Boston,  he  did  not  like  their  manners,  &c.  1 
record  these  curious  speeches,  because  they  are  characteristic  of 
persons  and  of  the  age. 

Drank  tea  at  Mr.  Putnam's,  with  Mr.  Paine,  Mrs.  Paine,  Dr. 
Holyoke's  lady,  and  Dr.  Billy  Paine.  The  Doctor  is  a  very 
civil,  agreeable,  and  sensible  young  gentleman.  Went,  in  the 
evening,  over  to  G.  Chandler's,  and  chatted  with  him  an  hour. 
He  is  very  bitter  against  the  town  of  Boston.  "  I  hate  them, 
from  my  soul,"  says  he.  "  Great  patriots '.  were  for  non-importa- 
tion, while  their  old  rags  lasted ;  and,  as  soon  as  they  were  sold 
at  enormous  prices,  they  were  for  importing;  no  more  to  be 
heard  about  manufactures,  and  now,  there  is  a  greater  flood  of 

i  Interesting  notices  of  both  these  Chandlers,  as  well  as  of  Mr.  Putnam,  will 
be  found  in  Mr.  WUlarcl's  Address  to  the  Bar  of  Worcester  County,  in  1829,  pp. 
58  -61,  73,  75.     They  all  took  the  side  of  government. 

VOL.   II.  23 


266  DIARY.  [1771. 

goods  than  ever  were  known ;  and  as  to  tea,  those  who  were 


most  strenuous  against  it  are  the  only  persons  who  have  any  to 
sell." 

John  Chandler,  Esq.  of  Petersham,  came  into  P.'s  in  the  even- 
ing, from  Boston,  yesterday,  and  gave  us  an  account  of  Mr. 
\  Otis's  conversion  to  toryism.1  Adams  was  going  on  in  the 
old  road,  and  Otis  started  up  and  said,  they  had  gone  far  enough 
in  that  way ;  the  Governor  had  an  undoubted  right  to  carry  the 
court  where  he  pleased,  and  moved  for  a  committee  to  represent 
the  inconveniences  of  sitting  there,  and  for  an  address  to  the 
Governor.  He  was  a  good  man ;  the  ministers  said  so,  the 
justices  said  so,  and  it  must  be  so ;  and  moved  to  go  on  with 
business ;  and  the  House  voted  every  thing  he  moved  for.  Bos- 
ton people  say  he  is  distracted,  &c. 

3.  Monday.  Oated  in  Spencer ;  turned  my  horse  to  grass  at 
Wolcott's,  in  Brookfield.  I  ride  alone ;  I  find  no  amusement, 
no  conversation,  and  have  nothing  to  think  about ;  but  my  office 
and  farm  frequently  steal  into  my  mind,  and  seem  to  demand 
my  return ;  they  must  both  suffer  for  want  of  my  presence. 

The  road  to  Stafford  turns  off  by  Brookfield  meeting-house 
into  Brimfield,  in  the  county  of  Hampshire.  Dined  at  Cheney's, 
of  "Western,  in.  the  county  of  Hampshire.  An  old  man  came 
in,  and  after  some  conversation  with  the  old  landlady,  she 
asked  him  if  he  was  not  the  man  who  called  here  about  seven- 
teen years  ago,  and  was  intrusted  with  a  gill  of  West  India 
rum  ?  He  said,  "  Yes ;  Han't  you  had  your  money  ?  "  "  No." 
"  Well,  I  sent  it  by  a  Brimfield  man,  within  a  fortnight  after. 
I  '11  at  him  about  it ;  I  'm  desperate  glad  you  mentioned  it. 
I  had  the  rum ;  I  was  driving  down  a  drove  of  hogs ;  my  two 
boys  were  with  me, —  I  lost  them  both,  in  the  year  1759,  one  at 
Crown  Point,  and  one  about  eighteen  miles  from  Albany ; — they 
drinked  the  rum  with  me.  I  am  glad  you  mentioned  it ;  the 
money  is  justly  your  due.  I'll  pay  you  now ;  how  much  is  it?" 
"  Two  shillings  and  four  pence."  "  But,"  says  I,  interposing 
for  curiosity,  "  that  will  hardly  do  justice  ;  for  the  interest  is  as 
much  as  the  principal ;  the  whole  debt  is  four  shillings  and  eight 
pence."     "I'm  a  poor  man,"  says  he,  " landlady  wont  ask  me 

1  How  much  hope  Governor  Hutchinson  built  upon  this  speech  of  James  Otis, 
is  visible  in  his  History,  vol.  iii.  p.  339  ;  but  Otis  at  this  time  had  ceased  to  be  a 
responsible  agent. 


JET:  35.]  DIARY.  267 

interest."  I  was  much  amused  with  the  old  woman's  quick 
and  tenacious  memory,  and  with  the  old  man's  honesty.  But 
it  seems  to  me  that  the  whole  anecdote  shows  that  these  are 
but  twopenny  people. 

This  honest  man,  whose  name  is  Frost,  hearing  that  I  was 
bound  to  the  Springs,  and  unacquainted  with  the  way,  very 
obligingly  waited  for  me,  to  show  me  the  way  as  far  as  he  went, 
which  was  several  miles.  His  father  came  from  Billerica  to 
Springfield.  Mrs.  Cheney  says  her  husband  came  from  Roxbury. 
I  found  that  Frost  was  a  great  partisan  of  the  mineral  spring. 
He  said  he  had  been  weakly  these  thirty  years,  and  the  spring 
had  done  him  more  good  in  a  few  days  than  all  the  doctors 
had  done  in  thirty  years ;  and  he  went  on  and  told  of  a  great 
number  of  marvellous  instances  of  cure  wrought  by  washing 
and  drinking,  while  he  was  there. 

Oated  at  Silas  Hodges's,  in  Brimfield,  near  the  Baptist  meeting- 
house. There  I  find  they  have  not  so  much  faith  in  the  spring. 
Lodged  at  Colburn's,  the  first  house  in  Stafford.  There  I  found 
one  David  Orcutt,  who  came  from  Bridgewater  thirty  years  ago, 
a  relation  of  the  Orcutts  in  Weymouth.  He,  I  find,  is  also  a 
great  advocate  for  the  spring.  He  was  miserable  many  years 
with  rheumatism,  &c.  and,  by  means  of  the  spring,  was  now  a 
comfortable  man.  The  landlord  came  with  his  father,  thirty 
years  ago,  from  Roxbury.  He  has  a  farm  of  two  hundred  acres 
of  land,  one  hundred  under  improvement ;  keeps  near  thirty  head 
of  neat  cattle,  three  horses,  fifty  sheep,  and  yet  offers  to  sell  me 
his  place  for  five  hundred  pounds,  lawful  money. 

4.  Tuesday.  Rode  over  to  the  spring.  One  Child  had  built 
a  small  house  within  a  few  yards  of  the  spring,  and  there  some 
of  the  lame  and  infirm  people  keep.  The  spring  rises  at  the 
foot  of  a  steep,  high  hill,  between  a  cluster  of  rocks,  very  near 
the  side  of  a  river.  The  water  is  very  clear,  limpid,  and  trans- 
parent ;  the  rocks  and  stones  and  earth,  at  the  bottom,  are  tinged 
with  a  reddish  yellow  color,  and  so  is  the  little  wooden  gutter, 
that  is  placed  at  the  mouth  of  the  spring  to  carry  the  water  off; 
indeed,  the  water  communicates  that  color,  which  resembles  that 
of  the  rust  of  iron,  to  whatever  object  it  washes.  Mrs.  Child 
furnished  me  with  a  glass  mug  broken  to  pieces  and  puttied 
together  again,  and  with  that  I  drank  pretty  plentifully  of  the 
water;  it  has  the  taste  of  fair  water  with  an  infusion  of  some 


263  DIARY.  [1771. 

preparation  of  steel  in  it,  which  I  have  taken  heretofore,  Sal 
Martis,  somewhat  like  copperas.  They  have  built  a  shed  over 
a  little  reservoir  made  of  wood,  about  three  feet  deep,  and  into 
that  have  conveyed  the  water  from  the  spring ;  and  there  people 
bathe,  wash,  and  plunge,  for  which  Child  has  eight  pence  a 
time.  I  plunged  in  twice,  but  the  second  time  was  superfluous, 
and  did  me  more  hurt  than  good ;  it  is  very  cold  indeed. 

Mrs.  Child  directed  me  to  one  Green's,  about  half  a  mile  from 
the  spring,  as  a  place  to  lodge  at ;  and  when  I  got  there  I  found 
it  was  my  old  acquaintance,  John  Green,  who  lived  with  Colonel 
Chandler,  at  Worcester,  while  I  lived  with  Putnam. 

The  place  where  I  now  sit,  in  the  chamber  in  Green's  house, 
has  the  command  of  a  great  view.  This  is  a  mountainous  country ; 
this  house  stands  upon  very  high  land,  and  here  is  a  fine,  spacious 
road  laid  out  very  wide,  and  of  great  length,  and  quite  straight, 
which  lies  right  before  me  now,  with  the  meeting-house  in  the 
middle  of  it,  more  than  half  a  mile  off. 

Colonel  Abijah  Willard  and  Sam  Ward  and  another  bought 
of  William  Browne,  of  Salem  or  Virginia,  seven  thousand  acres 
of  land  in  this  town,  and  they  are  about  erecting  iron  mills  here, 
furnaces,  &c.  and  there  is  a  talk  of  making  this  a  shire  town, 
&c.  Unimproved  land  is  to  be  bought  in  this  town,  in  great 
plenty,  for  six  shillings  an  acre.  At  night,  Green  called  to  his 
wife,  "  come,  put  by  your  work  and  come  in ; "  and  takes  his 
family  Bible  and  reads  a  chapter,  and  then  makes  a  long  prayer 
of  half  an  hour,  and  we  all  go  to  bed. 

5.  Wednesday.  Rode  to  the  spring ;  drank  and  plunged ; 
dipped  but  once;  sky  cloudy.  Activity  and  industry,  care  and 
economy,  are  not  the  characteristics  of  this  family.  Green  was 
to  set  out  upon  a  journey  to  Providence  to-day,  to  get  stores,  &c. 
and  stock  for  trade ;  but  he  lounged  and  loitered  away  hour  after 
hour,  till  nine  o'clock,  before  he  mounted.  The  cow,  whose  teats 
strut  with  milk,  is  unmilked  till  nine  o'clock.  My  horse  would 
stand  by  the  head  hour  after  hour  if  I  did  not  put  him  out  myself, 
though  I  call  upon  the  father  and  the  sons  to  put  him  out. 

Looking  into  a  little  closet  in  my  chamber,  this  morning,  I 
found  a  pretty  collection  of  books ;  —  The  Preceptor,  Douglass's 
History,  Paradise  Lost,  the  Musical  Miscellany  in  two  volumes, 
the  Life  of  the  Czar  Peter  the  Great,  &c.  I  laid  hold  of  the  se- 
cond volume  of  the  Preceptor,  and  began  to  read  the  Elements 


^Et.  35.]  DIARY.  269 

Logic,  and  considered  the  fourfold  division  of  the  subject, — 
simple  apprehension  or  perception,  judgment  or  intuition,  reason 
ing,  and  method.  This  little  compendium  of  logic  I  admired  at 
college ;  I  read  it  over  and  over ;  I  recommended  it  to  others, 
particularly  to  my  chum,  David  Wyer,  and  I  took  the  pains  to 
read  a  great  part  of  it  to  him  and  with  him.  By  simple  appre- 
hension or  perception,  we  get  ideas ;  by  sensation  and  by  reflec- 
tion, the  ideas  we  get  are  simple,  &c.  Mem.  I  hope  I  shall  not 
forget  to  purchase  these  Preceptors,  and  to  make  my  sons  tran- 
scribe this  treatise  on  logic  entirely  with  their  own  hands,  in 
fair  characters,  as  soon  as  they  can  write,  in  order  to  imprint  it 
on  their  memories.  Nor  would  it  hurt  my  daughter  to  do  the 
same ;  I  have  a  great  opinion  of  the  exercise  of  transcribing  in 
youth. 

About  eleven  o'clock  arrived  Dr.  McKinstry  of  Taunton,  and 
spoke  for  lodgings  for  himself  and  Co.  Barrell  and  his  wife. 
"  It  is  not  you,  is  it  ? "  says  he.  "  Persons  in  your  way  are  sub- 
ject to  a  certain  weak  muscle  and  lax  fibre,  which  occasions 
glooms  to  plague  you;  but  the  spring  will  brace  you."  I  joy 
and  rejoice  at  his  arrival.  I  shall  have  opportunity  to  examine 
him  about  this  mineral,  medicinal  water. 

I  have  spent  this  day  in  sauntering  about  down  in  the  pasture 
to  see  my  horse,  and  over  the  fields  in  the  neighborhood ;  took 
my  horse  after  noon  and  rode  away  east,  a  rugged,  rocky  road, 
to  take  view  of  the  lands  about  the  town,  and  went  to  the  spring. 
Thirty  people  have  been  there  to-day,  they  say;  —  the  halt,  the 
lame,  the  vapory,  hypochondriac,  scrofulous,  &c.  all  resort  here. 
Met  Dr.  McKinstry  at  the  spring.  We  mounted  our  horses 
together,  and  turned  away  the  western  road  toward  Somers,  to 
see  the  improvements  that  I  saw  yesterday  from  the  mountain 
by  the  spring,  and  returned  to  our  lodgings.  The  Doctor,  I  find, 
is  a  very  learned  man.  He  said  that  the  Roman  empire  came 
to  its  destruction  as  soon  as  the  people  got  set  against  the  nobles 
and  commons,  as  they  are  now  in  England,  and  they  went  on 
quarrelling  till  one  Brutus  carried  all  before  him,  and  enslaved 
'em  all.  "  Caesar,  you  mean,  Doctor."  "  No,  I  think  it  was  Bru- 
tus, wan't  it  ?  "  Thus  we  see  the  Doctor  is  very  book-learned. 
And  when  we  were  drinking  tea,  I  said,  five  hundred  years  hence 
there  would  be  a  great  number  of  empires  in  America,  independ- 
ent of  Europe  and  of  each  other.     "  Oh,"  says  he,  "  I  have  no 

23* 


270  DIARY.  [1771. 

idea  that  the  world  will  stand  so  long,  —  not  half  five  hundred 
years.  The  world  is  to  conform  to  the  Jewish  calculations ;  — 
every  seventh  day  was  to  be  a  day  of  rest,  every  seventh  year 
was  to  be  a  jubilee,  and  the  seventh  thousand  years  will  be  a 
thousand  years  of  rest  and  jubilee ;  no  wars,  no  fightings,  and 
there  is  but  about  two  hundred  and  thirty  wanting  to  complete 
the  six  thousand  years ;  till  that  time,  there  will  be  more  furious 
wars  than  ever."  Thus  I  find  I  shall  have  in  the  Doctor  a 
fund  of  entertainment.  He  is  superficial  enough,  and  con- 
ceited enough,  and  enthusiastical  enough  to  entertain. 

6.  Thursday.     Spent  this  fine  day  in  rambling  on  horseback 


and  on  foot  with  Dr.  McKinstry,  east  and  west,  north  and 
south ;  went  with  him  twice  to  the  spring  and  drank  freely  of 
the  waters,  and  rode  about  to  hire  a  horse  to  carry  me  to 
Springfield  and  Northampton  ;  at  last  obtained  one.  The  Doc- 
tor is  alert  and  cheerful,  and  obliging  and  agreeable. 

In  the  afternoon,  Colburn  Barrell  and  his  wife  and  daughter, 
came  and  took  lodgings  at  our  house ;  drank  tea  and  spent  the 
evening  with  them.  When  the  Doctor  took  his  hat  to  go  out  to 
a  neighbor's  to  lodge,  Colburn  sprung  out  of  his  chair  and  went 
up  to  the  Doctor,  took  him  by  the  hand,  and  kissed  him  before 
all  the  company  in  the  room.     This  is  sandemanianism. 

Rode  this  day  beyond  the  meeting-house,  and  found  my  old 
acquaintance  the  parson,  John  Willard,  at  his  own  door.  He 
lives  in  a  little,  mean-looking  hut.  How  many  of  my  contem- 
poraries at  college,  worthy  men,  live  in  poor  and  low  circum- 
stances !  Few  of  them  have  so  much  of  this  world's  goods  as 
have  fallen  even  to  my  share,  though  some  of  them  have  much 
more.     Let  me  enjoy,  then,  what  I  have,  and  be  grateful. 

Mr.  Barrell  confirms  the  account  of  Mr.  Otis's  behavior  in  the 
House,  which  Mr.  Chandler  gave  me  at  Worcester,  but  says  he 
cannot  reconcile  this  to  Mr.  Otis's  whole  conduct  for  a  course 
of  years. 

7.  Friday.  Went  to  the  spring  with  the  Doctor,  and  drank 
a  glass  and  a  half,  that  is,  a  gill  and  a  half.  My  horse  was 
brought  very  early ;  my  own  mare  I  shall  leave  in  a  very  fine 
pasture,  with  oats  for  her  twice  a  day,  that  she  may  rest  and 
recruit. 

Rode  to_Somers,  over  a  very  high,  large  mountain,  which  the 
people  here  call  Chesnut  hill.     It  is  five  miles  over,  very  bad 


.Er.  35.]  DIARY.  271 

road,  very  high  land ;  it  is  one  of  a  range  of  great  mountains 
which  runs  north  and  south  parallel  with  Connecticut  River, 
about  ten  miles  to  the  east  of  it,  as  another  similar  range  runs 
on  the  Western  side  of  it.  There  is  a  mountain  which  they  call 
the  bald  mountain,  which  you  pass  by  as  you  cross  Chesnut 
hill,  much  higher,  from  whence  you  can  see  the  great  river  and 
many  of  the  great  towns  upon  it,  as  they  say.  Dined  at  Kibby's ; 
met  people  going  over  to  the  spring. 

In  Kibby's  bar-room,  in  a  little  shelf  within  the  bar,  I  espied 
two  books.  I  asked  what  they  were.  He  said  Every  Man  his 
own  Lawyer,  and  Gilbert's  Law  of  Evidence.  Upon  this  I 
asked  some  questions  of  the  people  there,  and  they  told  me  that 
Kibby  was  a  sort  of  a  lawyer  among  them ;  that  he  pleaded  some 
of  their  home  cases  before  justices  and  arbitrators,  &c.  Upon 
this  I  told  Kibby  to  purchase  a  copy  of  Blackstone's  Commenta- 
ries. Rode  from  Kibby's  over  to  Enfield,  which  lies  upon  Con- 
necticut River ;  oated  and  drank  tea  at  Pease's  j  —  a  smart  house 
and  landlord  truly ;  well  dressed,  with  his  ruffles,  &c.  and  upon 
inquiry  I  found  he  was  the  great  man  of  the  town ;  their  repre- 
sentative, &c.  as  well  as  tavern-keeper,  and  just  returned  from 
the  General  Assembly  at  Hartford.  Somers  and  Enfield  are 
upon  a  level ;  a  fine  champaign  country.  Suffield  lies  over  the 
river  on  the  west  side  of  it.  Rode  along  the  great  river  to 
Windsor,  and  put  up  at  Bissell's,  that  is,  in  East  Windsor ;  for 
the  town  of  Windsor,  it  seems,  lies  on  the  west  side  of  the  river. 

The  people  in  this  part  of  Connecticut  make  potash,  and  raise 
a  great  number  of  colts,  which  they  send  to  the  West  Indies  and 
barter  away  for  rum,  &c.     They  trade  with  Boston  and  New 

York,  but  most  to  New  York.     They  say  there  is  a  much  greater 

demand  for  flax-seed,  of  which  they  raise  a  great  deal,  at  New 
York  than  there  is  at  Boston,  and  they  get  a  better  price  for  it. 
Kibby,  at  Somers,  keeps  a  shop,  and  sells  West  India  goods  and 
English  trinkets ;  keeps  a  tavern  and  pettifogs  it. 

At  Enfield,  you  come  into  the  great  road  upon  Connecticut 
River,  which  runs  back  to  Springfield,  Deerfield,  Northampton, 
&c.  northward,  and  down  to  Windsor  and  Hartford,  Wethersfield, 
and  Middletown  southward.  The  soil,  as  far  as  I  have  ridden 
upon  the  river,  if  I  may  judge  by  the  road,  is  dry  and  sandy ; 
but  the  road  is  three  quarters  of  a  mile  from  the  river,  and  the 
interval  land  lies  between. 


272  DIARY.  [1771. 

I  begin  to  grow  weary  of  this  idle,  romantic  jaunt ;  I  believe 
it  would  have  been  as  well  to  have  staid  in  my  own  country  and 
amused  myself  with  my  farm,  and  rode  to  Boston  every  day.  I 
shall  not  suddenly  take  such  a  ramble  again  merely  for  my  health. 
I  want  to  see  my  wife,  my  children,  my  farm,  my  horse,  oxen, 
cows,  walls,  fences,  workmen,  office,  books,  and  clerks ;  I  want 
to  hear  the  news  and  politics  of  the  day.  But  here  I  am  at  Bis- 
sell's,  in  Windsor,  hearing  my  landlord  read  a  chapter  in  the 
kitchen,  and  go  to  prayers  with  his  family  in  the  genuine  tone 
of  a  puritan. 

8.  Saturday.  Bissell  says  there  are  settlements  upon  this 
river  for  three  hundred  miles,  that  is,  from  Seabrook,  where  it 
discharges  itself.  The  river,  in  the  spring,  when  the  snow  melts, 
swells  prodigiously,  and  brings  down  the  washings  of  mountains 
and  old  swamps,  rotten  wood  and  leaves,  &c.  to  enrich  the  inter- 
val lands  upon  its  banks. 

At  eleven  o'clock,  arrived  at  Wright's,  in  Wethersfield.  I 
have  spent  this  morning  in  riding  through  paradise ;  my  eyes 
never  beheld  so  fine  a  country ;  from  Bissell's,  in  Windsor,  to 
Hartford  ferry,  eight  miles,  is  one  continued  street,  houses  all 
along,  and  a  vast  prospect  of  level  country  on  each  hand ;  the 
lands  very  rich,  and  the  husbandry  pretty  good.     The  town  of 


Hartford  is  not  very  compact ;  there  are  some  very  handsome 
and  large  houses,  some  of  brick.  The  State  House  is  pretty 
large,  and  looks  well.  I  stopped  only  to  oat  my  horse  and  get 
my  head  and  face  shaved,  and  then  rode  to  Wethersfield,  four 
miles,  on  the  west  side  of  the  river.  Here  is  the  finest  ride  in 
America,  I  believe ;  nothing  can  exceed  the  beauty  and  fertility 
of  the  country.  The  lands  upon  the  river,  the  flat  lowlands, 
are  loaded  with  rich,  noble  crops  of  grass  and  grain  and  corn. 
Wright  says  some  of  their  lands  will  yield  two  crops  of  English 
grass,  and  two  tons  and  a  half  at  each  crop,  and  plenty  of  after- 
feed  besides  ;  but  these  must  be  nicely  managed  and  largely 
dunged.  They  have,  in  Wethersfield,  a  large  brick  meeting- 
house, Lockwood  the  minister.  A  gentleman  came  in  and  told 
me  that  there  was  not  such  another  street  in  America,  as  this  at 
Wethersfield,  excepting  one  at  Hadley ;  and  that  Mr.  Ingersol, 
the  stamp-master,  told  him  he  had  never  seen,  in  Philadelphia 
nor  in  England,  any  place  equal  to  Hartford  and  Wethersfield. 
Dined  at  the  widow  Griswold's  in  Wethersfield,  about  three 


Mt.  30.]  DIARY.  273 

miles  from  Wright's.  The  road  and  country  are  equally  pleasant 
all  the  way.  Sat  down  to  table  with  the  old  woman  and  another 
woman,  and  a  dirty,  long,  gray-bearded  carpenter  who  was  at 
work  for  landlady,  and  might  be  smelled  from  one  room  to  the 
other;  so  that  these  republicans  are  not  very  decent  or  neat. 
Landlady  and  her  housewright,  very,  very  chatty  about  Boston, 
Providence,  Newport,  Martha's  Vineyard,  and  Nantucket.  Land- 
lady says  the  Deputy-Governor  calls  here,  and  always  has  some 
comical  story  to  tell  her.  He  asked  her  the  other  day  to  come 
down  and  see  his  wife  make  cheese.  He  has  twenty-two  cows, 
and  his  women  make  cheese  in  the  forenoon,  and  then  dress  up 
and  go  out,  or  receive  company  at  home. 

Rode  to  Middletown  and  put  up,  for  the  Sabbath,  at  Shaler's, 
near  the  court-house.  Middletown,  I  think,  is  the  most  beautiful 
town  of  all.  /  When  I  first  came  into  the  town,  which  was  upon 
the  top  of  d  hill,  there  opened  before  me  the  most  beautiful  pros- 
_p_ect  of  the  river,  and  the  intervals  and  improvements  on  each 
side  of  it,  and  the  mountains,  at  about  ten  miles  distance,  both 
on  the  east  and  west  side  of  the  river,  and  of  the  main  body  of 
the  town  at  a  distance.  I  went  down  this  hill  and  into  a  great 
gate  which  led  me  to  the  very  banks  of  the  river ;  and  on  the 
right  hand  is  a  fine  level  track  of  interval  land,  as  rich  as  the  soil 
of  Egypt.  The  lots  are  divided  by  no  fence,  but  here  are  strips 
running  back  at  right  angles  from  the  river ;  —  on  one  is  Indian 
corn ;  on  another,  parallel  to  it,  is  rye ;  on  another,  barley ;  on 
another,  flax ;  on  another,  a  rich  burden  of  clover  and  other 
English  grasses.  And,  after  riding  in  this  enchanting  meadow 
for  some  time,  you  come  to  another  gate  which  lets  you  into  the 
main  body  of  the  town,  which  is  ornamented,  as  is  the  meadow 
I  just  mentioned,  with  fine  rows  of  trees,  and  appears  to  me  as 
populous,  as  compact,  and  as  polite  as  Hartford.,'  The  air  all 
along  from  Somers  to  Middletown  appears  to  me  to  be  very  clear, 
dry,  and  elastic,  and  therefore,  if  I  were  to  plan  another  journey 
for  my  health,  I  would  go  from  Boston  to  Lancaster  and  Lunen- 
burg, thence  to  No.  4,1  and  thence  down  to  Northampton,  Deer- 
field,  Hadley,  Springfield,  then  to  Enfield,  and  along  the  river 
down  to  Seabrook,  and  from  thence  over  to  Rhode  Island,  and 
from  thence  to  Braintree.  And  here  I  might  possibly,  that  is,  at 
No.  4,  look  up  some  land  to  purchase  for  my  benefit  or  the  ben- 

1  Now  Charlestown.  N.  H. 

R 


^274  DIARY.  [1771. 

cfit  of  my  children.  But  I  hope  I  shall  not  take  another  journey 
merely  for  my  health  very  soon  ;  I  feel  sometimes  sick  of  this ;  I 
feel  guilty;  I  feel  as  if  I  ought  not  to  saunter,  and  loiter,  and 
trifle  away  this  time ;  I  feel  as  if  I  ought  to  be  employed  for  the 
benefit  of  my  fellow  men  in  some  way  or  other.  In  all  this 
ramble  from  Stafford  I  have  met  with  nobody  that  I  knew 
excepting  Jo.  Trumbull,  who,  with  his  father,  the  Governor,  w;i^ 
crossing  the  ferry  for  the  east  side  when  I  was  for  the  west. 

Bespoke  entertainment  for  the  Sabbath  at  Shaler's,  and  drank 
tea.  She  brought  us  in  the  finest  and  sweetest  of  wheat  bread, 
and  butter  as  yellow  as  gold,  and  fine  radishes,  very  good  tea 
and  sugar.  I  regaled  without  reserve.  But  my  wife  is  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  me,  at  least,  and  I  am  not  yet 
homeward  bound.  I  wish  Connecticut  River  flowed  through 
Braintree.  But  the  barren,  rocky  mountains  of  Braintree  are  as 
great  a  contrast  as  can  be  conceived  to  the  level,  smooth,  fertile 
plains  of  this  country  ;  yet  Braintree  pleases  me  more ;  I  long 
to  be  foul  of  Deacon  Belcher's  orchard ;  I  am  impatient  to  begin 
my  canal  and  bank,  to  convey  the  water  all  round  by  the  road 
and  the  house ;  I  must  make  a  pool  in  the  road  by  the  corner 
of  my  land,  at  the  yard  in  front  of  the  house  for  the  cool  spring 
water  to  come  into  the  road  there,  that  the  cattle  and  hogs  and 
ducks  may  regale  themselves  there. 

Looking  into  the  almanac,  I  am  startled.  Supreme  Court, 
Ipswich,  is  the  18th  day  of  June ;  I  thought  it  a  week  later, 
25th ;  so  that  I  have  only  next  week  to  go  home,  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles ;  I  must  improve  every  moment.  It  is  twenty- 
five  miles  a  day  if  I  ride  every  day  next  week. 

9.  Sunday.  Feel  a  little  discomposed  this  morning ;  rested 
but  poorly  last  night,  anxious  about  my  return,  fearful  of  very 
hot  or  rainy  weather;  I  have  before  me  an  uncomfortable  jour- 
ney to  Casco  Bay,  little  short  of  three  hundred  miles.  Looking 
into  a  little  bedroom  in  this  house,  Shaler's,  I  found  a  few  books, 
the  Musical  Miscellany,  Johnson's  Dictionary,  the  Farmer's  Let- 
ters, and  the  ninth  volume  of  Dr.  Clarke's  Sermons.  This  last  I 
took  for  my  Sabbath-day  book,  and  read  the  sermon  on  the  funda- 
mentals of  Christianity,  which  he  says  are  the  doctrines  concern- 
ing the  being  and  providence  of  God,  the  necessity  of  repent- 
ance and  obedience  to  His  commands,  the  certainty  of  a  life  to 
come,  a  resurrection  from  the  dead,  and  a  future  judgment. 


Mt.  35.]  DIARY.  275 

Read  also  another  sermon  on  the  reward  of  justice.  "  There 
is,"  says  the  Doctor,  "a  duty  of  justice  towards  the  public. 
There  is  incumbent  upon  men  the  very  same  obligation  not  to 
wrong  the  community  as  there  is  not  to  violate  any  private  man's 
right,  or  defraud  any  particular  person  of  his  property.  The  only 
reason  why  men  are  not  always  sufficiently  sensible  of  this,  so  that 
many  who  are  very  just  in  their  dealings  between  man  and  man 
will  yet  be  very  fraudulent  or  rapacious  with  regard  to  the  pub- 
lic, is  because  in  this  latter  case  it  is  not  so  obviously  and  imme- 
diately apparent  upon  whom  the  injury  falls  as  it  is  in  the  case 
of  private  wrongs.  But  so  long  as  the  injury  is  clear  and 
certain,  the  uncertainty  of  the  persons  upon  whom  the  injury 
falls  in  particular,  or  the  number  of  the  persons  among  whom 
the  damage  may  chance  to  be  divided,  alters  not  at  all  the 
nature  of  the  crime  itself." 

Went  to  meeting  in  the  morning,  and  tumbled  into  the  first 
pew  I  could  find.  Heard  a  pretty  sensible  Yalensian  Connec- 
ticutensian  preacher.  At  meeting  I  first  saw  Dr.  Eliot  Raw- 
son,  an  old  school-fellow ;  he  invited  me  to  dine.  His  house  is 
handsome  without,  but  neither  clean  nor  elegant  within,  in 
furniture  or  any  thing  else.  His  wife  is  such  another  old  puritan 
as  his  cousin,  Peter  Adams's  wife  at  Braintree.  His  children 
are  dirty  and  ill-governed.  He  first  took  me  into  his  physic 
room  and  showed  me  a  number  of  curiosities  which  he  has 
collected  in  the  course  of  his  practice,  His  dining-room  is 
crowded  with  a  bed  and  a  cradle,  &c.  &c.  We  had  a  picked  up 
dinner.  Went  to  meeting  with  him  in  the  afternoon,  and  heard 
the  finest  singing  that  ever  I  heard  in  my  life ;  the  front  and 
side  galleries  were  crowded  with  rows  of  lads  and  lasses,  who 
performed  all  their  parts  in  the  utmost  perfection.  I  thought  I 
was  trap  up  ;  a  row  of  women  all  standing  up  and  playing 
their  parts  with  perfect  skill  and  judgment,  added  a  sweetness 
and  sprightliness  to  the  whole  which  absolutely  charmed  me. 

The  more  I  see  of  this  town  the  more  I  admire  it.  I  regret 
extremely  that  I  can't  pursue  my  tour  to  New  Haven. 

The  Doctor  thinks  Hancock  vain  ;  told  a  story  ;  —  "I  was  at 
school  with  him,  and  then  upon  a  level  with  him  ;  my  father  was 
richer  than  his.  But  I  was  not  long  since  at  his  store,  and  said 
to  Mr.  Glover,  whom  I  knew, '  This  I  think  is  Mr.  Hancock.'  Mr, 
Hancock  just  asked  my  name  and  nothing  more ;  it  was  such  a 


:>76  DIARY.  [17  71. 

piece  of  vanity  !  There  is  not  the  meanest  creature  that  comes 
from  your  way,  but  I  take  notice  of  him,  and  I  ought.  "What 
though  I  am  worth  a  little  more  than  they  ?  I  am  glad  of  it,  and 
that  I  have  it,  that  I  may  give  them  some  of  it."  I  told  the 
Doctor  that  Mr.  Hancock  must  have  had  something  upon  his 
mind,  that  he  was  far  from  being  arrogant,  &c. 

Drank  tea  with  landlady  and  her  son,  Mr.  Shaler,  in  pretty 
western  room  ;  but  they  are  not  very  sociable.  In  short,  I  have 
been  most  miserably  destitute  of  conversation  here.  The  peo- 
ple here  all  trade  to  New  York,  and  have  very  little  connection 
with  Boston.  After  tea  went  over  to  the  Doctor's  and  found 
him  very  social  and  very  learned.  We  talked  much  about  history, 
•fee.  He  says  that  Boston  lost  the  trade  of  this  colony  by  the 
severe  laws  against  their  old  tenor ;  but  they  may  easily  regain 
the  trade ;  for  the  people  here  are  much  disgusted  with  New  York, 
for  their  defection  from  the  non-importation  agreement,  and  for 
some  frauds  and  unfair  practices  in  trade.  He  says  they  have 
found  out  that  New  York  merchants  have  wrote  home  to  the 
manufacturers  in  England  to  make  their  goods  narrower  and 
of  a  meaner  fabric,  that  they  might  sell  cheaper  and  undersell 
Boston. 

Landlady  has  an  only  son,  Nat.  Shaler,  and  she  is  very  fond 
and  very  proud  of  him.  He  lived  with  a  merchant;  is  now 
twenty-five  or  twenty-six,  and  contents  himself  still  to  keep  that 
merchant's  books,  without  any  inclination  to  set  up  for  himself ; 
is  a  great  proficient  in  music,  plays  upon  the  flute,  fife,  harpsi- 
chord, spinet,  &c;  associates  with  the  young  and  the  gay,  and  is 
a  very  fine  Connecticut  young  gentleman.  Oh,  the  misery,  the 
misfortune,  the  ruin  of  being  an  only  son !  I  thank  my  God 
that  I  was  not,  and  I  devoutly  pray  that  none  of  mine  may  ever 
be! 

10.  Monday.  Took  my  departure  from  Middletown  home- 
wards the  same  way  I  went  down ;  very  hot ;  oated  at  Hartford, 
and  reached  Bissell's  of  Windsor,  twenty-three  miles,  before  din- 
ner, just  as  they  had  got  their  Indian  pudding  and  their  pork 
and  greens  upon  the  table,  one  quarter  after  twelve.  After 
dinner  attempted  to  cut  off  an  angle  by  striking  over  by  Goshen, 
that  is,  Ellington,  to  Kibby's  at  Somers,  but  lost  my  way,  and 
got  bewildered  among  woods  and  cross  paths,  and  after  riding 
ten  miles  to  no  purpose,  returned  to  Bissell's,  and  took  the  old 


^Et.  35.]  DIARY.  277 

road  to  Enfield;  excessive  hot;  lodged  at  Pease's,  but  passed  a 
very  restless,  uncomfortable  night ;  overcome  with  fatigue  and 
inflamed  with  heat,  I  could  not  sleep,  and  my  meditations  on 
my  pillow  were  unhappy. 

11.  Tuesday.  Rode  to  Kibby's  at  Somers,  but  got  caught  in 
the  rain ;  very  heavy,  plentiful,  showers ;  I  was  much  wet.  Thus 
I  have  hitherto  had  not  very  good  luck  upon  my  homeward 
bound  voyage.  Dined  at  Kibby's,  and  then  rode  over  the  moun- 
tain to  Stafford  ;  went  to  the  Spring  and  drank  of  the  waters 
with  a  gentleman  from  New  Jersey,  who  was  there  with  a  ser- 
vant. Dr.  McKinstry  was  gone  to  Brookfield  to  accompany  Mr. 
Barrell  so  far  in  his  way  home. 

12.  Wednesday.  Set  out  upon  my  return  home.  Oated  at 
Warrener's  in  Brimfield  ;  caught  in  a  cold  rain  ;  obliged  to  stop 
at  Cheney's  in  Western,  in  order  to  dine  ;  landlord  very  sick  of 
a  pleurisy.  While  I  was  at  Cheney's  five  chaises  went  by : 
Jonathan  Amory  and  wife,  Deacon  Newhall  and  wife,  Ned  Paine 
and  wife,  and  sister,  and  servants,  &c.  Oated  at  Spencer ;  drank 
tea  and  put  up  at  Serjeant's  in  Leicester ;  a  very  good  house, 
neat,  and  clean,  and  convenient,  &c. 

I  have  had  a  naked,  barren  journey ;  my  brains  have  been  as 
barren  the  whole  time  as  a  sandy  plain  or  a  gravelly  knoll ;  my 
soul  has  been  starved.  Came  off  just  whfefl  company  began  to 
collect.  This  week  and  the  next  would  have  brought  together 
a  curious  collection  of  characters  from  all  parts  of  New  England, 
and  some,  perhaps,  from  the  southern  Provinces,  and  some  from 
the  West  Indies. 

13.  Thursday.  Remarkable!  the  change  of  thoughts,  and 
feelings,  and  reasonings,  which  are  occasioned  by  a  change  of 
objects;  a  man  is  known  by  his  company,  and  evil  communica- 
tions corrupt  good  maimers.  "  Man  is  a  social  creature,  and  his 
passions,  his  feelings,  his  imaginations  are  contagious."  We 
receive  a  tincture  of  the  character  of  those  we  converse  with. 

Stopped  at  Mr.  Putnam's,  and  at  the  court-house.  Went 
in  and  bowed  to  the  court  and  shook  hands  with  the  bar; 
said  how  d'ye,  and  came  off.  Dined  at  Colonel  Williams's ; 
drank  tea  at  Munn's  with  Dr.  Cooper  and  his  lady,  Captain 
Jonathan  Freeman  and  his  lady,  and  Mr.  Nat.  Barrett  and  his 
lady,  who  were  upon  their  return  from  a  tour  to  Lancaster. 
Rode  this  day  from  Worcester  to  Munn's,  in  company  with  one 

VOL.   II.  24 


278  DIARY.  [1771. 

Green,  of  Leicester,  who  was  very  social  and  good  company,  — 
an  honest,  clever  man.  By  him  I  learn  that  Thomas  Faxon,  of 
Braintree,  has  removed  with  his  family  to  Leicester,  and  hired 
a  house  near  the  meeting-house.  And  I  met  Joseph  Crane, 
to-day,  in  Marlborough,  going  to  Rutland.  He  is  about  remov- 
ing his  family  there.  But  I  find  that  people  in  Rutland  and 
Leicester  and  Worcester,  &c.  are  more  disposed  to  emigrate 
still  further  into  the  wilderness,  than  the  inhabitants  of  the  old 
towns. 

I  hear  much,  to-day  and  yesterday,  of  the  harmony  prevailing 


between  the  Governor  and  the  House.  Cushing  is  unanimously 
Commissary,  not  negatived,  and  Goldthwaite  is  Truckmaster. 
"  Behold  how  good  and  pleasant  it  is  for  brethren  to  dwell 
together  in  unity."  It  seems  to  be  forgotten  entirely  by  what 
means  Hutchinson  procured  the  government;  by  his  friendship 
for  Bernard,  and  by  supporting  and  countenancing  all  Bernard's 
measures,  and  the  commissioners,  and  army,  and  navy,  and  rev- 
enue, and  every  other  thing  we  complain  of. 

I  read  to-day  an  address  from  the  convention  of  ministers,  and 
from  the  clergy  in  the  northern  part  of  the  county  of  Hampshire, 
and  from  the  town  of  Almsbury,  all  conceived  in  very  high 
terms  of  respect  and  confidence  and  affection.  Posterity  will 
scarcely  find  it  possible  to  form  a  just  idea  of  this  gentleman's 
character;  but  if  this  wretched  journal  should  ever  be  read  by 
my  own  family,  let  them  know  that  there  was  upon  the  scene 
of  action,  with  Mr.  Hutchinson,  one  determined  enemy  to  those 
principles  and  that  political  system  to  which  alone  he  owes  his 
own  and  his  family's  late  advancement ;  one  who  thinks  that  his 
character  and  conduct  have  been  the  cause  of  laying  a  founda- 
tion for  perpetual  discontent  and  uneasiness  between  Britain 
and  the  colonies ;  of  perpetual  struggles  of  one  party  for  wealth 
and  power  at  the  expense  of  the  liberties  of  this  country,  and  of 
perpetual  contention  and  opposition  in  the  other  party  to  preserve 
them,  and  that  this  contention  will  never  be  fully  terminated,  but 
by  wars  and  confusions  and  carnage.  Caesar,  by  destroying  the 
Roman  republic,  made  himself  perpetual  dictator.  Hutchinson, 
by  countenancing  and  supporting  a  system  of  corruption  and  all 
tyranny,  has  made  himself  Governor,  and  by  the  mad  idolatry  of 
the  people,  always  the  surest  instruments  of  their  own  servitude, 
laid  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  both.      With  great  anxiety  and 


.Ex.  3a.]  DIARY.  279 

hazard,  with  continual  application  to  business,  with  loss  of 
health,  reputation,  profit,  and  as  fair  prospects  and  opportunities 
of  advancement  as  others  who  have  greedily  embraced  them,  I 
have^for  ten  years  together,  invariably  opposed  this  system  and 
its  fautors.  It  has  prevailed,  in  some  measure,  and  the  people 
are  now  worshipping  the  authors  and  abettors  of  it,  and  despis- 
ing, insulting,  and  abusing  the  opposers  of  it.  Edward  and 
Alfred  — 

"  Closed  their  long  glories  with  a  sigh,  to  find 
Th'  unwilling  gratitude  of  base  mankind." 

As  I  came  over  Sudbury  causey,  I  saw  a  chaplain  of  one  oi 
the  King's  ships  fishing  in  the  river;  —  a  thick,  fat  man,  with 
rosy  cheeks  and  black  eyes.  At  night  he  came  in  with  his  fish. 
I  was  in  the  yard,  and  he  spoke  to  me  and  told  me  the  news. 
"  The  Governor  gave  a  very  elegant  entertainment  to  the  gentle- 
men of  the  army  and  navy  and  revenue,  and  Mrs.  Gambier,  in 
the  evening,  a  very  elegant  ball ;  as  elegant  a  cold  collation  as, 
perhaps,  you  ever  see ;  all  in  figures,  &c.  &c.  &c." 

Read  this  day's  paper.     The  melodious  harmony,  the  perfect  1 
concords,  the  entire  confidence  and   affection  that  seem  to  be 
restored,  greatly  surprise  me.     Will  it  be  lasting?1     I  believe 
there  is  no  man  in  so  curious  a  situation  as  I  am ;  —  I  am,  for 
what  I  can  sec,  quite  Left  alone  in  the  world. 

17.  Monday.  Set  out  upon  the  eastern  circuit.  Stopped  at 
Boston,  at  my  office,  and  nowhere  else.  Came  over  Charlestown 
ferry  and  Penny  ferry,  and  dined  at  Kettel's,  in  Maiden,  by  the 
meeting-house.  Kettel  is  a  deputy  sheriff;  the  meeting-house 
is  Mr.  J.  Thacher's. 

I  mounted  my  horse  and  rode  to  Boston,  in  a  cloth  coat  and 
waistcoat,  but  was  much  pinched  with  a  cold,  raw,  harsh,  north- 
east wind.  At  Boston,  I  put  on  a  thick  flannel  shirt,  and  that 
made  me  comfortable,  and  no  more ;  so  cold  am  I,  or  so  cold  is 
the  weather,  —  17th  June. 

Overtook  Judge  Cushing  in  his  old  curricle  and  two  lean 
horses,  and  Dick,  his  negro,  at  his  right  hand,  driving  the  curricle. 

1  It  was  not  lasting.  The  difference  which  took  place  at  this  time,  between 
John  Hancock  and  Samuel  Adams,  inspired  Governor  Hutchinson  with  the  hope 
that  the  former  could  be  gained  over.  But  it  proved  delusive.  See  Hutchin- 
son's History,  iii.  346. 


280  DIARY.  [1771. 

This  is  the  way  of  travelling  in  1771 ;  —  a  judge  of  the  circuits, 
a  judge  of  the  superior  court,  a  judge  of  the  King's  bench,  com- 
mon pleas,  and  exchequer  for  the  Province,  travels  with  a  pair 
of  wretched  old  jades  of  horses  in  a  wretched  old  dung-cart  of  a 
curricle,  and  a  negro  on  the  same  seat  with  him  driving.  But 
we  shall  have  more  glorious  times  anon,  when  the  sterling  sala- 
ries are  ordered  out  of  the  revenue,  to  the  judges,  &c.  as  many 
most  ardently  wish,  and  the  judges  themselves,  among  the  rest, 
I  suppose.  Stopped  at  Martin's,  in  Lynn,  with  Judge  Cushing ; 
oated  and  drank  a  glass  of  wine,  and  heard  him  sigh  and  groan 
the  sighs  and  groans  of  seventy-seven,  though  he  kept  active. 
He  conversed  in  his  usual,  hinting,  insinuating,  doubting,  scru- 
pling strain. 

Rode  with  King,  a  deputy  sheriff,  who  came  out  to  meet  the 
judges,  into  Salem ;  put  up  at  Goodhue's.  The  negro  that  took 
my  horse  soon  began  to  open  his  heart ;  —  he  did  not  like  the 
people  of  Salem ;  wanted  to  be  sold  to  Captain  John  Dean,  of 
Boston;  he  earned  two  dollars  in  a  forenoon,  and  did  all  he 
could  to  give  satisfaction,  but  his  mistress  was  cross,  and  said 
he  did  not  earn  salt  to  his  porridge,  &c.  and  would  not  find  him 
clothes,  &c.  Thus  I  find  discontents  in  all  men ;  —  the  black 
thinks  his  merit  rewarded  with  ingratitude,  and  so  does  the 
white ;  the  black  estimates  his  own  worth  and  the  merit  of  his 
services  higher  than  anybody  else,  so  does  the  white.  This  flat- 
tering, fond  opinion  of  himself,  is  found  in  every  man. 

I  have  hurt  myself  to-day,  by  taking  cold  in  the  forenoon,  and 
by  drinking  too  much  wine  at  Kettel's,  and  at  Martin's.  I  drank 
half  a  pint  at  Kettel's,  and  two  glasses  at  Martin's. 

Just  after  I  had  drank  tea  and  got  my  fire  made  in  my  cham- 
ber, my  old  neighbor,  Jo.  Barrell,  came  and  lodged  at  Goodhue's 
in  the  same  chamber  with  me.  His  grief  is  intense  indeed.  He 
spent  the  whole  evening  and  a  long  time  after  we  got  to  bed,  in 
lamenting  the  loss  of  his  wife,1  in  enumerating  her  excellencies, 
&c. ;  heartily  wishes  himself  with  her ;  would  have  been  very 
glad  to  have  gone  with  her.  He  married  from  pure  regard, 
utterly  against  the  will  of  his  mother  and  all  his  friends,  because 

1  From  the  Gazette,  22  April,  1771 :  —  "Last  Wednesday,  died  here,  greatly 
lamented,  Mrs.  Anna  Barrell,  aged  twenty-seven,  the  virtuous  and  amiable  con- 
sort of  Mr.  Joseph  Barrell,  merchant,  and  daughter  of  the  late  Hon.  Joseph 
Pierce,  Esq.  of  Portsmouth,  in  New  Hampshire." 


JEj.  35.]  DIARY.  281 

she  was  poor;  but  she  made  him  happy.  She  was  the  best  of 
women  ;  the  world  has  lost  all  its  charms  to  him.  She  beckoned 
to  me  but  a  few  minutes  before  she  died,  when  her  hands  were 
as  cold  as  clods.  She  whispered  to  me,  "  I  love  you  now ;  if  I 
could  but  carry  you  and  the  children  with  me,  I  should  go 
rejoicing." 

In  this  eloquent  strain  of  grief  did  he  run  on.  Millions  of 
thoughts  did  this  conversation  occasion  me.  I  thought  I  should 
have  had  no  sleep  all  night ;  however,  I  got  to  sleep  and  slept  well. 

18.  Tuesday.  Rode  with  Mr.  Barrell  to  Ipswich,  and  put  up 
at  Treadwell's.  Every  object  recalls  the  subject  of  grief.  Bar- 
rell, all  the  way  to  Ipswich,  was  like  the  turtle  bemoaning  the 
loss  of  his  mate.  "  Fine  season  and  beautiful  scenes,  but  they 
did  not  charm  him  as  they  used  to.  He  had  often  rode  this  way 
a  courting  with  infinite  pleasure,"  &c.  "  I  can't  realize  that  she 
has  left  me  forever.  When  she  was  well,  I  often  thought  I  could 
realize  the  loss  of  her,  but  I  was  mistaken  ;  I  had  no  idea  of  it." 
In  short,  this  man's  mournings  have  melted  and  softened  me 
beyond  measure. 

22.  Saturday.  Spent  this  week  at  Ipswich,  in  the  usual  labors 
and  drudgery  of  attendance  upon  court.  Boarded  at  Treadwell's ; 
have  had  no  time  to  write.  Landlord  and  landlady  are  some  of 
the  grandest  people  alive ;  landlady  is  the  great  granddaughter 
of  Governor  Endicott,  and  has  all  the  great  notions  of  high 
family  that  you  find  in  Winslows,  Hutchinsons,  Quincys,  Salt- 
tonstalls,  Chandlers,  Leonards,  Otises,  and  as  you  might  find 
with  more  propriety  in  the  Winthrops.  Yet  she  is  cautious 
and  modest  about  discovering  it.  She  is  a  new  light ;  continu- 
ally canting  and  whining  in  a  religious  strain.  The  Governor 
was  uncommonly  strict  and  devout,  eminently  so  in  his  day ; 
and  his  great,  great  granddaughter  hopes  to  keep  up  the  honor 
of  the  family  in  hers,  and  distinguish  herself  among  her  con- 
temporaries as  much.  "  Terrible  things  sin  causes,"  sighs  and 
groans,  "the  pangs  of  the  new  birth.  The  death  of  Christ  shows 
above  all  things  the  heinous  nature  of  sin !  How  awfully  Mr. 
Kent  talks  about  death !  how  lightly  and  carelessly !  I  am 
sure  a  man  of  his  years,  who  can  talk  so  about  death,  must  be 
brought  to  feel  the  pangs  of  the  new  birth  here,  or  made  to 
repent  of  it  forever.  How  dreadful  it  seems  to  me  to  hear  him,  I 
that  am  so  afraid  of  death,  and  so  concerned  lest  I  an't  fit  and 


•24* 


282  DIARY.  [17  71 

prepared  for  it!  What  a  dreadful  thing  it  was  that  Mr.  Gridley 
died  so  !  —  too  great,  too  big,  too  proud  to  learn  any  thing ;  would 
not  let  any  minister  pray  with  him  ;  said  he  knew  more  than  they 
could  tell  him ;  asked  the  news,  and  said  he  was  going  where  he 
should  hear  no  news,"  &c. 

Thus  far  landlady.  As  to  landlord,  he  is  as  happy,  and  as  big, 
as  proud,  as  conceited  as  any  nobleman  in  England;  always 
calm  and  good-natured  and  lazy ;  but  the  contemplation  of  his 
farm  and  his  sons  and  his  house  and  pasture  and  cows,  his  sound 
judgment,  as  he  thinks,  and  his  great  holiness,  as  well  as  that 
of  his  wife,  keep  him  as  erect  in  his  thoughts  as  a  noble  or  a 
prince.  Indeed,  the  more  I  consider  of  mankind,  the  more  I  see 
that  every  man  seriously  and  in  his  conscience  believes  himself 
the  wisest,  brightest,  best,  happiest,  &c.  of  all  mankind. 

I  went  this  evening,  spent  an  hour  and  took  a  pipe  with  Judge 
Trowbridge,  at  his  lodgings.  He  says,  "  you  will  never  get 
your  health,  till  your  mind  is  at  ease.  If  you  tire  yourself  with 
business,  but  especially  with  politics,  you  won't  get  well."  I 
said,  "  I  don't  meddle  with  politics  nor  think  about  them "  — 
"  except,"  says  he,  "  by  writing  in  the  papers."  "  I'll  be  sworn," 
says  I,  "  I  have  not  wrote  one  line  in  a  newspaper  these  two 
years,"  &c.  The  Judge  says  he  had  a  hint  that  Foster  Hutch- 
inson was  appointed  Judge,  because  of  the  judgment  of  the 
Court  in  the  case  of  Spear  vs.  Keen.  The  merchants  took  the 
alarm,  and  said,  that,  instead  of  lawyers,  they  ought  to  have 
merchants,  upon  the  bench ;  and  Mr.  Hutchinson  being  both  a 
lawyer  and  a  merchant,  he  was  the  man,  against  the  Governor's 
determination  a  little  time  before.  But  this  is  one  instance 
among  a  thousand  of  the  Governor's  disguise  before  those  that 
he  induces  to  believe  have  his  entire  familiarity  and  confidence. 
He  made  Mr.  Goffe  understand  he  intended  to  make  Worthing- 
ton  or  some  other  lawyer  a  judge,  when  he  fully  designed  to 
make  his  brother ;  not  indeed  to  please  the  merchants,  or  because 
Foster  was  a  merchant,  but  because  he  was  his  brother,  and  that 
the  family  might  have  a  majority  in  that  court.  He  is  impene- 
trable to  those  who  don't  desire  to  reach  any  imperfection  in 
him,  and  who  are  determined  not  to  fathom  him  where  they 
may.  The  bigoted,  the  superstitious,  the  enthusiastical,  the 
tools,  the  interested,  the  timid,  are  all  dazzled  with  his  glare, 
and  can't  see  clearly  when  he  is  in  the  horizon. 


Mt.  35]  DIARY.  283 

23.  Sunday.  In  the  morning  my  horse  was  gone.  Went  to 
meeting  all  day,  and  heard  old  Mr.  Rogers,  a  good,  well-mean- 
ing man,  I  believe.  After  meeting  rode  to  Newbury  and  visited 
Brother  Lowell,  Brother  Farnham,  and  then  went  and  supped 
with  Mr.  Jonathan  Jackson  in  company  with  Captain  Tracy, 
Mr.  Hooper,  Mr.  Williams,  Mr.  Frazier,  and  Brother  Lowell; 
then  went  and  lodged  with  Lowell. 

24.  Monday.  Reached  Portsmouth  with  Lowell  and  walked 
half  an  hour  with  him  on  the  town-house  floor  with  Mr.  Livius 
and  Mr.  Jonathan  Warner,  &c.  Put  up  at  Tilton's,  and  intend 
to  visit  the  Governor  this  afternoon. 

Had  a  good  deal  of  chat  with  Lowell  on  the  road.  He  prac- 
tises much  in  New  Hampshire,  and  gave  me  an  account  of 
many  strange  judgments  of  the  superior  court  at  Portsmouth ; 
that  an  infant,  if  allowed  to  trade  by  his  parents,  is  bound  by 
his  contract,  &c. ;  and  he  gave  me  an  account,  also,  of  the  poli- 
tics of  the  Province.  A  controversy  is  arising  or  has  arisen  in 
the  Wentworth  family.  The  old  Governor,  by  his  will,  gave  all 
his  estate  to  his  wife,  and  she  is  since  married  to  one  Michael 
Wentworth,  which  has  a  little  disappointed  the  Governor,  and 
he  not  long  since  asked  the  advice  of  his  Council,  whether  he 
might  not  reassume  the  lands  which  were  formerly  granted  by 
the  late  Governor  to  himself,  or  at  least  reserved  to  himself  in 
each  grant  of  a  township,  and  grant  them  over  again  to  a  third 
person,  from  whom  he  might  take  a  conveyance  of  them  to  him- 
self. All  the  council,  except  Livius,  advised  him  to  the  reas- 
sumption,  he  having  laid  before  them  the  opinion  of  S.  Fitch 
of  Boston,  that  the  Governor  could  not  grant  land  to  himself. 
Livius  dissented  and  entered  his  protest,  and  gave  his  reasons, 
for  which  the  Governor  has  displaced  him  as  a  judge  of  one  of 
their  courts. 

At  Tilton's,  in  Portsmouth,  I  met  with  my  cousin,  Joseph 
Adams,  whose  face  I  was  once  as  glad  to  see  as  I  should  have 
been  to  see  an  angel.  The  sight  of  him  gave  me  a  new  feeling. 
When  he  was  at  college,  and  used  to  come  to  Braintree  with 
his  brother  Ebenezer,  how  I  used  to  love  him !  He  is  broken  to 
pieces  with  rheumatism  and  gout  now.  To  what  cause  is  his 
ruin  to  be  ascribed  ?  After  dinner  a  gentleman  came  to  Tilton's 
to  inquire  me  out,  and  it  proved  to  be  Mr.  Pickering,  a  lawyer. 
He  treated  me  with  great  politeness,  and  seems  a  very  sensible 


284  DIAliY.  [1771. 

and  well  accomplished  lawyer.     After  dinner  rode  to  York,  and 
put  up  at  Ritchie's  with  Lowell  and  Bradbury. 

25.  Tuesday.  At  York  court.  Dined  with  the  judges,  and 
spent  the  evening  at  Ritchie's  with  Bradbury,  and  Hale  of  Ports- 
mouth —  a  sensible  young  lawyer. 

26.  Wednesday.  Yesterday  I  had  a  good  deal  of  conversa- 
tion with  Judge  Trowbridge.  He  seems  alarmed  about  the 
powers  of  the  court  of  probate.  He  says  if  Judge  Danforth 
was  to  die  to-morrow,  and  the  Governor  was  to  offer  that  place 
to  him,  he  would  not  take  it,  because  he  thinks  it  ought  always 
to  be  given  to  some  judge  of  the  inferior  court,  and  then  some 
one  lawyer  might  be  found  in  each  county  who  would  take  a 
seat  upon  the  inferior  bench  if  he  could  be  made  a  judge  of  pro- 
bate at  the  same  time.  He  says  he  is  utterly  against  Foster 
Hutchinson's  holding  the  probate  office  in  Boston,  if  he  takes 
his  place  upon  the  superior  bench ;  and  if  the  Governor  is  an 
integral  part  of  the  court  of  probate,  the  supreme  ordinary,  that 
is,  if  he  is  not,  with  the  members  of  the  council,  only  primus  inter 
pares,  but  has  a  negative  upon  all  their  decrees,  as  Governor 
Shirley,  Governor  Bernard,  and  the  late  Secretary  were  of  opin- 
ion, he  thinks  we  may  be  in  great  danger  from  the  court  of 
probate ;  and  Judge  Russell  always  opposed  every  attempt  to 
extend  the  power  of  the  court  of  probate.  He  used  to  say  we 
might  have  bishops  here,  and  the  court  of  probate  might  get 
into  their  hands,  and  therefore  we  ought  to  be  upon  our  guard. 

28.  Friday.  At  York.  Yesterday  I  spent  in  walking  one 
way  and  another  to  view  the  town.  I  find  that  walking  serves 
me  much ;  it  sets  my  blood  in  motion  much  more  than  riding. 

Had  some  conversation  this  week  with  Chadburn  of  Berwick. 
He  says  that  Jo.  Lee  came  to  him  on  the  election-day  morning, 
and  said,  "  I  know  you  are  a  peaceable  man.  Why  can't  you 
vote  for  a  few  gentlemen  who  would  be  agreeable  to  the  Gov- 
ernor, and  then  perhaps  some  gentleman  may  not  be  negatived 
who  would  be  agreeable  to  you.  Why  can't  you  promote  a 
coalition  ?  "  Chadburn  answered,  "  I  don't  know  who  would  be 
agreeable  to  the  Governor ;  I  have  not  had  a  list."  Lee  then 
mentioned  Mr.  Ropes,  Lieutenant  Governor  Oliver,  and  some 
of  the  judges.  "  Why  can't  you  choose  some  of  those  old 
statesmen  who  have  been  long  and  intimately  acquainted  with 
the  policy  of  the  Province  ?  &c."     Thus  the  Governor's  emis- 


Jvr.  35.]  DIARY.  285 

saries  are  busy,  instilling,  insinuating  their  notions  and  prin- 
ciples, &c. 

Had  a  little  chat  this  week  with  Colonel  Sparhawk  of  Kittery.1 
He  says,  "  Now  you  are  come  away  they  are  become  peaceable. 
You  kept  up  a  shocking  clamor  while  you  was  there."  This  he 
said  laughing,  but  there  was  rather  too  much  truth  in  it  to  be 
made  a  jest.  "  They  do  you  the  justice  to  say  that  no  man  ever 
spoke  more  freely  than  you  did,  and  in  opposition  to  the  rising 
sun.  But  in  order  to  take  oft"  from  your  virtue,  they  say  there 
is  some  private  pique  between  the  Governor  and  you."  I  told 
him  there  was  none  ;  he  had  always  treated  me  well,  personally ; 
if  I  had  been  actuated  by  private  pique,  I  would  not  have  left 
the  General  Court,  but  I  would  have  remained  there  on  purpose 
to  plague  him.  I  could  at  least  have  been  a  thorn  in  his  side, 
&c.  But  that  I  had  been  fully  convinced  in  my  own  mind  these 
ten  years  that  he  was  determined  to  raise  himself  and  family  at 
all  hazards,  and  even  on  the  ruins  of  the  Province,  and  that  I 
had  uniformly  expressed  that  opinion  these  ten  years. 

Sparhawk  mentioned  the  intrepidity  of  Samuel  Adams,  a 
man,  he  says,  of  great  sensibility,  of  tender  nerves,  and  harassed, 
dependent,  in  their  power.  Yet  he  had  borne  up  against  all ;  it 
must  have  penetrated  him  very  deeply,  &c. 

July  2.  Tuesday.  At  Falmouth,  at  Mr.  Jonathan  Webb's, 
who  has  removed  to  a  house  very  near  the  court  house.  Last 
Friday  morning  I  mounted  with  Brother  Bradbury  and  his 
Brother  Bradbury,  at  York  for  Falmouth  ;  went  over  the  sands, 
but  could  not  ford  Cape  Neddick,  and  so  was  obliged  to  go  round 
over  the  bridge  by  the  mill.  Dined  at  Littlefield's,  in  Wells; 
drank  tea  and  lodged  at  Allen's,  in  Biddeford.  Colonel  Tyng 
and  his  son  in  law  Jo.  Tyler,  came  along  and  lodged  there  ;  Tyng 
being  the  owner  of  the  house  and  farm  there,  forty-seven  rods 
wide  upon  the  river  and  four  miles  and  a  half  long.  Next  day, 
Saturday,  it  rained,  and  Jonathan  Sewall,  Mr.  Lowell,  and  Mr. 
Leonard  Jarvis  came  in  ;  and  after  noon,  Judges  Lynch  and 
Cushing,  with  their  servants  ;  but  the  house  had  not  lodgings 
for  them.  The  Judges  went  back  to  Ladd's,  Sewall  and  Lowell 
went  to  James  Sullivan's.     Sunday  morning  the  weather  was 


i 


The  grandson  of  Sir  William  Pepperell.     He  signed  the  addresses  to  Hutch- 


inson and  Gage.     Sabine. 


286  DIARY.  [17  71. 

fair,  and  we  set  off  for  Scarborough,  put  up  at  Millikin's,  went 
to  meeting  forenoon  and  afternoon ;  heard  Mr.  Briggs,  a  young 
gentleman,  and  after  meeting  rode  to  Falmouth,  and  I  put  up  at 
Webb's,  where  I  have  been  ever  since,  reading  the  achievements 
of  Don  Quixote. 

This  has  been  the  most  flat,  insipid,  spiritless,  tasteless  journey 
that  ever  I  took,  especially  from  Ipswich.  I  have  neither  had 
business,  nor  amusement,  nor  conversation ;  it  has  been  a  mop- 
ing, melancholy  journey  upon  the  whole.  I  slumber  and  mope 
away  the  day.  Tyng,  Tyler,  Sewall,  Lowell,  Jarvis,  were  all 
characters  which  might  have  afforded  me  entertainment,  perhaps 
instruction,  if  I  had  been  possessed  of  spirits  to  enjoy  it. 

Saturday  afternoon.  I  projected  making  a  backgammon  table, 
and  about  it  Sewall,  Lowell,  and  Jarvis  and  Jo.  Tyler  went, 
got  pieces  of  cedar,  &c,  and  while  they  were  playing,  I  went  to 
sleep. 

Sunday.  Jarvis  was  telling  of  an  instance  of  cruelty  and 
inhumanity  in  Hall,  the  wharfinger,  in  Boston,  in  ordering  a 
poor  widow  to  be  taken  with  a  single  writ  when  her  daughter 
was  dying,  and  of  his  being  bail  for  her.  Sewall  said,  "  Hall 
would  certainly  be  damned,  and  you  will  certainly  go  to  Heaven, 
let  you  do  what  you  will." 

I  feel  myself  weary  of  this  wandering  life  ;  my  heart  is  at 
home.  It  would  be  more  for  my  health  to  ride  to  Boston  every 
fair  morning,  and  to  Braintree  every  fair  afternoon.  This  would 
be  riding  enough,  and  I  could  then  have  one  eye  to  my  office, 
and  another  to  my  farm.  After  my  return  I  shall  try  the  experi- 
ment. 

In  the  evening  went  to  the  Club  or  Friendly  Society,  as  they 
call  themselves,  where  I  found  William  Cushing,  Wyer,  with 
whom  I  went,  that  is,  at  his  invitation,  Mr.  Lyde,  Child,  Sim- 
mons, Jarvis,  Dr.  Coffin,  Captain  Wait,  and  Don  Webb.  Con- 
versation decent,  but  upon  trifles  and  common  matters. 

Saw  Mr.  Simmons  at  court,  a  gentleman  from  England  who 
has  been  at  Falmouth  a  number  of  years  as  a  factor  for  several 
merchants  in  England,  purchasing  deals. 

4.  Thursday.  Dined  with  D.  Wyer  in  company  with  his 
father,  Farnham,  Sewall,  Cushing,  Lowell,  &c.  Conversation 
turns  upon  revelations,  prophecies,  Jews,  &c.  Spent  the  even- 
ing  with   the   bar    at    Shattuck's,   the  tavern,  in   high   spirits. 


.Et.  35.]  DIARY.  287 

Agreed  unanimously  to  recommend  Tim.  Langdon  to  be  sworn. 
All  in  good  spirits,  very  cheerful  and  chatty,  many  good  stories, 
&c.  This  day  argued  the  cause  of  Freeman  and  Child,  a  suit 
for  ten  pounds  penalty  for  taking  greater  fees  in  the  custom- 
house than  those  allowed  by  the  Province  law. 

5.  Friday.  Cadwallader  Ford  came  to  me  this  morning,  and 
congratulated  me  on  the  verdict  for  Freeman.  "  Sir,"  says  he, 
"  I  shall  think  myself  forever  obliged  to  you  for  the  patriotic 
manner  in  which  you  conducted  that  cause.  You  have  obtained 
great  honor  in  this  county  by  that  speech.  I  never  heard  a  bet- 
ter, &c."  All  this  is  from  old  Cadwallader.  Langdon  told  me 
that  a  man  came  running  down,  when  I  had  done  speaking,  and 
said,  "  That  Mr.  Adams  has  been  making  the  finest  speech  I 
ever  heard  in  my  life.  He 's  equal  to  the  greatest  orator  that 
ever  spoke  in  Greece  or  Rome."  What  an  advantage  it  is  to 
have  the  passions,  prejudices,  and  interests  of  the  whole  audience 
in  a  man's  favor !  These  will  convert  plain  common  sense  into 
profound  wisdom,  nay,  wretched  doggerel  into  sublime  heroics. 
This  cause  was  really,  and  in  truth,  and  without  partiality  or 
affectation  of  modesty,  very  indifferently  argued  by  me.  But  I 
have  often  been  surprised  with  claps  and  plaudits  and  hosannas, 
when  I  have  spoken  but  indifferently,  and  as  often  met  with  inat- 
tention and  neglect  when  I  have  thought  I  spoke  very  well;  — 
how  vain  and  empty  is  breath  ! 

Tuesday  went  to  Boston  with  my  wife,  and  the  next  day  to 
Commencement  at  Cambridge  ;  was  only  at  three  chambers,  — 
Palmer's,  French's,  and  Rogers's. 

22.  Monday.  After  rambling  about  my  farm  and  giving  some 
directions  to  my  workmen,  I  went  to  Boston.  There  soon  came 
into  my  office  Ruddock 1  and  Story.  It  seems  that  Andrew 
Belcher's  widow  has  sued  Story  as  deputy  register  of  the  admi- 
ralty under  her  husband  in  his  lifetime,  and  Ruddock  as  his 
bondsman,  upon  the  bond  given  for  the  faithful  discharge  of  his 
office.  Three  or  four  hundred  pounds  sterling  of  the  King's 
third,  of  a  seizure  is  not  accounted  for,  and  Ruddock  is  in  trouble. 
This  Ruddock  is  as  curious  a  character  as  any  of  his  age,  a  fin- 

1  John  Ruddock,  already  spoken  of,  page  232.  He  was  active  as  a  justice  of 
the  peace  and  of  the  quorum  at  this  period  when  much  business  was  transacted 
before  those  magistrates.  He  had  been  a  selectman  of  the  town,  and  captain  of 
the  North  Battery.     He  died  on  the  second  of  September  of  the  next  year. 


288  1)1  AKY.  [1771. 

ished  example  of  self-conceit  and  vanity.  "  I  am  plunged !  I 
never  was  concerned  in  any  affair  before  that  I  could  not  have 
any  thoughts  of  my  own  upon  it.  I  know  there  are  several 
laws ;  by  one  law,  the  sheriff's  bonds  are  not  to  be  put  in  suit 
after  two  years,  and  the  treasurer's  are  limited  to  three  years ; 
but  whether  these  precedents  will  govern  this  case  I  cannot  tell. 
I  consulted  Mr.  Pratt  once  about  an  affair,  and  he  advised  me 
to  do  something.  I  told  him  I  was  of  a  different  opinion ;  every 
line  in  his  face  altered  when  I  said  this.  '  You  are  certainly 
wrong,'  said  he.  '  Well,'  says  I, '  you  will  be  my  lawyer  when  we 
come  to  court  ? '  '  Yes,'  said  he.  But  next  morning  he  told  me, 
'  Brother  Ruddock,  I  have  been  ruminating  your  affair  on  my 
pillow,  and  I  find  you  was  right  and  I  was  wrong.' "  Thus  Mr. 
Justice  Ruddock  is  mighty  in  counsel. 

"  I  told  Andrew  Belcher,  if  he  would  not  do  so  and  so,  he 
should  never  be  chosen  counsellor  again  ;  he  would  not  do  it, 
and  the  next  year  he  was  left  out.  I  told  him  further  that  I 
would  not  accept  of  any  post  in  the  world  to  stop  my  mouth 
about  liberty,  but  I  would  write  home  and  get  away  his  post  of 
register  of  the  admiralty."  Thus  Squire  Ruddock  thinks  him- 
self powerful  at  court.  The  instances  of  this  man's  vanity  are 
innumerable ;  his  soul  is  as  much  swollen  as  his  carcass. 

I  dined  at  my  lodgings,  came  early  to  my  office,  went  home 
and  drank  tea  at  six  o'clock,  and  returned  to  my  office,  and  here 
I  am.  What  a  multitude  passes  my  window  every  day !  Mr. 
Otis's  servant  brought  his  horse  to  the  door  at  seven,  and  he 
took  a  ride.  Treasurer  Gray  stalked  along  from  New  Boston, 
where  his  daughter  Otis l  lives,  down  to  the  British  Coffee  House, 
where  the   club  meets,   as   I  suppose,   about  half  after  seven. 

Spent  an  hour  or  two  in  the  evening  at  Mr.  Cranch's.  Mr.  Jo. 

Greenleaf  came  in,  and  Parson  Hilliard  2  of  Barnstable  ;  and  we 
were  very  chatty.  Sister  Cranch  says,  she  has  had  an  opportu- 
nity of  making  many  observations  this  year  at  Commencement ; 
and  she  has  quite  altered  her  mind  about  dancing  and  dancing- 
schools  ;  and  Mr.  Cranch  seems  convinced,  too,  and  says,  it 
seems  that  all  such  as  learn  to  dance  are  so  taken  up  with  it, 

1  The  wife  of  Samuel  Allyne  Otis,  afterwards  the  first  clerk  of  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States. 

2  Rev.  Timothy  Hilliard,  afterwards  settled  in  Cambridge.  An  account  of 
him  is  found  in  Mass,  Hist.  Society's  Collections,  vol.  vii.  p.  63-67. 


JEt.  35.]  DIARY.  289 

that  they  can't  be  students.  So  that  if  they  should  live  to  bring 
up  their  son  to  college,  they  would  not  send  him  to  dancing- 
school,  nor  their  daughters  neither. 

What  a  sudden  and  entire  conversion  is  this !  That  Mrs.  C. 
should  change  so  quick  is  not  so  wonderful ;  but  that  his  math- 
ematical, metaphysical,  mechanical,  systematical  head  should  be 
turned  round  so  soon  by  her  report  of  what  she  saw  at  Cam- 
bridge is  a  little  remarkable.  However,  the  exchange  is  for  the 
better ;  it  is  from  vanity  to  wisdom,  from  foppery  to  sobriety 
and  solidity.  I  never  knew  a  good  dancer  good  for  any  thing 
else.  I  have  known  several  men  of  sense  and  learning  who 
could  dance, —  Otis,  Sewall,  Paine,  —  but  none  of  them  shone 
that  way,  and  neither  of  them  had  the  more  sense,  or  learning, 
or  virtue  for  it.  I  would  not,  however,  conclude  peremptorily 
against  sending  sons  or  daughters  to  dancing,  or  fencing,  or 
music,  but  had  much  rather  they  should  be  ignorant  of  them  all 
than  fond  of  any  one  of  them. 

23.  Tuesday.  The  court  sat ;  nothing  remarkable.  It  is  a 
pity  that  a  day  should  be  spent  in  the  company  of  courts,  &c, 
and  nothing  be  heard  or  seen  worth  remembering ;  but  this  is 
the  case.  Of  all  that  I  have  heard  from  judges,  lawyers,  jurors, 
clients,  clerks,  I  cannot  recollect  a  word,  a  sentence,  worth  com- 
mitting to  writing.  Took  a  pipe  in  the  beginning  of  the  even- 
ing with  Mr.  Cranch,  and  then  supped  with  Dr.  Warren. 

The  Indian  preacher  cried,  Good  God !  that  ever  Adam  and 
Eve  should  eat  that  apple,  when  they  knew  in  their  own  souls 
it  would  make  good  cider. 

25  and  26.  Thursday  and  Friday.  Both  these  days  spent  in 
_the  trial  of  Mr.  Otis's  case,  against  Mr.  Robinson. 

27.  Saturday.  The  jury  this  morning  delivered  their  verdict  for 
two  thousand  pounds  sterling  damages,  and  costs.1  I  have  spent 
this  morning  in  reading  the  Centinels.  There  is  a  profuse  collec- 
tion of  knowledge  in  them,  in  law,  history,  government,  that  indi- 
cates to  me  the  only  author,  I  think ;  a  great  variety  of  knowledge.2 

1  This  was  an  action  instituted  by  Mr.  Otis  for  the  assault  made  upon  him  by- 
Mr.  Robinson,  5  September,  1769.  Mr.  Otis  at  this  time  appealed  from  the 
verdict ;  but  he  subsequently  released  the  damages,  and  Mr.  Robinson  confessed 
his  wrong.     He  had  no  power  to  repair  the  grievous  evil  he  had  inflicted ! 

It  is  a  little  singular  that  the  finding  of  the  jury  is  dated  August  Term,  1772. 
See  Tudor's  Life  of  James  Otis,  Appendix,  p.  503. 

2  The  publication  of  these  papers  was  commenced  in  the  Massachusetts  Spy 
VOL.  II.  25  s 


290  DIARY.  [1771. 

The  subject  of  the  Governors  independency  is  a  serious,  a  dan- 
gerous, and  momentous  thing.     It  deserves  the  utmost  attention. 

J.  Q.  says  Mr.  O.  was  quite  wild  at  the  bar  meeting ;  cursed 
the  servants  for  not  putting  four  candles  on  the  table,  swore  he 
could  yet  afford  to  have  four  upon  his  own,  &c.  &c. 

August  13  or  14.  Spent  the  evening  at  Cordis's,  the  British 
Coffee  House,  in  the  front  room  towards  the  Long  Wharf  where 
the  Merchants'  Club  has  met  this  twenty  years.  It  seems  there 
is  a  schism  in  that  church,  a  rent  in  that  garment,  a  mutiny  in 
that  regiment,  and  a  large  detachment  has  decamped  and 
marched  over  the  way  to  Ingersol's.  This  evening  the  Commis- 
sary and  Speaker,  and  Speaker  and  Commissary,  Mr.  Cashing, 
was  present.  The  clerk  of  the  House  Mr.  Adams,  Mr.  Otis, 
Mr.  John  Pitts,  Dr.  Warren,  Mr.  Molineux,  Mr.  Josiah  Quincy, 
and  myself  were  present. 

22  and  23.  Thursday  and  Friday.     At  the  office. 

Mr.  Otis's  gestures  and  motions  are  very  whimsical,  his 
imagination  is  disturbed,  his  passions  all  roiled.  His  servant  he 
orders  to  bring  up  his  horse,  and  to  hold  him  by  the  head  at  the 
stone  of  his  door  an  hour  before  he  is  ready  to  mount ;  then  he 
runs  into  one  door  and  out  at  another,  and  window,  &c.  &c.  &c. 

November  5.  Tuesday.  At  Salem ;  fine  weather.  Deacon 
Thurston  of  Rowley  came  in  last  night ;  a  venerable  old  man, 
with  his  snowy,  hoary  locks.  Kent  and  the  Deacon  soon  clashed 
upon  religion.  "  Don't  you  think,  sir,"  says  the  Deacon,  "  we 
are  here  probationers  for  eternity  ?  "  "  No,  by  no  means,"  says 
Kent.  "  We  are  here  probationers  for  the  next  state,  and  in  the 
next  we  shall  be  probationers  for  the  next  that  is  to  follow,  and 
so  on  through  as  many  states  as  there  are  stars  or  sands,  to  all 
eternity.  You  have  gone  through  several  states  already  before 
this."  "  Ay,"  says  the  Deacon,  "  where  do  you  get  this ;  don't 
you  believe  the  Scriptures  ?  "  I  put  in  my  oar.  "  He  made  it, 
Deacon,  out  of  the  whole  cloth ;  it  never  existed  out  of  his  ima- 
gination." Kent.  "  I  get  it  from  analogy."  It  is  the  delight  of 
this  Kent's  heart  to  tease  a  minister  or  deacon  with  his  wild 
conceits  about  religion.1 

on  the  second  of  May,  and  was  continued  to  the  26th  of  March,  1772,  making 

in  all  forty  numbers.     They  are  written  with  much  ability  and  varied  learning. 

1  Ben  Kent  began  life  as  a  clergyman  in  Marlborough.     Doctor  Franklin  says 

of  him,  "  He  was  an  honest  man,  and  had  his  virtues.     If  he  had  any  hypocrisy 


JEt.  36.]  DIARY.  291 

9.  Saturday.  At  Salem  all  this  week,  at  court.  Dined  one 
day  at  Chief  Justice  Lynde's,  all  the  rest  of  the  week  till  this 
day  with  the  court.  Dined  this  day,  spent  the  afternoon,  and 
drank  tea,  at  Judge  Ropes's,  with  Judges  Lynde,  Oliver  and 
Hutchinson,  Sewall,  Putnam  and  Winthrop.  Mrs.  Ropes  is  a 
fine  woman,  very  pretty  and  genteel.  Our  Judge  Oliver  is  the 
best  bred  gentleman  of  all  the  judges  by  far;  there  is  something 
in  every  one  of  the  others  indecent  and  disagreeable  at  times  in 
company  —  affected  witticisms,  unpolished  fleers,  coarse  jests, 
and  sometimes,  rough,  rude  attacks ;  —  but  these  you  don't  see 
escape  Judge  Oliver.     Drank  tea  at  Judge  Ropes's,  spent  the 

it  was  of  that  inverted  kind,  with  which  a  man  is  not  so  bad  as  he  seems  to  be." 
The  following  letter  written  by  him  to  Mr.  Adams,  in  1776,  is  in  singular  con- 
trast with  the  fact  that  he  afterwards  became  a  refugee,  and  is  now  ranked 
among  the  Tories.  See  page  74,  note.  Sabine.  Curwen's  Journal,  p.  481. 
Sparks's  Franklin,  vol.  x.  p.  366. 

BEXJAMIN  KENT  TO  JOHX  ADAMS. 

Brother  Adams  :  Boston'  24  APri1'  1 776- 

When  I  had  last  the  pleasure  of  your  company  at  Watertown,  I  told  you  I 
would  write  you  when  our  attack  upon  the  King's  troops  should  afford  matter 
of  some  importance.  But  alas,  their  fears  of  their  demerits  made  them  flee 
when  no  man  pursued  them ;  and  may  they  eat  of  the  fruit  of  their  doings,  and 
be  filled  with  their  own  devices. 

But  to  the  purpose.  What  in  the  name  of  Common  Sense  are  you  gentlemen 
of  the  Continental  Congress  about  ?  A  few  words  and  spiteful  is  my  maxim, 
that  is,  what  will  be  so  called.  Saint  Paul,  though  sometimes  a  little  inclined  to 
Toryism,  was  a  very  sensible  gentleman,  and  he  expressly  damns  the  fearful  as 
well  as  the  unbelieving.  And  though  I  know  all  your  counsels  are  overruled 
by  the  wonderful  Counsellor,  and  even  our  chicane,  (I  allude  to  the  last  pityful 
address,*)  nay,  our  downright  blunders,  are  and  have  been  most  happily  over- 
ruled for  the  good  of  our  most  righteous  cause,  and  I  doubt  not  the  same  happy 
government  will  continue ;  but  that  same  overruling  Providence,  (at  the  kind 
instance  of  Brother  Joseph  Greenleaf,  Esq.)  orders  that  I  should  write  even 
this,  I  won't  say  (though  you  may)  insignificant  letter.  It  appears  to  me  from 
a  hundred  things  which  I  have  no  need  to  mention  to  you,  that  it  is  as  certain 
that  the  Colonies  will  be  wholly  divorced  from  that  accursed  kingdom  called 
Great  Britain,  as  that  there  will  be  any  eclipses  of  the  sun  or  moon  this  year. 

Pray  tell  the  fearful  of  your  members,  if  you  have  any  such,  and  prove  it  to 
them,  that  a  separation  first  or  last  must  be  the  necessary  consequence  of  a  hun- 
dred facts  that  have  turned  up  already ;  then  you  will  have  nothing  to  do  but  to 
convince  them  that  the  present  time  to  make  a  final  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence is  the  best.  But  as  I  know  you  must  come  to  it,  I  think  the  same  of  you 
as  I  should  of  a  sinner  who  I  knew  would  repent  of  his  sins  before  he  dies.  So 
that  I  am  perfectly  resigned  to  whatever  you  great  little  gods  shall  do.  "Foras- 
much as  the  Lord  reigns  I  will  rejoice."  One  thing  I  must  rely  upon,  that  is, 
thai  Congress  will  tolerate  all  religions,  both  natural  and  revealed,  and  establish 
none ;  and  I  have  infallible  proof  that  it  is  your  duty,  namely,  that  the  Lord  of 
lords  and  the  God  of  gods  doth  the  same  thing. 

Farewell  —  these  for  your  friend,  B.  K. 

*  The  second  petition  to  the  King-. 


292  DIARY.  [1772. 

evening  at  Colonel  Pickman's.  He  is  very  sprightly,  sensible, 
and  entertaining,  talks  a  great  deal,  tells  old  stories  in  abundance 
about  the  witchcraft,  paper  money,  Governor  Belcher's  adminis- 
tration, &c. 

10.  Sunday.  Heard  Mr.  Cutler  of  Ipswich  Hamlet ;  dined 
at  Dr.  Putnam's,  with  Colonel  Putnam  and  lady,  and  two  young 

gentlemen,  nephews  of  the  Doctor,  and  Colonel ,  and  a  Mrs. 

Scollay.  Colonel  Putnam  told  a  story  of  an  Indian  upon  Con- 
necticut River,  who  called  at  a  tavern,  in  the  fall  of  the  year, 
for  a  dram.  The  landlord  asked  him  two  coppers  for  it.  The 
next  spring,  happening  at  the  same  house,  he  called  for  another, 
and  had  three  coppers  to  pay  for  it.  "How  is  this,  landlord?" 
says  he;  "last  fall,  you  asked  but  two  coppers  for  a  glass  of 
rum,  now  you  ask  three."  "  Oh ! "  says  the  landlord,  "  it  costs 
me  a  good  deal  to  keep  rum  over  winter.  It  is  as  expensive  to 
keep  a  hogshead  of  rum  over  winter  as  a  horse."  "  Ay ! "  says 
the  Indian,  "  I  can't  see  through  that ;  he  wont  eat  so  much 
hay ;  —  Maybe  he  drink  as  much  water?  This  was  sheer  wit, 
pure  satire,  and  true  humor.  Humor,  wit,  and  satire,  in  one 
very  short  repartee. 

Kent  brought  with  him,  "  Utopia,  or  the  Happy  Republic ;  a 
philosophical  romance,  by  Sir  Thomas  More,  translated  by 
Bishop  Burnet."  There  is  a  sensible  preface,  by  the  translator, 
prefixed,  and  some  testimonies  concerning  More,  by  great  and 
learned  men  of  different  nations  and  religions,  —  Cardinal  Pole, 
Erasmus,  Jo.  Cochlseus,  Paulus  Jovius,  Jo.  Rivius,  Charles  V.  &c. 
The  translation,  I  think,  is  better  than  mine,  which  is  by  another 
hand.  The  romance  is  very  elegant  and  ingenious,  the  fruit 
of  a  benevolent  and  candid  heart,  a  learned  and  strong  mind. 
The  good  humor,  hospitality,  humanity,  and  wisdom  of  the 
Utopians,  is  charming;  their  elegance  and  taste  is  engaging; 
their  freedom  from  avarice  and  foppery  and  vanity  is  admirable. 

177:2.     February  2.    Sunday.     Have  omitted  now,  for  three 


months  almost,  to  keep  any  "  note  of  time  or  of  its  loss." 

Thomas  Newcomb  dined  with  me.  He  says  that  Etter,  the 
stocking-weaver,  told  him,  about  a  fortnight  ago,  that  he  saw 
the  Governor,  within  these  three  months,  and  told  him  he  hoped 
the  people  would  be  contented  and  easy,  now  they  had  a  Gov- 
ernor from  among  themselves.  The  Governor  said,  "  There 
were  some  discontents  remaining,  occasioned  by  continual  clam- 


.Ex.  36.]  DIARY.  29o 

ors  in  the  newspapers,  and  that  a  great  part  of  those  clamors 
came  from  his,  Etter's,  town,  (Braintree.)"  This  was  partly,  I 
suppose,  to  pump  Etter  and  get  something  out  of  him,  and 
partly  to  put  Etter  upon  the  right  scent ;  as  the  Governor  thought 
that  he  might  hunt  down  the  seditious  writer  at  Braintree.  This 
conversation  shows  that  the  Governor  is  puzzled,  and  wholly 
ignorant  of  the  real  writers  that  molest  him.  The  Centinel  has 
puzzled  him. 

Mr.  Thomas  Edwards,  our  school-master,  and  Mi".  Joseph 
Crosby,  a  senior  sophister  at  college,  spent  the  evening  with  me. 
Our  conversation  was  upon  Austin,  Tudor,  Bulkley,  Morton, 
Thayer,  Angier,  Colonel  Thayer,  the  settlement  of  the  militia, 
algebra,  Fenning,  Dr.  Sanderson,  &c.  &c.  Edwards  is  balancing 
in  his  mind  the  several  professions,  in  order  to  choose  one.  Is 
at  a  loss  between  divinity  and  law,  but  his  inclination  is  to  the 
latter.  Asked  me  to  take  him.  I  only  answered,  there  were 
such  swarms  of  young  ones,  that  there  was  no  encouragement. 

4.  Tuesday.  Took  a  ride  in  the  afternoon,  with  my  wife  and 
little  daughter,  to  make  a  visit  to  my  brother ;  but  finding  him 
and  sister  just  gone  to  visit  my  mother,  we  rode  down  there  and 
drank  tea  all  together.  Chatted  about  the  new  promotions  in 
the  militia,  and  speculated  about  the  future  officers  of  this  com- 
pany, upon  supposition  that  the  old  officers  should  resign ;  — 
Billings,  brother,  &c.  &c.  It  is  curious  to  observe  the  effect 
these  little  objects  of  ambition  have  upon  men's  minds.  The 
commission  of  a  subaltern  in  the  militia,  will  tempt  these  little 
minds  as  much  as  crowns  and  stars  and  garters  will  greater 
ones.  These  are  things  that  strike  upon  vulgar,  rustic  imagi- 
nations, more  strongly  than  learning,  eloquence,  and  genius,  of 
which  common  persons  have  no  idea. 

My  brother  seems  to  relish  the  thought  of  a  commission,  and, 
if  Rawson  and  Bass  resign,  I  hope  he  will  have  one  under  Bil- 
lings. 

9.  Sunday. 

"  If  I  would  but  go  to  hell,  for  an  eternal  moment  or  so,  I  might  be  knighted." 

Sliakspeare. 

Shakspeare,  that  great  master  of  every  affection  of  the  heart 
and  every  sentiment  of  the  mind,  as  well  as  of  all  the  powers 
of  expression,  is  sometimes  fond  of  a  certain  pointed  oddity  of 
language,  a  certain  quaintness  of  style  that  is  an  imperfection 

25* 


294  DIARY.  [1772. 

in  his  character.  The  motto  prefixed  to  this  paper  may  be  con- 
sidered as  an  example  to  illustrate  this  observation. 

Abstracted  from  the  point  and  conceit  in  the  style,  there  is 
sentiment  enough  in  these  few  words  to  fill  a  volume.  It  is  a 
striking  representation  of  that  struggle  which  I  believe  always 
happens  between  virtue  and  ambition,  when  a  man  first  com- 
mences a  courtier.  By  a  courtier,  I  mean  one  who  applies  him- 
self to  the  passions  and  prejudices,  the  follies  and  vices  of  great 
men,  in  order  to  obtain  their  smiles,  esteem,  and  patronage, 
and  consequently  their  favors  and  preferment.  Human  nature, 
depraved  as  it  is,  has  interwoven  in  its  very  frame  a  love  of 
truth,  sincerity,  and  integrity,  which  must  be  overcome  by  art, 
education,  and  habit,  before  the  man  can  become  entirely  ductile 
to  the  will  of  a  dishonest  master.  When  such  a  master  requires 
of  all  who  seek  his  favor  an  implicit  resignation  to  his  will  and 
humor,'  and  these  require  that  he  be  soothed,  nattered,  and 
assisted  in  his  vices  and  follies,  perhaps,  the  blackest  crimes  that 
men  can  commit,  the  first  thought  of  this  will  produce  in  a  mind 
not  yet  entirely  debauched,  a  soliloquy  something  like  my  motto, 
as  if  he  should  say,  — 

"  The  Minister  of  State  or  the  Governor  would  promote  my 
interest,  would  advance  me  to  places  of  honor  and  profit,  would 
raise  me  to  titles  and  dignities  that  will  be  perpetuated  in  my 
family ;  in  a  word,  would  make  the  fortune  of  me  and  my  pos- 
terity forever,  if  I  would  but  comply  with  his  desires,  and  become 
his  instrument  to  promote  his  measures.  But  still  I  dread  the 
consequences.  He  requires  of  me  such  compliances,  such  horrid 
crimes,  such  a  sacrifice  of  my  honor,  my  conscience,  my  friends, 
my  country,  my  God,  as  the  Scriptures  inform  us  must  be  pun- 
ished with  nothing  less  than  hell-fire,  eternal  torment ;  and  this 
is  so  unequal  a  price  to  pay  for  the  honors  and  emoluments  in 
the  power  of  a  Minister  or  Governor,  that  I  cannot  prevail  upon 
myself  to  think  of  it.  The  duration  of  future  punishment  terri- 
fies me.  If  I  could  but  deceive  myself  so  far  as  to  think  eternity 
a  moment  only,  I  could  comply  and  be  promoted." 

Such  as  these  are  probably  the  sentiments  of  a  mind  as  yet 
pure  and  undented  in  its  morals ;  and  many  and  severe  are  the 
pangs  and  agonies  it  must  undergo,  before  it  will  be  brought  to 
yield  entirely  to  temptation. 

Notwithstanding  this,  we  see  every  day  that  our  imaginations 


Mt.  36.]  DIARY.  295 

are  so  strong,  and  our  reason  so  weak,  the  charms  of  wealth  and 
power  are  so  enchanting,  and  the  belief  of  future  punishment 
so  faint,  that  men  find  ways  to  persuade  themselves  to  believe 
any  absurdity,  to  submit  to  any  prostitution,  rather  than  forego 
their  wishes  and  desires.  Their  reason  becomes  at  last  an  elo- 
quent advocate  on  the  side  of  their  passions,  and  they  bring 
themselves  to  believe  that  black  is  white,  that  vice  is  virtue,  that 
folly  is  wisdom,  and  eternity  a  moment. 


The  Brace  of  Adamses.1 

Q.  Is  it  not  a  pity  that  a  brace  of  so  obscure  a  breed  should 
be  the  only  ones  to  defend  the  household,  when  the  generous 
mastiffs  and  best-blooded  hounds  are  all  hushed  to  silence  by 
the  bones  and  crumbs  that  are  thrown  to  them,  and  even  Cerberus 
himself  is  bought  off  with  a  sop  ? 

The  malice  of  the  court  and  its  writers  seems  to  be  principally 
directed  against  these  two  gentlemen.  They  have  been  steadfast 
and  immovable  in  the  cause  of  their  country  from  the  year  1761, 
and  one  of  them,  Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  for  full  twenty  years  before. 
They  have  always,  since  they  were  acquainted  with  each  other, 
concurred  in  sentiment  that  the  liberties  of  this  country  had  more 
to  fear  from  one  man,  the  present  Governor  Hutchinson,  than 
from  any  other  man,  nay,  than  from  all  other  men  in  the  world. 
This  sentiment  was  founded  in  their  knowledge  of  his  character, 
his  unbounded  ambition,  and  his  unbounded  popularity.  This 
sentiment  they  have  always  freely,  though  decently,  expressed 
in  their  conversation  and  writings,  which  the  Governor  well 
knows,  and  which  will  be  remembered  as  long  as  his  character 
and  administration. 

It  is  not,  therefore,  at  all  surprising  that  his  indignation  and 
that  of  all  his  creatures  should  fall  upon  these  gentlemen.  Their 
Maker  has  given  them  nerves  that  are  delicate ;  and  of  conse- 
quence their  feelings  are  exquisite,  and  their  constitutions  tender, 
and  their  health,  especially  of  one  of  them,  very  infirm ;  but,  as 
a  compensation  for  this,  He  has  been  pleased  to  bestow  upon 
them  spirits  that  are  unconquerable  by  all  the  art  and  all  the 

1  Here  is  the  same  anecdote,  re9pecting_Goyernor  Shirley's  inquiry,  which  is 
told  in  the  passage  of  the  Autobiography,  already  inserteTTuTpage  233.  It  is 
therefore  omitted.     The  remarks  which  follow  it  are,  however,  retained. 


296  DIARY.  [17  72. 

power  of  Governor  Hutchinson  and  his  political  creators  and 
creatures  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  That  art  and  power 
which  have  destroyed  a  Thacher,  a  Mayhew,  an  Otis,  may  destroy 
the  health  and  the  lives  of  these  gentlemen,  but  can  never  subdue 
their  principles  or  their  spirit.  They  have  not  the  cheering,  salu- 
brious prospect  of  honors  and  emoluments  before  them  to  support 
them  under  all  the  indignities  and  affronts,  the  insults  and  inju- 
ries, the  malice  and  slander  that  can  be  thrown  upon  men ;  they 
have  not  even  the  hope  of  those  advantages  that  the  suffrages 
of  the  people  only  can  bestow ;  but  they  have  a  sense  of  honor 
and  a  love  of  their  country,  the  testimony  of  a  good  conscience, 
and  the  consolation  of  philosophy,  if  nothing  more,  which  will 
certainly  support  them,  in  the  cause  of  their  country,  to  their 
last  gasp  for  breath,  whenever  that  may  happen. 

10.  Monday.  Went  to  Boston  to  the  Court  of  Admiralty, 
and  returned  at  night.  I  went  upon  the  first  appeal  that  has 
been  yet  made  and  prosecuted  before  Judge  Auchmuty ;  and,  as  it 
is  a  new  thing,  the  Judge  has  directed  an  argument  and  a  search 
of  books  concerning  the  nature  of  appeals  by  the  civil  law.  I 
found  time  to  look  into  Calvin's  Lexicon,  Title  Appellatio  et 
Provocatio,  and  into  Maranta,  who  has  treated  largely  of  appeals ; 
borrowed  Ayliff,  but  there  is  no  table,  and  could  find  nothing 
about  the  subject;  Domat  I  could  not  find.1 

June  30.  Tuesday.  Falmouth,  Casco  Bay.  My  office  at  Bos- 
ton will  miss  me  this  day  ;  it  is  the  last  day  of  arresting  for  July 
court.     What  equivalent  I  shall  meet  with  here  is  uncertain. 

It  has  been  my  fate  to  be  acquainted  in  the  way  of  my  busi- 
ness with  a  number  of  very  rich  men,  —  Gardiner,  Bowdoin, 
Pitts,  Hancock,  Rowe,  Lee,  Sargent,  Hooper,  Doane.  Hooper, 
Gardiner,  Rowe,  Lee,  and  Doane  have  all  acquired  their  wealth 
by  their  own  industry ;  Bowdoin  and  Hancock  received  theirs 
by    succession,  descent,  or  devise ;    Pitts    by  marriage.2      But 

1  The  following  entry  appears  in  the  book  of  records  of  the  town  of  Braintrce, 
in  the  interval  between  this  and  the  next  date.  2d  March,  1772. 

Voted,  An  oration  relative  to  the  civil  and  religious  rights  and  privileges  of  the 
people  be  delivered  on  the  day  the  annual  meeting  for  the  choice  of  a  represen- 
tative shall  be  appointed  in  May  next. 

Voted,  The  Selectmen  be  desired  to  wait  on  John  Adams,  Esquire,  with  the 
above  vote,  and  request  his  assistance  therein,  and  in  case  of  his  refusal,  to 
engage  some  other  gentleman  of  the  town  to  assist  in  that  affair. 

No  further  notice  of  the  matter  occurs  in  the  records. 

2  Mr.  Pitts  had  married  Mr.  Bowdoin's  sister. 


Mi.  3(J.]  DIARY.  297 

there  is  not  one  of  all  these  who  derives  more  pleasure  from  his 
property  than  I  do  from  mine ;  my  little  farm,  and  stock,  and 
cash  afford  me  as  much  satisfaction  as  all  their  immense  tracts, 
extensive  navigation,  sumptuous  buildings,  their  vast  sums  at 
interest,  and  stocks  in  trade  yield  to  them.  The  pleasures  of 
property  arise  from  acquisition  more  than  possession,  from  what 
is  to  come  rather  than  from  what  is.  These  men  feel  their  for- 
tunes ;  they  feel  the  strength  and  importance  which  their  riches 
give  them  in  the  world ;  their  courage  and  spirits  are  buoyed 
up,  their  imaginations  are  inflated  by  them.  The  rich  are  sel- 
dom remarkable  for  modesty,  ingenuity,  or  humanity.  Their 
wealth  has  rather  a  tendency  to  make  them  penurious  and 
selfish. 

I  arrived  in  this  town  on  Sunday  morning ;  went  to  meeting 
all  day,  heard  Mr.  Smith  and  Mr.  Deane.  Drank  tea  with 
Brother  Bradbury,  and  spent  the  evening  with  him  at  Mr. 
Deane's  ;  sat  in  the  pew  with  Mr.  Smith,  son  of  the  minister  in 
the  morning,  and  with  William  Tyng,1  Esquire,  sheriff"  and 
representative,  in  the  afternoon.  Lodged  at  Mrs.  Stover's  ;  a 
neat,  clean,  clever  woman,  the  wife  of  a  sea  captain  at  sea. 

Have  spent  my  idle  time  in  reading  my  classmate  Hemmen- 
way's,  "  Vindication  of  the  Power,  Obligation,  and  Encourage- 
ment of  the  Unregenerate  to  attend  the  Means  of  Grace,"  and 
the  "  Clandestine  Marriage,"  by  Colman  and  Garrick. 

July  1.  Wednesday. 

He  who  contends  for  freedom 
Can  ne'er  be  justly  deemed  his  sovereign's  foe  ; 
No,  'tis  the  wretch  that  tempts  him  to  subvert  it, 
The  soothing  slave,  the  traitor  in  the  bosom, 
"Who  best  deserves  that  name  ;  he  is  a  worm 
That  eats  out  all  the  happiness  of  kingdoms.2 


1  Some  account  of  this  gentleman  is  found  in  Mr.  Sabine's  valuable  work,  and 
also  in  the  tenth  volume  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society's  Collections. 
The  name  is  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  respectable  in  the  State ;  but  in  the 
male  line  it  has  long  since  run  out.  It  may  be  as  well,  however,  to  correct  a 
slight  error  of  fact  in  the  volume  of  Collections  already  quoted,  which  states 
that  one  of  the  two  brothers,  who  first  came  to  the  country,  William  Tyng,  and 
spent  his  life  at  Braintree,  left  no  posterity.  He  left  four  daughters,  one  of 
whom  married  the  Rev.  Thomas  Shepard,  of  Charlestown,  and  through  her 
the  children  of  the  author  of  this  Diary  traced  their  descent  from  him. 

2  These  lines  are  taken  from  a  play,  now  little  read  :  Thomson's  Edward  and 
Eleanora,  act  i.  sc.  2,  and  act  ii.  sc.  2. 


298  DIARY.  [1772. 

When  life  or  death 
Become  the  question,  all  distinctions  vanish  ; 
Then  the  first  monarch,  and  the  lowest  slave, 
On  the  same  level  stand ;  in  this,  the  sons 
Of  equal  nature  all. 

September  22.  At  Boston.  Paid  Dr.  Gardiner  and  took  up 
my  last  note  to  him.  I  have  now  go1  completely  through  my 
purchase  of  Deacon  Palmer,  Colonel  Quincy,  and  all  my  salt 
marsh,  being  better  than  twenty  acres,  and  have  paid  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  pounds  old  tenor  towards  my  house  in  Boston, 
and  have  better  than  three  hundred  pounds  left  in  my  pocket. 
At  thirty-seven  years  of  age  almost,  this  is  all  that  my  most 
intense  application  to  study  and  business  has  been  able  to 
accomplish,  an  application  that  has  more  than  once  been  very 
near  costing  me  my  life,  and  that  has  so  greatly  impaired  my 
health. 

I  am  now  writing  in  my  own  house  in  Queen  Street,*  to 
which  I  am  pretty  well  determined  to  bring  my  family  this  fall. 
If  I  do,  I  shall  come  with  a  fixed  resolution  to  meddle  not  with 
public  affairs  of  town  or  Province.  I  am  determined  my  own 
life  and  the  welfare  of  my  whole  family,  which  is  much  dearer 
to  me,  are  too  great  sacrifices  for  me  to  make.  -I  have  served 
my  country  and  her  professed  friends,  at  an  immense  expense  to 
me  of  time,  peace,  health,  money,  and  preferment,  both  of  which 
last  have  courted  my  acceptance  and  been  inexorably  refused, 
lest  I  should  be  laid  under  a  temptation  to  forsake  the  senti- 
ments of  the  friends  of  this  country.  These  last  are  such  poli- 
ticians as  to  bestow  all  their  favors  upon  their  professed  and 
declared  enemies.  I  will  devote  myself  wholly  to  my  private 
business,  my  office  and  my  farm,  and  I  hope  to  lay  a  foundation 
for  better  fortune  to  my  children,  and  a  happier  life  than  has 
fallen  to  my  share. 

This  the  last  training  day  for  the  year.     Have  been  out  to  view 

*  [Finding  my  health  much  improved,  and  finding  great  inconvenience  in 
conducting  my  business  in  Boston,  in  my  office  there,  while  my  family  was  in  the 
country,  I  began  to  entertain  thoughts  of  returning.  Having  found  it  very 
troublesome  to  hire  houses,  and  be  often  obliged  to  remove,  I  determined  to  pur- 
chase a  house,  and  Mr.  Hunt  offering  me  one  in  Queen  Street  near  the  scene  of 
my  business,  opposite  the  Court  House,  I  bought  it,  and  inconvenient  and  con- 
tracted as  it  was,  I  made  it  answer,  both  for  a  dwelling  and  an  office,  till  a  few 
weeks  before  the  19th  of  April,  1775,  when  the  war  commenced.] 


.Ex.  36.]  DIARY.  299 

the  regiment,  the  cadets,  the  grenadiers,  the  train,  &c.     A  great 
show  indeed. 

EPITAPH. 

Algernon  Sidney  fills  this  tomb, 

An  Atheist,  for  disdaining  Rome  ; 

A  rebel  bold,  for  striving  still 

To  keep  the  laws  above  the  will. 

Of  Heaven,  he  sure  must  needs  despair, 

If  holy  Pope  be  turnkey  there. 

And  hell  him  ne'er  will  entertain, 

For  there  is  all  tyrannic  reign. 

Where  goes  he  then  ?     Where  he  ought  to  go ;  — 

Where  Pope,  nor  Devil  have  to  do. 

October  5.  Monday.  Rode  to  Plymouth  with  my  sister,  Miss 
Betsey  Smith ;  most  agreeably  entertained  at  the  house  of  Col- 
onel Warren.  The  Colonel,  his  lady,  and  family,  are  all  agree- 
able. They  have  five  sons,  —  James,  now  at  college,  Winslow, 
Charles,  Henry,  and  George.     Five  fine  boys. 

At  Taunton.     This  week  has  been  a  remarkable  one. 

19.  Monday.  Boston.  The  day  of  the  month  reminds  me  of 
my  birthday,  which  will  be  on  the  30th.  I  was  born  October 
19,  1735.1  Thirty-seven  years,  more  than  half  the  life  of  man, 
are  run  out.  What  an  atom,  an  animalcule  I  am  !  The  remain- 
der of  my  days  I  shall  rather  decline  in  sense,  spirit,  and  activity. 
My  season  for  acquiring  knowledge  is  past,  and  yet  I  have  my 
own  and  my  children's  fortunes  to  make.  My  boyish  habits  and 
.airfare  not  yet  worn  off. 

27.  Tuesday.  At  the  printing  office  this  morning.  Mr.  Otis 
came  in,  with  his,  eyes  fishy  and  fiery,  looking  and  acting  as 
wildly  as  ever  he  did.  "  You,  Mr.  Edes,  you,  John  Gill,  and 
you,  Paul  Revere,  can  you  stand  there  three  minutes  ?  "  "  Yes." 
"  WeD,  do.  Brother  Adams,  go  along  with  me."  Up  chamber 
we  went ;  he  locks  the  door  and  takes  out  the  key ;  sit  down, 
tete-a-tete.  "  You  are  going  to  Cambridge  to-day  ? "  "  Yes." 
"  So  am  I,  if  I  please.  I  want  to  know,  if  I  was  to  come  into 
court  and  ask  the  court  if  they  were  at  leisure  to  hear  a  motion, 
and  they  should  say,  yes,  and  I  should  say,  — '  May  it  please 
your  Honors,  I  have  heard  a  report  and  read  an  account  that 
your  Honors  are  to  be  paid  your  salaries,  for  the  future,  by  the 

i  O.  S. 


300  DIARY.  [1772. 

Crown  out  of  a  revenue  raised  from  us  without  our  consent ;  as 
an  individual  of  the  community,  as  a  citizen  of  the  town,  as  an 
attorney  and  barrister  of  this  court,  I  beg  your  Honors  would 
inform  me  whether  that  report  is  true,  and  if  it  is,  whether  your 
Honors  determine  to  accept  of  such  an  appointment ; '  or  sup- 
pose the  substance  of  this  should  be  reduced  to  a  written  petition, 
would  this  be  a  contempt  ?  Is  mere  impertinence  a  contempt  ?  " 
In  the  course  of  this  curious  conversation,  it  oozed  out  that  Crush- 
ing, Adams,  and  he,  had  been  in  consultation  but  yesterday,  in 
the  same  chamber,  upon  that  subject.  In  this  chamber,  Otis  was 
very  chatty.  He  told  me  a  story  of  Colonel  Erving,  whose  excel- 
lency lies,  he  says,  not  in  military  skill,  but  in  humbugging.  "  Er- 
ving met  Parson  Moorhead1  near  his  meeting-house.  '  You  have 
a  fine  steeple  and  bell,'  says  he,  '  to  your  meeting-house  now.' 
'  Yes ;  by  the  liberality  of  Mr.  Hancock,  and  the  subscriptions 
of  some  other  gentlemen,  we  have  a  very  handsome  and  conve- 
nient house  of  it  at  last.'  '  But  what  has  happened  to  the  vane, 
Mr.  Moorhead  ?  it  don't  traverse ;  it  has  pointed  the  same  way 
these  three  weeks.'  '  Ay,  I  did  not  know  it.  I'll  see  about  it.' 
Away  goes  Moorhead,  storming  among  his  parish  and  the 
tradesmen  who  had  built  the  steeple,  for  fastening  the  vane  so 
that  it  could  not  move.  The  tradesmen  were  alarmed,  and 
went  to  examine  it,  but  soon  found  that  the  fault  was  not  in 
the  vane,  but  the  weather,  the  wind  having  set  very  constantly 
at  east  for  three  weeks  before."  He  also  said  there  was  a  report 
about  town  that  Moorhead  had  given  thanks  publicly,  that,  by 
the  generosity  of  Mr.  Hancock  and  some  other  gentlemen,  they 
were  enabled  to  worship  God  as  genteelly  now  as  any  other  con- 
gregation in  town.  After  we  came  down  stairs,  something  was 
said  about  military  matters./  Says  Otis  to  me,  "  You  will  never 
learn  military  exercises."  *'  Ay,  why  not  ?  "  "  That  you  have 
a  head  for  it,  needs  no  commentary,  but  not  a  heart."  "  Ay, 
how  do  you  know  ?  you  never  searched  my  heart."  "  Yes,  I 
have ;  —  tired  with  one  year's  service,  dancing  from  Boston  to 

1  A  Presbyterian,  who  came  out  from  Ireland,  in  1727,  with  a  number  of 
families  of  Scotch  origin,  and  established  a  church  in  Long  Lane,  now  called 
Federal  Street.  It  seems  to  have  lived  and  died  with  him.  For  most  of  the 
members'  names  have  not  been  perpetuated  in  Boston,  and  the  building  has 
passed  into  the  bands  of  another  denomination.  The  bell  and  vane  of  the  old 
meeting-house  in  Brattle  street,  when  pulled  down,  were  presented  to  this 
Society.     See  Coll.  Hist.  Society  Mass.  vol.  hi.  p.  2G2. 


JEt.  36.]  DIARY.  301 

Braintree,  and  from  Braintree  to  Boston  ;  moping  about  the 
streets  of  this  town  as  hipped  as  Father  Flynt  at  ninety,  and 
seemingly  regardless  of  every  thing  but  to  get  money  enough  to 
carry  you  smoothly  through  this  world." 

This  is  the  rant  of  Mr.  Otis  concerning  me,  and  I  suppose  of 
two  thirds  of  the  town.  But,  be  it  known  to  Mr.  Otis,  I  have 
been  in  the  public  cause  as  long  as  he,  though  I  was  never  in 
the  General  Court  but  one  year.  I  have  sacrificed  as  much  to 
it  as  he.  /I  have  never  got  my  father  chosen  Speaker  and  Coun- 
sellor by  it ;  my  brother-in-law  chosen  into  the  House  and  chosen 
Speaker  by  it;  nor  a  brother-in-law's  brother-in-law  into  the 
House  and  Council  by  it;  nor  did  I  ever  turn  about  ill  the 
House,  betray  my  friends,  and  rant  it  on  the  side  of  prerogative 
for  a  whole  year,  to  get  a  father  into  a  probate  office  and  a 
first  justice  of  a  court  of  common  pleas,  and  a  brother  into  a 
clerk's  office.  There  is  a  complication  of  malice,  envy,  and 
jealousy  in  this  man,  in  the  present  disordered  state  of  his  mind, 
that  is  quite  shocking.1 

I  thank  God  my  mind  is  prepared  for  whatever  can  be  said 
of  me.     The  storm  shall  blow  over  me  in  silence. 

Rode  to  Cambridge,  and  made  a  morning's  visit  to  Judge 
Trowbridge,  in  his  solitary,  gloomy  state.  He  is  very  dull,  talks 
about  retiring  from  court ;  says  he  cannot  fix  his  attention  as  he 
could ;  is  in  doubt  whether  he  ought  to  sit  in  a  capital  case,  lest 
he  should  omit  something  that  is  material,  &c.  &c.  "Was  inqui- 
sitive, however,  about  politics,  and  what  the  town  of  Boston  was 
likely  to  do  about  the  Judges'  salaries.  Said  he  heard  they  were 
about  to  choose  a  committee  to  wait  upon  the  court,  to  inquire 
of  them,  &c.  &c.  Comparing  this  with  Otis's  distracted  propo- 
sal to  me  about  a  motion  or  petition,  I  concluded  that  something 
of  this  kind  had  been  talked  of  in  town,  though  I  never  heard  a 
hint  of  it  from  any  but  these  two.  Trowbridge  thought  there 
never  was  a  time  when  every  thing  was  so  out  of  joint ;  —  our 
General  Court  gave  Cushing,  for  a  fortnight's  work,  as  much  as 
the  Judges  for  two  years ;  the  Ministry  gave  six  hundred  pounds 

1  Otis  was  scarcely  an  object  for  indignation  at  this  period.  Neither  does  the 
remark  made  by  him  seem  to  merit  so  harsh  a  comment  as  it  receives.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  state  of  Mr.  Adams's  health,  and  the  extensive  profes- 
sional practice  to  which  he  had  after  lon£  labor  arrived,  combined  to  make  him 
averse  to  political  life.     Hutchinson  assigns  the  same  reasons.     Vol.  ui.  p.  296. 

VOL.   II.  26 


302  DIARY.  [1772. 

a  year  to  the  Admiralty  Judges,  for  doing  no  more  business  than 
the  Superior  Court  did  in  one  term,  though  the  latter  had  a  con- 
trol over  the  former.  For  his  part,  he  could  not  look  upon  it  in 
any  other  light  than  as  an  affront.  This  is  nearly  the  same  that 
he  said  to  Colonel  Warren. 

Attended  court  all  day.  Dined  with  the  judges,  &c.  at  Brad- 
ish's.  Brattle  was  there,  and  was  chatty.  Fitch  came  in  blus- 
tering when  dinner  was  half  over. 

November  21.  Next  Tuesday  I  shall  remove  my  family  to 
Boston,  after  residing  in  Braintree  about  nineteen  months.  I 
have  recovered  a  degree  of  health  by  this  excursion  into  the 
country,  though  I  am  an  infirm  man  yet.  I  hope  I  have  profited 
by  retirement  and  reflection,  and  learned  in  what  manner  to  live 
in  Boston.  How  long  I  shall  be  able  to  stay  in  the  city,  I  know 
not;  if  my  health  should  again  decline,  I  must  return  to  Brain- 
tree  and  renounce  the  town  entirely.  I  hope,  however,  to  be  able 
to  stay  there  many  years.  To  this  end  I  must  remember  tem- 
perance, exercise,  and  peace  of  mind ;  above  all  things,  I  must 
avoid  politics,  political  clubs,  town  meetings,  General  Court, 
&c.  &c.  I  must  ride  frequently  to  Braintree,  to  inspect  my 
farm ;  and,  when  in  Boston,  must  spend  my  evenings  in  my 
office  or  with  my  family,  and  with  as  little  company  as  possible. 

Eleven  years  have  passed  since  I  minuted  any  thing  in  this 
book.1  What  an  admirable  advantage  it  would  have  been  if  I 
had  recorded  every  step  in  the  progress  of  my  studies  for  these 
eleven  years !  If  I  had  kept  an  exact  journal  of  all  my  journeys 
on  the  circuit,  of  all  the  removes  of  my  family,  my  buildings, 
purchases,  the  gradual  increase  of  my  rary  and  family,  as  well 
as  of  the  improvement  of  my  mind  by  my  studies,  the  whole 
would  have  composed  entertaining  memoirs  to  me  in  my  old 
age,  and  to  my  family  after  my  decease. 

One  thing  in  this  book  shall  be  a  lesson  to  me.  The  gentle- 
man to  whom  the  letter  is  directed,2  an  extract  of  which  is  in 
the  beginning  of  this  book,  eleven  years  ago  I  thought  the  best 
friend  I  had  in  the  world.     I  loved  him  accordingly,  and  corres- 

1  This  is  that  particular  portion  of  the  Diary  which  commences  with  the  copy 
of  a  letter  to  Jonathan  Sewall,  in  October,  1759.  The  entries,  made  at  times 
long  apart  from  each  other,  are,  in  this  publication,  inserted  in  their  regular 
chronological  order. 

2  See  page  79. 


JEr.  37.]  DIAEY.  303 

ponded  with  him  many  years  without  reserve.  But  the  scene  is 
changed.  At  this  moment  I  look  upon  him  as  the  most  bitter, 
malicious,  determined,  and  implacable  enemy  I  have.  God  for- 
give him  the  part  he  has  acted,  both  in  public  and  private  life ! 
It  is  not  impossible  that  he  may  make  the  same  prayer  for  me. 

I  am  now  about  removing,  a  second  time,  from  Braintree  to 
Boston.  In  April,  1768, 1  removed  to  Boston,  to  the  white  house 
in  Brattle  Square.  In  the  spring,  1769, 1  removed  to  Cole  Lane, 
to  Mr.  Fayerweather's  house.  In  1770,  I  removed  to  another 
house  in  Brattle  Square,  where  Dr.  Cooper  now  lives.  In  1771, 
I  removed  from  Boston  to  Braintree,  in  the  month  of  April,  where 
I  have  lived  to  this  time.  I  hope  I  shall  not  have  occasion  to 
remove  so  often  for  four  years  and  a  half  to  come.  The  numer- 
ous journeys  and  removes  that  I  have  taken  in  this  period,  have 
put  my  mind  into  an  unsettled  state.  They  have  occasioned  too 
much  confusion  and  dissipation.  I  hope  to  pass  a  more  steady, 
regular  life,  for  the  future,  in  all  respects.  When  I  chance  to 
meet  with  any  of  my  own  compositions,  of  ten  years  old,  I  am 
much  inclined  to  think  I  could  write  with  more  accuracy  and  ele- 
gance then  than  I  can  now,  and  that  I  had  more  sense  and  know- 
ledge then,  than  I  have  now.  My  memory  and  fancy  were  cer- 
tainly better  then,  and  my  judgment,  I  conjecture,  quite  as  good. 
28.  Friday.  This  week,  namely,  last  Tuesday,  my  family 
and  goods  arrived  at  Boston,  where  we  have  taken  possession 
of  my  house  in  Queen  Street,  where  I  hope  I  shall  live  as  long 
as  I  have  any  connection  with  Boston.  This  day,  Major  Martin 
came  into  the  office  and  chatted  an  hour  very  sociably  and  plea- 
santly. He  says  that  politics  are  the  finest  study  and  science  in 
the  world,  but  they  are  abused ;  real  patriotism,  or  love  of  one's 
country,  is  the  greatest  of  moral  virtues,  &c.  He  is  a  man  of 
sense,  and  knowledge  of  the  world.  His  observation  upon  poli- 
tics is  just;  they  are  the  grandest,  the  noblest,  the  most  useful 
and  important  science  in  the  whole  circle. 

A  sensible  soldier  is  as  entertaining  a  companion  as  any  man 
whatever.  They  acquire  an  urbanity,  by  travel  and  promiscuous 
conversation,  that  is  charming.  This  Major  Martin  has  con- 
versed familiarly  in  Scotland,  in  England,  and  in  America,  and 
seems  to  understand  every  subject  of  general  conversation  very 
well. 

I  have  now  got  through  the  hurry  of  my  business.     My  father- 


304  DIARY.  [1772. 

in-law,  Mr.  Hall,  and  my  mother,  are  well  settled  in  my  farm  at 
Braintree.  The  produce  of  my  farm  is  all  collected  in ;  my  own 
family  is  removed  and  well  settled  in  Boston ;  my  wood  and 
stores  are  laid  in  for  the  winter;  my  workmen  are  nearly  all 
paid ;  I  am  disengaged  from  public  affairs,  and  now  have  no- 
thing to  do  but  to  mind  my  office,  my  clerks,  and  my  children. 
But  this  week,  which  has  been  so  agreeable  to  me  in  the  course 
of  my  own  affairs,  has  not  been  so  happy  for  my  friends. 
Beware  of  idleness,  luxury,  and  all  vanity,  folly,  and  vice ! 

The  conversation  of  the  town  and  country  has  been  about  the 
strange  occurrence  of  last  week,  a  piracy  said  to  have  been  com- 
mitted on  a  vessel  bound  to  Cape  Cod ;  three  men  killed,  a  boy 
missing,  and  only  one  man  escaped  to  tell  the  news.  A  myste- 
rious, inexplicable  affair !  *  about  Wilkes's  probable  mayoralty, 
and  about  the  salaries  to  the  Judges.  These  are  the  three  prin- 
cipal topics  of  conversation  at  present. 

December  16.  Wednesday.  Dined  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Simeon 
Howard  of  West  Boston,  in  company  with  Dr.  Chauncy,  Captain 
Phillips,  Dr.  Warren,  Mrs.  Howard,  Miss  Betsey  Mayhew,  and  a 
young  gentleman  whose  name  I  don't  know.  Had  a  very  agree- 
able conversation. 

Mr.  Howard  was  silent.  Dr.  Chauncy  very  sociable ;  glo- 
ries much  in  his  inflexible  adherence  to  rules  of  diet,  exercise, 
study,  sleep,  &c.  If  he  had  not  lived  as  regularly  as  the  sun 
moves  in  the  heavens,  he  should  long  ago  have  mouldered  to 
dust,  so  as  not  to  be  distinguished  from  common  earth.  Never 
reads  nor  studies  after  eight  o'clock.  He  would  not,  for  all  the 
commissions  in  the  gift  of  all  the  potentates  upon  earth,  become 
the  tool  of  any  man  alive.  Told  us  of  his  writing  to  England 
and  Scotland,  and  of  the  politics  he  wrote.  Among  the  rest, 
that,  in  twenty -five  years,  there  would  be  more  people  here  than 
in  the  three  kingdoms,  &c. — the  greatest  empire  on  earth.  Our 
freeholds  would  preserve  us,  for  interest  would  not  lie.  If  ever 
he  should  give  the  charge  at  an  ordination,  he  would  say,  "  We 
Bishops,"  &c.  &c.  He  told  us  of  Mr.  Temple's  keeping  a  fair 
journal  of  all  the  proceedings  of  the  board  of  commissioners,  &c. 
and  that  the  ministry  provided  for  him,  to  prevent  his  raising  a 


1  This  was   the   singular  case  of  Ansell   Nickerson,   alluded   to   page  224. 
Hutchinson's  account  of  it  is  quite  full.     Vol.  iii.  p.  419. 


Mr.  3  7.]  DIARY.  305 

clamor.  Captain  Phillips  would  not  have  got  his  appointment, 
if  Mr.  Temple  had  not  been  his  friend,  &c.  Phillips  says  they 
are  all  still  and  quiet  at  the  southward,  and  at  New  York  they 
laugh  at  us. 

20.  Sunday.  Heard  Dr.  Chauncy  in  the  morning  upon  these 
words :  "  As  Paul  reasoned  of  righteousness,  temperance,  and 
judgment  to  come,  Felix  trembled."  The  Doctor  dilated  upon 
the  subject  of  Paul's  discourse, — the  great  moral  duties  of  justice 
and  temperance  as  they  are  connected  with  the  future  judgment ; 
upon  the  Apostle's  manner,  —  he  reasoned,  &c;  and  upon  the 
effect  that  such  reasoning  had  upon  Felix, — it  made  him  tremble. 
In  the  afternoon,  Dr.  Cooper  sounded  harmoniously  upon  the 
deceitfulness  of  sin.  The  Doctor's  air  and  action  are  not  graceful ; 
they  are  not  natural  and  easy.  His  motions  with  his  head,  body, 
and  hands,  are  a  little  stiff  and  affected ;  his  style  is  not  simple 
enough  for  the  pulpit ;  it  is  too  flowery,  too  figurative ;  his  peri- 
ods too  much  or  rather  too  apparently  rounded  and  labored. 
This  however,  sub  rosd,  because  the  Doctor  passes  for  a  master 
of  composition  and  is  an  excellent  man. 

23.  Wednesday.  Major  Martin  at  the  office.  He  is  very 
gracious  with  the  first  man  in  the  Province.  "  The  Governor 
spoke  very  handsomely  of  all  my  counsel.  He  did  you  jus- 
tice," &c.  &c.  The  Major  is  to  dine  with  me  to-morrow.  He 
wishes  for  war.  Wants  to  be  a  Colonel,  to  get  one  thousand 
pounds  sterling  for  eight  or  ten  years,  that  he  may  leave  some- 
thing to  his  children,  &c.  &c.  An  Ensign  in  the  army  is  com- 
pany for  any  nobleman  in  England.  A  Colonel  in  the  army, 
with  one  thousand  pounds  a  year,  will  spend  an  evening  with 
an  Ensign  who  can  but  just  live  upon  his  pay,  and  make  him 
pay  his  club.  The  company  that  the  officers  are  obliged  to 
keep,  makes  them  poor,  as  bare  as  a  scraped  carrot,  &c.  &c. 

The  manners  of  these  gentlemen  are  very  engaging  and  agree- 
able. 

Took  a  walk  this  morning  to  the  south  end,  and  had  some 
conversation  with  my  old  friends,  Crafts  and  Trott.1  I  find  they 
are  both  cooled,  both  flattened  away.  They  complain,  especially 
Crafts,  that  they  are  called  Tories,  &c.  &c.  Crafts  has  got  Swift's 
"  Contests  and  Dissensions  of  the    Nobles   and   Commons  of 


1  See  page  178. 
2G  * 


306  DIARY.  [1772. 

Athens  and  Rome,"  and  is  making  extracts  from  it  about  Clo- 
dius  and  Curio,  popular  leaders,  &c.  &c. 

My  wife  says  her  father  never  inculcated  any  maxim  of  be- 
havior upon  his  children  so  often  as  this,  —  never  to  speak  ill  of 
any  body;  to  say  all  the  handsome  things  she  could  of  persons, 
but  no  evil ;  and  to  make  things,  rather  than  persons,  the  subjects 
of  conversation.  These  rules  he  always  impressed  upon  us, 
whenever  we  were  going  abroad,  if  it  was  but  to  spend  an  after- 
noon. He  was  always  remarkable  for  observing  these  rules  in 
his  own  conversation.  Her  grandfather  Quincy  was  remarkable 
for  never  praising  any  body ;  he  did  not  often  speak  evil,  but  he 
seldom  spoke  well. 

24.  Thursday.  Major  Martin,  Mr.  Blowers,  and  Mr.  Wil- 
liams dined  with  me.  All  agreeable.  This  day  I  heard  that 
Mr.  Hancock  had  purchased  twenty  writs  for  this  court  of  Air. 
S.  Quincy.  Oh,  the  mutability  of  the  legal,  commercial,  social, 
political,  as  well  as  material  world !  For  about  three  or  four 
years  I  have  done  all  Mr.  Hancock's  business,  and  have  waded 
through  wearisome,  anxious  days  and  nights,  in  his  defence ;  but 
farewell ! 

29.  Tuesday.  Spent  the  last  Sunday  evening  with  Dr.  Cooper 
at  his  house,  with  Justice  Quincy  and  Mr.  William  Cooper. 
We  were  very  social,  and  we  chatted  at  large  upon  Csesar, 
Cromwell,  &c. 

Yesterday,  Parson  Howard  and  his  lady,  lately  Mrs.  Mayhew, 
drank  tea  with  Mrs.  Adams. 

Heard  many  anecdotes  from  a  young  gentleman  in  my  office 
of  Admiral  Montague's  manners.  A  coachman,  a  jack-tar 
before  the  mast,  would  be  ashamed,  nay,  a  porter,  a  shoeblack, 
or  chimney  sweeper,  would  be  ashamed  of  the  coarse,  low,  vul- 
gar dialect  of  this  sea  officer,  though  a  rear  admiral  of  the  blue, 
and  though  a  second  son  of  a  genteel  if  not  a  noble  family  in 
England.  An  American  freeholder,  living  in  a  log  house  twenty 
feet  square  without  a  chimney  in  it,  is  a  well-bred  man,  a  polite 
accomplished  person,  a  fine  gentleman,  in  comparison  of  this 
beast  of  prey.  This  is  not  the  language  of  prejudice,  for  I  have 
none  against  him,  but  of  truth.  His  brutal,  hoggish  manners 
are  a  disgrace  to  the  royal  navy  and  to  the  King's  service.  His 
lady  is  very  much  disliked,  they  say,  in  general.  She  is  very 
full  of  her  remarks  at  the  assembly  and  concert.     "  Can  this  lady 


JEr.  37.]  DIARY.  307 

afford  the  jewels  and  dress  she  wears  ?  "     "  Oh,  that  ever  my  son 
should  come  to  dance  with  a  mantuamaker  ! " 

The  high  commission  court,  the  star  chamber  court,  the  court 
of  inquisition,  for  the  trial  of  the  burners  of  the  Gaspee  at 
Rhode  Island  are  the  present  topic  of  conversation.  The 
Governor  of  that  Colony  has  communicated  to  the  assembly  a 
letter  from  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth.1  The  Colony  are  in  great 
distress,  and  have  applied  to  their  neighbors  for  advice  how  to 
evade  or  sustain  the  shock. 

29.  Tuesday.  This  afternoon  I  had  a  visit  from  Samuel 
Pemberton,  Esquire,  and  Mr.  Samuel  Adams.  Mr.  P.  said  they 
_were  a  sub-committee  deputed  by  the  standing  committee  of 
__the_town  of  Boston  to  request  that  I  would  deliver  an  oration 
in  public  upon  the  ensuing  5th  of  March.  He  said  that  they 
two  were  desirous  of  it,  and  that  the  whole  committee  was 
unanimously  desirous  of  it.  I  told  them  that  the  feeble  state 
of  my  health  rendered  me  quite  willing  to  devote  myself  forever 
_tojprivate  life ;  that,  far  from  taking  any  part  in  public,  1  was 
desirous  to  avoid  even  thinking  upon  public  affairs,  and  that  I 
was  determined  to  pursue  that  course,  and  therefore  that  I  must 
beg  to  be  excused.  They  desired  to  know  my  reasons.  I  told 
them  that  so  many  irresistible  syllogisms  rushed  into  my  mind 
and  concluded  decisively  against  it,  that  I  did  not  know  which 
to  mention  first.  But  I  thought  the  reason  that  had  hitherto 
actuated  the  town  was  enough,  namely,  the  part  I  took  in  the 
trial  of  the  soldiers.  Though  the  subject  of  the  oration  was 
quite  compatible  with  the  verdict  of  the  jury  in  that  case,  and 
indeed,  even  with  the  absolute  innocence  of  the  soldiers,  yet  I 
found  the  world  in  general  were  not  capable  or  not  willing  to 
make  the  distinction,  and  therefore,  by  making  an  oration  upon 

1  This  was  a  special  commission  issued  from  the  Crown.  Hutchinson  derives 
the  authority  for  such  an  act  from  the  power  to  order  the  royal  navy  to  any 
colony,  and  considers*  this  paramount  to  any  charter  whatever.  Yet  he  says, 
"  such  a  commission  became  an  additional  article  of  grievance,"  as  if  this  were 
a  matter  of  surprise.     Vol.  iii.  p.  365,  note. 

The  proceeding  came  to  nothing,  as  might  very  naturally  have  been  expected. 
The  substitution  of  anovel  and  foreign  tribunal  with  no  additional  powers  of 
compulsion,  was  not  likely  to  elicit  more  frank  communications  than  were  to  be 
obtained  through  the  process  of  the  ordinary  courts.  But  the  British  ministry 
throughout  the  American  quarrel  never  stopped  to  study  human  nature. 
There  is  a  very  warm  letter  of  John  Dickinson  on  this  subject  in  the  Life  and 
Correspondence  of  R.  H.  Lee,  vol.  i.  p.  01. 


308  DIARY.  [1772. 

this  occasion  I  should  only  expose  myself  to  the  lash  of  ignorant 
and  malicious  tongues  on  both  sides  of  the  question.  Besides 
that,  I  was  too  old  to  make  declamations.  The  gentlemen 
desired  I  would  take  time  to  consider  of  it.  I  told  them,  no ; 
that  would  expose  me  to  more  difficulties ;  I  wanted  no  time ; 
it  was  not  a  thing  unthought  of  by  me,  though  this  invitation 
was  unexpected  ;  that  I  was  clearly,  fully,  absolutely,  and  unal- 
terably determined  against  it,  and  therefore  that  time  and  think- 
ing would  answer  no  end.  The  gentlemen  then  desired  that  I 
would  keep  this  a  secret,  and  departed. 

30.  Wednesday.  Spent  this  evening  with  Mr.  Samuel  Adams 
at  his  house.  Had  much  conversation  about  the  state  of  affairs, 
Cushing,  Phillips,  Hancock,  Hawley,  Gerry,  Hutchinson,  Sewall, 
Quincy,  &c.  Adams  was  more  cool,  genteel,  and  agreeable  than 
common ;  concealed  and  restrained  his  passions,  &c.  He  affects 
to  despise  riches,  and  not  to  dread  poverty ;  but  no  man  is  more 
ambitious  of  entertaining  his  friends  handsomely,  or  of  making 
a  decent,  an  elegant  appearance  than  he.  He  has  lately  new- 
covered  and  glazed  his  house,  and  painted  it  very  neatly,  and 
has  new-papered,  painted,  and  furnished  his  rooms ;  so  that  you 
visit  at  a  very  genteel  house,  and  are  very  politely  received  and 
entertained. 

Mr.  Adams  corresponds  with  Hawley,  Gerry,  and  others.  He 
corresponds  in  England,  and  in  several  of  the  other  Provinces. 
His  time  is  all  employed  in  the  public  service. 

31.  Thursday.  This  evening  at  Mr.  Cranch's.  I  found  that 
my  constitutional  or  habitual  infirmities  have  not  entirely  for- 
saken me.  Mr.  Collins,  an  English  gentleman,  was  there,  and 
in  conversation  about  the  high  commission  court  for  inquiring 
after  the  burners  of  the  Gaspee  at  Providence,  I  found  the  old 
warmth,  heat,  violence,  acrimony,  bitterness,  sharpness  of  my 
temper  and  expression,  was  not  departed.  I  said  there  was  no 
more  justice  left  in  Britain  than  there  was  in  hell ;  that  I  wished 
for  war,  and  that  the  whole  Bourbon  family  was  upon  the  back 
of  Great  Britain ;  avowed  a  thorough  disaffection  to  that  coun- 
try ;  wished  that  any  thing  might  happen  to  them,  and,  as  the 
clergy  prayed  of  our  enemies  in  time  of  war,  that  they  might  be 
brought  to  reason  or  to  ruin. 

I  cannot  but  reflect  upon  myself  with  severity  for  these  rash, 
inexperienced,  boyish,  raw,  and  awkward  expressions.     A  man 


JSt.  37.]  DIARY.  309 

who  has  no  better  government  of  his  tongue,  no  more  command 
of  his  temper,  is  unfit  for  every  thing  but  children's  play  and  the 
company  of  boys. 

A  character  can  never  be  supported,  if  it  can  be  raised,  without 
a  good,  a  great  share  of  self-government.  Such  flights  of  passion, 
such  starts  of  imagination,  though  they  may  strike  a  few  of  the 
fiery  and  inconsiderate,  yet  they  lower,  they  sink  a  man  with  the 
wise.  They  expose  him  to  danger,  as  well  as  familiarity,  con- 
tempt, and  ridicule. 


310  DIARY.  [1773. 


[It  was,  I  believe,  in  1772,  that  Governor  Hutchinson,  in  an 
elaborate  speech  to  both  Houses,  endeavored  to  convince  them, 
their  constituents,  and  the  world,  that  Parliament  was  our  sove- 
reign legislature,  and  had  a  right  to  make  laws  for  us  in  all  cases 
whatsoever,  to  lay  taxes  on  all  things  external  and  internal,  on 
land  as  well  as  on  trade.  The  House  appointed  a  committee  to 
answer  this  speech.     An  answer  was  drawn,  prettily  written. 

•  •  •  • 

The  draught  of  a  report  was  full  of  very  popular  talk,  and 
of  those  democratical  principles  which  have  done  so  much  mis- 
chief in  this  country.  I  objected  to  them  all,  and  got  them  all 
expunged  which  I  thought  exceptionable,  and  furnished  the 
committee  with  the  law  authorities,  and  the  legal  and  constitu- 
tional reasonings  that  are  to  be  seen  on  the  part  of  the  House 
in  that  controversy.  How  these  papers  would  appear  to  me  or  to 
others  at  this  day,  I  know  not,  having  never  seen  them  since 
their  first  publication ;  but  they  appeared  to  me,  at  that  time,  to 
be  correct.] 

This  statement  of  the  authorship  of  the  most  elaborate  state-paper  of  the 
revolutionary  controversy  in  Massachusetts,  corresponds,  with  the  exception  of 
the  date,  which  was  January,  1773,  with  the  account  given  by  Hutchinson,  who 
says:  "Mr.  Hawley  and_Mr.  Samuel  Adams  were  the  persons  who  had  the 
greatest  share  in  preparing  it,  being  assisted  by  Mr.  John  Adams,  who  was  not 
at  this  time  a  member,  but  whose  character,  as  a  man  of  strong  natural  powers 
and  of  good  knowledge  in  the  laws,  was  established."  Yet,  —  since  a  claim 
has  been  very  confidently  made  in  behalf  of  Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  and  as  Mr. 
Webster,  in  his  celebrated  eulogy  of  John  Adams  and  Thomas  Jefferson,  inci- 
dentally notices  what  he  denominates  the  "  singular  ability  "  of  the  discussion, 
without  appearing  conscious  of  the  part  had  in  it  by  one  of  the  persons  of 
whose  public  services  he  was  then  speaking,  —  it  seems  not  irrelevant  here  to 
introduce  the  fullest  account  of  the  matter  which  the  author  left  behind  him. 
This  is  found  in  a  letter  addressed  by  him  to  Judge  Tudor,  on  the  eighth  of 
March,  1817.  In  order  to  make  way  for  this,  a  portion  of  the  same  narrative, 
found  in  the  Autobiography,  has  been  omitted  as  needless  repetition.  The  pro- 
bability is,  that  Mi*.  Samuel  Adams  incorporated  all  the  legal  and  constitutional 
reasoning,  furnished  by  his  namesake,  into  the  fair  draught  made  by  him  as  the 
report  of  the  committee,  and  that  the  existence  of  this  paper  in  the  handwriting 
of  the  former  constituted  the  evidence  upon  which  the  claim  of  authorship  in  his 
behalf  was  advanced.  But,  —  apart  from  the  internal  evidence  in  the  paper  of 
the  mind  of  a  jurist,  which  Samuel  Adams  was  not,  and  over  and  above  the  sub- 


Hlif.fth 


v.  1 1 


1 


N 


i 


Mr.  37.]  DIARY.  311 

joined  narrative,  —  there  is  among  the  papers  of  John  Adams  a  brief  note  from 
his  kinsman,  which  seems  to  set  the  question  at  rest.  An  exact  imitation  of  this 
note  accompanies  the  present  volume.  It  was  written  because  Governor  Hutch- 
inson, in  his  reply  to  the  House,  denied  one  of  the  main  positions  of  their  answer, 
and  because  it  became  necessary  that  the  person  who  had  originally  advanced  that 
position  should  be  called  upon,  when  disputed,  to  make  it  good.  The  letter  to 
Judge  Tudor  now  follows. 

"  Vanity  of  vanities,  all  is  vanity."  The  French  have  a  dis- 
tinction between  eulogy  and  apology.  I  know  not  under  which 
of  these  heads  to  class  the  following  anecdote. 

Governor  Hutchinson,  in  the  plenitude  of  his  vanity  and  self- 
sufficiency,  thought  he  could  convince  all  America  and  all  Europe 
that  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  had  an  authority  supreme, 
sovereign,  absolute,  and  uncontrollable  over  the  Colonies,  in  all 
cases  whatsoever.  In  full  confidence  of  his  own  influence,  at 
the  opening  of  a  session  of  the  legislature,  he  made  a  speech  to 
both  Houses,  in  which  he  demonstrated,  as  he  thought,  those 
mighty  truths  beyond  all  contradiction,  doubt,  or  question. 

The  public  stood  astonished!  The  two  Houses  appointed 
committees  to  take  into  consideration  the  Governor's  speech. 
If  any  honest  historian  should  ever  appear,  he  will  search  these 
records.  The  proceedings  of  the  Council  I  shall  leave  to  the 
historian. 

The  House  appointed  a  committee  to  take  into  consideration 
the  Governor's  speech.  Major  Hawley,  who,  far  from  assuming 
the  character  of  commander-in-chief  of  the  House,  pretended  to 
nothing,  still,  however,  insisted  with  the  committee  in  private 
that  they  should  invite  John  Adams  to  meet  with  them,  and  to 
take  his  opinion  and  advice  upon  every  question.  So  critical 
was  the  state  of  affairs,  that  Samuel  Adams,  John  Hancock, 
Thomas  Cushing,  and  all  their  friends  and  associates,  could 
carry  no  question  upon  legal  and  constitutional  subjects  in  the 
House,  without  the  countenance,  concurrence,  and  support  of 
Major  Hawley.  John  Adams  was,  therefore,  very  civilly  invited, 
requested,  and  urged  to  meet  the  committee ;  which  he  did  every 
evening  till  their  report  was  finished. 

When  I  first  met  the  gentlemen,  they  had  an  answer  to  his 
Excellency's  speech  already  prepared,  neatly  and  elegantly  com- 
posed, which  I  then  believed  had  been  written  by  Samuel  Adams, 
but  which  I  have  since  had  some  reasons  to  suspect  was  drawn 


312  DIARY.  [1773. 

at  his  desire,  and  with  his  cooperation,  by  my  friend,  Dr.  Joseph 
Warren.  It  was  full  of  those  elementary  principles  of  liberty, 
equality,  and  fraternity,  which  have  since  made  such  a  figure  in 
the  world ;  principles  which  are  founded  in  nature,  and  eternal, 
unchangeable  truth,  but  which  must  be  well  understood  and 
cautiously  applied.  It  is  not  safe  at  all  times,  and  in  every 
case,  to  apply  the  ratio  ultima  rerum, — resort  to  club  law  and  the 
force  of  arms.  There  was  no  answer  nor  attempt  to  answer  the 
Governor's  legal  and  constitutional  arguments,  such  as  they  were. 

I  found  myself  in  a  delicate  situation,  as  you  may  well  sup- 
pose. In  the  first  place,  the  self-love  of  the  composer,  who  I 
believed  to  be  Samuel  Adams,  having  then  no  suspicion  of 
Warren,  would  be  hurt  by  garbling  his  infant.  In  the  second 
place,  to  strike  out  principles  which  I  loved  as  well  as  any  of  the 
people,  would  be  odious  and  unpopular. 

We  read  that  West  would  give  five  hundred  dollars  for  a  red 
lion  that  he  painted  for  a  sign  post.  I,  poor  as  I  am,  would  give 
as  much  for  a  copy  of  that  answer  to  Governor  Hutchinson.  But 
I  fear  it  is  lost  forever.1  It  may,  however,  be  hereafter  found ; 
and  I  wish  it  may. 

Can  I  describe  to  you,  my  dear  Tudor,  the  state  of  my  mind  at 
that  time  ?  I  had  a  wife  —  and  what  a  wife !  I  had  children  — 
and  what  children !  I  was  determined  never  to  accept  any  office, 
place,  or  employment,  from  the  government  of  Great  Britain  or 
its  representatives,  governors  in  America.  On  the  other  hand,  I 
knew  here  was  nothing  for  me  to  depend  on  but  popular  breathy 
which  I  knew  to  be  as  variable  and  uncertain  as  any  one  of  the 
thirty-two  points  of  the  compass. 

In  this  situation  I  should  have  thought  myself  the  happiest 
man  in  the  world,  if  I  could  have  retired  to  my  little  hut  and 
forty  acres,  which  my  father  left  me  in  Braintree,  and  lived  on 
potatoes  and  sea-weed  for  the  rest  of  my  life.  But  I  had  taken 
a  part,  I  had  adopted  a  system,  I  had  encouraged  my  fellow- 
citizens,  and  I  could  not  abandon  them  in  conscience  nor  in 
honor.     I  determined,  therefore,  to  set  friends  and  enemies  at 


1  At  this  time  it  seems  not  a  little  strange  to  find  all  knowledge  of  the  existence 
of  this  now  celebrated  paper  so  completely  lost  in  the  mind  of  the  person  most 
interested  in  it.  But  nothing  is  more  marked  in  the  whole  of  Mr.  Adams's  life, 
than  his  disregard  of  those  memorials  which  go  far  more  to  form  posthumous 
reputation  than  the  most  brilliant  actions  of  a  life. 


JEt.  37.]  DIARY.  313 

defiance,  and  follow  my  own  best  judgment,  whatever  might 
"  fall  thereon,"  to  borrow  a  phrase  from  our  old  legal  formulary. 

JWe_read  the  answer, _paragraph  by  paragraph.  I  suggested 
my  doubts,  scruples,  and  difficulties.  The  committee  seemed  to 
see  and  to  feel  the  force  of  them.  The  gentlemen  condescended 
to  ask  my  opinion,  what  answer  would  be  proper  for  them  to 
report  ?  I  modestly  suggested  to  them  the  expediency  of  leaving 
out  many  of  those  popular  and  eloquent  periods,  and  of  discuss- 
ing the  question  with  the  Governor  upon  principles  more  espe- 
_cially_legal  and  constitutional.  The  gentlemen  very  civilly 
requested  me  to  undertake  the  task,  and  I  agreed  to  attempt  it. 

The  committee  met  from  evening  to  evening,  and  I  soon  made 
my  report.  I  drew  a  line  over  the  most  eloquent  parts  of  the 
oration  they  had  before  them,  and  introduced  those  legal  and 
Justorical  authorities  which  appear  on  the  record.  It  is  more 
than  forty  years  since  I  have  seen  any  one  of  those  papers  which 
composed  that  controversy,  and  I  know  not  how  they  would 
appear  to  the  present  generation,  nor,  indeed,  how  they  would 
appear  to  myself.  They  stand  upon  record,  and  were  printed 
together  in  a  pamphlet,  and  no  doubt  in  the  newspapers.  They 
ought  to  be  looked  up,  for  the  effect  of  them  upon  public  opinion 
was  beyond  expectation.  The  Governor's  reasoning,  instead  of 
convincing  the  people  that  Parliament  had  sovereign  authority 
over  them  in  all  cases  whatsoever,  seemed  to  convince  all  the 
world  that  Parliament  had  no  authority  over  them  in  any  case 
whatsoever.  Mr.  Hutchinson  really  made  a  meagre  figure  in 
that  dispute.  Hehadwaded  beyond  hi- depth.  He  had  wholly 
misunderstood  the  legal  doctrine  of  allegiance. 

In  all  great  affairs  there  is  always  something  ridiculous;  et, 
malheureusement,  j'ai  toujours  ete  trop  incline  a  saisir  les  ridi- 
cules. I  had  quoted  largely  from  a  law  authority  which  no  man 
in  Massachusetts,  at  that  time,  had  ever  read.  Hutchinson  and 
all  his  law  counsels  were  in  fault ;  they  could  catch  no  scent. 
They  dared  not  deny  it,  lest  the  book  should  be  produced  to 
their  confusion.  It  was  humorous  enough  to  see  how  Hutch- 
inson wriggled  to  evade  it.  He  found  nothing  better  to  say  than 
that  it  was  "  the  artificial  reasoning  of  Lord  Coke."  The  book 
was  Moore's  Reports.  The  owner  of  it,  for,  alas  !  master,  it  was 
borrowed,  was  a  buyer,  but  not  a  reader,  of  books.  It  had  been 
Mr.  Gridley's. 

VOf,.    II.  27 


314  DIARY.  [1773. 

1773.  January  the  first,  being  Friday.  I  have  felt  very  well 
and  been  in  very  good  spirits  all  day.  I  never  was  happier  in  my 
whole  life  than  I  have  been  since  I  returned  to  Boston.  I  feel 
easy  and  composed  and  contented.  The  year  to  come  will  be  a 
pleasant,  a  cheerful,  a  happy,  and  a  prosperous  year  to  me.  At 
least,  such  are  the  forebodings  of  my  mind  at  present.  My  resolu- 
tions to  devote  myself  to  the  pleasures,  the  studies,  the  business, 
and  the  duties  of  private  life,  are  a  source  of  ease  and  comfort  to 
me  that  I  scarcely  ever  experienced  before.  Peace,  be  still,  my 
once  anxious  heart.  A  head  full  of  schemes,  and  a  heart  full  of 
anxiety,  are  incompatible  with  any  degree  of  happiness. 

I  have  said  above,  that  I  have  the  prospect  before  me  of  a  happy 
and  prosperous  year,  and  I  will  not  retract  it,  because  I  feel  a 
great  pleasure  in  the  expectation  of  it,  and  I  think  that  there  is 
a  strong  probability  and  presumption  of  it.  Yet  fire  may  destroy 
my  substance,  diseases  may  desolate  my  family,  and  death  may 
put  a  period  to  my  hopes  and  fears,  pleasures  and  pains,  friend- 
ships and  enmities,  virtues  and  vices. 

This  evening,  my  friend  Mr.  Pemberton  invited  me,  and  I 
went  with  him,  to  spend  the  evening  with  Jere.  Wheelwright. 
Mr.  Wheelwright  is  a  gentleman  of  a  liberal  education,  about 
fifty  years  of  age,  and  constantly  confined  to  his  chamber  by 
lameness.  A  fortune  of  about  two  hundred  pounds  a  year  ena- 
bles him  to  entertain  his  few  friends  very  handsomely,  and  he 
has  them  regularly  at  his  chamber  every  Tuesday  and  Friday 
evening. 

The  Speaker,  Dr.  Warren,  and  Mr.  Swift  were  there,  and  we 
six  had  a  very  pleasant  evening.  Our  conversation  turned  upon 
the  distress  of  Rhode  Island,  upon  the  Judges'  dependency,  the 
late  numerous  town-meetings,  upon  Brattle's  publication  in  Dra- 
per's paper  of  yesterday,  and  upon  each  other's  characters.  We 
were  very  free,  especially  upon  one  another.  I  told  Cushing,  as 
Ruggles  told  Tyler,  that  I  never  knew  a  pendulum  swing  so 
clear.  Warren  told  me  that  Pemberton  said  I  was  the  proudest 
and  cunningest  fellow  he  ever  knew.  We  all  rallied  Pemberton 
upon  the  late  appointment  of  Tommy  Hutchinson 1  to  be  a  Judge 
of  the  common  bench,  and  pretended  to  insist  upon  it  that  he 

1  Thomas  Hutchinson,  Jr.  the  son  of  the  Governor,  who  made  no  scruple  of 
providing  tor  his  relations. 


JEt.  37.]  DIARY.  315 

was  disappointed  and  had  lost  all  his  late  trimming,  and  luke- 
warmness,  and  toryism.  Warren  thought  I  was  rather  a  cautious 
man,  but  that  he  could  not  say  I  ever  trimmed ;  when  I  spoke  at 
all,  I  always  spoke  my  sentiments.  This  was  a  little  soothing 
to  my  proud  heart,  no  doubt. 

Brattle  has  published  a  narration  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
town  of  Cambridge  at  their  late  meeting,  and  he  has  endeavored 
to  deceive  the  world. 

March  4.  Thursday.  The  two  last  months  have  slided  away. 
I  have  written  a  tedious  examination  of  Brattle's  absurdities. 
The  Governor  and  General  Court  have  been  engaged,  for  two 
months,  upon  the  greatest  question  ever  yet  agitated.  I  stand 
amazed  at  the  Governor  for  forcing  on  this  controversy.  He  will 
not  be  thanked  for  this.  His  ruin  and  destruction  must  spring 
out  of  it,  either  from  the  Ministry  and  Parliament  on  one  hand, 
or  from  his  countrymen  on  the  other.  He  has  reduced  himself 
to  a  most  ridiculous  state  of  distress.  He  is  closeting  and  solicit- 
ing Mr.  Bowdoin,  Mr.  Denny,  Dr.  Church,  &c.  &c.  and  seems  in 
the  utmost  agony. 

The  original  of  my  controversy  with  Brattle  is  worthy  to  be 
committed  to  writing  in  these  memoranda.  At  the  town  meet- 
ing in  Cambridge,  called  to  consider  of  the  Judges'  salaries,  he 
advanced  for  law  that  the  judges,  by  this  appointment,  would 
be  completely  independent ;  for  that  they  held  estates  for  life  in 
their  offices,  by  common  law,  and  their  nomination  and  appoint- 
ment. And  he  said,  "  This  I  aver  to  be  law,  and  I  will  maintain 
it  against  anybody ;  I  will  dispute  it  with  Mr.  Otis,  Mr.  Adams, 
(Mr.  John  Adams,  I  mean,)  and  Mr.  Josiah  Quincy.  I  would 
dispute  it  with  them  here  in  town  meeting ;  nay,  I  will  dispute 
it  with  them  in  the  newspapers." 

He  was  so  elated  with  that  applause  which  this  inane 
harangue  procured  him  from  the  enemies  of  this  country,  that 
in  the  next  Thursday's  Gazette  he  roundly  advanced  the  same 
doctrine  in  print,  and,  the  Thursday  after,  invited  any  gentleman 
to  dispute  with  him  upon  his  points  of  law. 

These  vain  and  frothy  harangues  and  scribblings  would  have 
had  no  effect  upon  me,  if  I  had  not  seen  that  his  ignorant  doc- 
trines were  taking  root  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  many  of 
whom  were,  in  appearance,  if  not  in  reality,  taking  it  for  granted 
that  the  Judges  held  their  places  during  good  behavior. 


316  DIARY.  [1773. 

Upon  this,  I  determined  to  enter  the  lists,  and  the  General 
was  very  soon  silenced ; l  whether  from  conviction,  or  from 
policy,  or  contempt,  I  know  not. 

It  is  thus  that  little  incidents  produce  great  events.  I  have 
never  known  a  period  in  which  the  seeds  of  great  events_have 
been  so  plentifully  sown  as  this  winter.  A  Providence  is  visible 
in  that  concurrence  of  causes,  which  produced  the  debates  and 
controversies  of  this  winter.  The  Court  of  Inquisition  at  Rhode 
Island,  the  Judges'  salaries,  the  Massachusetts  Bay  town  meet- 
ings,2 General  Brattle's  folly,  all  conspired  in  a  remarkable,  a 
wonderful  manner.  My  own  determination  had  been  to  decline 
all  invitations  to  public  affairs  and  inquiries.  But  Brattle's  rude, 
indecent,  and  unmeaning  challenge,  of  me  in  particular,  laid  me 
under  peculiar  obligations  to  undeceive  the  people,  and  changed 
my  resolution.  I  hope  that  some  good  will  come  out  of  it —  God 
knows. 

[In  the  year  1773,  arose  a  controversy  concerning  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Judges.  The  King  had  granted  a  salary  to  the 
Judges  of  our  Superior  Court,  and  forbidden  them  to  receive 
their  salaries,  as  usual,  from  the  grants  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, and  the  Council  and  Governor,  as  had  been  practised 
till  this  time.  This,  as  the  Judges'  commissions  were  during 
pleasure,  made  them  entirely  dependent  on  the  Crown  for  bread 
as  well  as  office.  The  friends  of  government  were  anxious  to 
persuade  the  people  that  their  commissions  were  during  good 
behavior.  Brigadier-General  Brattle,  who  had  been  a  practi- 
tioner of  law,  and  was  at  this  time  in  his  Majesty's  Council, 
after  some  time  came  out  with  his  name  in  one  of  the  Gazettes, 
with  a  formal  attempt  to  prove  that  the  Judges  held  their  offices 
for  life.  Perhaps  I  should  not  have  taken  any  public  notice  of 
this,  if  it  had  not  been  industriously  circulated  among  the  people 
that  the  General  had,  at  a  town  meeting  in  Cambridge  the  week 
before,  advanced  this  doctrine,  and  challenged  me,  by  name,  to 
dispute  the  point  with  him.     His  challenge  I  should  have  disre- 

1  The  papers  written  during  this  controversy,  not  being  entirely  temporary  in 
their  character,  will  be  found  in  another  volume. 

2  This  measure,  which  greatly  contributed  to  accelerate  the  Revolution  by 
the  organization  j^f_committees  of  correspondence  throughout  the  Province,  is 
fully  dwelt  upon  by  'Hutchinson,  vol.  iii.  p.  361-370;  by  Gordon,  i.  314-320; 
and  by  Bradford,  i.  258-262. 


2Et.  37.]  DIARY.  317 

garded ;  but  as  his  appeal  to  me  was  public,  if  I  should  remain 
silent,  it  would  be  presumed  that  my  opinion  coincided  with  his. 
It  was  of  great  importance  that  the  people  should  form  a  correct 
opinion  on  this  subject ;  and  therefore  I  sent  to  the  press  a  letter 
in  answer,  which  drew  me  on  to  the  number  of  eight  letters, 
which  may  be  seen  in  the  Boston  Gazette  for  this  year.  The 
doctrine  and  the  history  of  independence  of  Judges,  was  detailed 
and  explained  as  well  as  my  time,  avocations,  and  information 
enabled  me ;  imperfect  and  unpolished  as  they  were,  they  were 
well-timed.  The  minds  of  all  men  were  awake,  and  every  thing 
was  eagerly  read  by  every  one  who  could  read.  These  papers 
accordingly  contributed  to  spread  correct  opinions  concerning 
the  importance  of  the  independence  of  the  Judges  to  liberty  and 
safety,  and  enabled  the  Convention  of  Massachusetts,  in  1779,  to  ^ 
adopt  them  into  the  constitution  of  the  Commonwealth,  as  the 
State  of  New  York  had  done  before  partially,  and  as  the  con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  did  afterwards,  in  1787.  The 
principles  developed  in  these  papers  have  been  very  generally, 
indeed,  almost  universally,  prevalent  among  the  people  of  Amer- 
ica Jrwnjthat  time.] 

5.  Friday.  Heard  an  oration,  at  Mr.  Hunt's  *  meeting-house, 
by  Dr.  Benjamin  Church,  in  commemoration  of  the  massacre  in 
King  Street  three  years  ago.  That  large  church  was  filled  and 
crowded  in  every  pew,  seat,  alley,  and  gallery,  by  an  audience 
of  several  thousands  of  people,  of  all  ages  and  characters,  and 
of  both  sexes. 

I  have  reason  to  remember  that  fatal  night.  The  part  I  took 
in  defence  of  Captain  Preston  and  the  soldiers  procured  me 
anxiety  and  obloquy  enough.  It  was,  however,  one  of  the  most 
gallant,  generous,  manly,  and  disinterested  actions  of  my  whole 
life,  and  one  of  the  best  pieces  of  service  I  ever  rendered  my 
country.  Judgment  of  death  against  those  soldiers  would  have 
been  as  foul  a  stain  upon  this  country  as  the  executions  of  the 
quakers  or  witches  anciently.  As  the  evidence  was,  the  verdict 
of  the  jury  was  exactly  right. 

This,  however,  is  no  reason  why  the  town  should  not  call  the 
action  of  that  night  a  massacre ;  nor  is  it  any  argument  in  favor 

1  Commonly  known  as  the  "  Old  South." 

27  * 


318  DIARY.  [1773. 

of  the  Governor  or  Minister  who  caused  them  to  be  sent  here. 
But  it  is  the  strongest  of  proofs  of  the  danger  of  standing  armies 

22.  Monday.  This  afternoon  received  a  collection  of  seven- 
teen letters  written  from  this  Province,  Rhode  Island,  Connect- 
icut, and  New  York,  by  Hutchinson,  Oliver,  Moffat,  Paxton,  and 
Rome,  in  the  years  1767,  1768,  1769.1 

They  came  from  England  under  such  injunctions  of  secrecy, — 
as  to  the  person  to  whom  they  were  written,  by  whom  and  to 
whom  they  are  sent  here,  and  as  to  the  contents  of  them,  no 
copies  of  the  whole  or  any  part  to  be  taken,  —  that  it  is  difficult 
to  make  any  public  use  of  them. 

These  curious  projectors  and  speculators  in  politics,  will  ruin 
jtliis  country.  Cool,  thinking,  deliberate  villain,  malicious  and 
vindictive,  as  well  as  ambitious  and  avaricious.  The  secrecy 
of  these  epistolary  genii  is  very  remarkable ;  profoundly  secret, 
dark,  and  deep. 

April  7.  Wednesday.  At  Charlestown.  What  shall  I  write, 
say,  do  ?     Sterility,  vacuity,  barrenness  of  thought  and  reflection. 

What  news  shall  we  hear  ? 

24.  Saturday.  I  have  communicated  to  Mr.  Norton  Quincy 
and  to  Mr.  Wibird  the  important  secret.  They  are  as  much 
affected  by  it  as  any  others.  Bone  of  our  bone,  born  and  edu- 
v  cated  among  us !  Mr.  Hancock  is  deeply  affected ;  is  determined, 
in  conjunction  with  Major  Hawley,  to  watch  the  vile  serpent,  and 
his  deputy  serpent,  Brattle.  The  subtlety  of  this  serpent  is  equal 
to  that  of  the  old  one.  Aunt  is  let  into  the  secret,  and  is  full  of 
her  interjections! 

1  These  are  the  celebrated  letters  transmitted  by  Dr.  Franklin  from  London 
to  Mr.  Thomas  Cushing  at  Boston,  then  Speaker  of  the  House,  the  publication 
of  which  caused  a  duel  between  Messrs.  Temple  and  Whately,  in  England. 
The  source  from  which  they  came  has  never  yet  been  fully  ascertained.  A 
complete  copy  of  Governor  Hutchinson's  principal  letter,  made  in  the  hand- 
writing of  Mr.  Adams,  remains  among  his  papers.  In  a  letter  written  to  Dr. 
Hosack,  28  January,  1820,  he  says,  "I  was  one  of  the  first  persons  to  whom  Mr. 
Cushing  communicated  the  great  bundle  of  letters  of  Hutchinson  and  Oliver," 
&c.  Mr.  Cushing's  letter  of  acknowledgment  bears  date  the  24th  of  March, 
and  begins  thus :  "  I  have  just  received  your  favor  of  the  2d  December  last, 
with  the  several  papers  enclosed,  for  which  I  am  much  obliged  to  you."  It 
would  seem,  from  this  entry  in  the  Diary  of  two  days  earlier,  that  no  time  had 
been  lost  in  making  them  known  to  the  confidential  circle.  Those  who  are  dis- 
posed to  place  reliance  upon  Hutchinson's  account  of  any  thing  appertaining  to 
the  action  of  the  leading  patriots,  will  do  well  to  contrast  his  narrative  of  this  pro- 
ceeding, vol.  iii.  pp.  394-396,  including  the^garbled  letter  in  the  note,  with  the 
correspondence  published  in  the  fourth  volume  of  Mr.  Sparks's  edition  of  Frank- 
lin's writings. 


Mt.  37.]  DIARY.  :j!9 

But  Cushing  tells  me  that  Powell  told  him,  he  had  it  from  a 
tory,  or  one  who  was  not  suspected  to  be  any  thing  else,  that 
certain  letters  were  come,  written  by  four  persons,  which  would 
show  the  causes  and  the  authors  of  our  present  grievances.  This 
tory,  we  conjecture  to  be  Bob  Temple,  who  has  received  a  letter,1 
in  which  he  is  informed  of  these  things:  if  the  secret2 — out  by 
this  means,  I  am  glad  it  is  not  to  be  charged  upon  any  of  us, 
to  whom  it  has  been  committed  in  confidence. 

Fine,  gentle  rain,  last  night  and  this  morning,  which  will  lay 

a  foundation  for  a  crop  of  grass.     My  men  at  Braintree  have 

been  building  me  a  wall  this  week,  against  my  meadow.     This 

_is_all  the  gain  that  I  make  by  my  farm,  to  repay  me  my  great 

expense.     I  get  my  land  better  secured  and  manured. 

April  25.  Sunday.  Heard  Dr.  Chauncy  in  the  morning,  and 
Dr.  Cooper  this  afternoon.  Dr.  Cooper  was  upon  Revela- 
tions, xii.  9 :  — "  And  the  great  dragon  was  cast  out,  that  old 
serpent  called  the  Devil  and  Satan,  which  deceiveth  the  whole 
world ;  he  was  cast  out  into  the  earth,  and  his  angels  were  cast 
out  with  him."  Q.  Whether  the  Doctor  had  not  some  political 
allusions  in  the  choice  of  this  text  ? 

May  24.  Tuesday.  To-morrow  is  our  general  election.  The 
plots,  plans,  schemes,  and  machinations  of  this  evening  and 
night  will  be  very  numerous.  By  the  number  of  ministerial, 
governmental  people  returned,  and  by  the  secrecy  of  the  friends 
of  liberty  relating  to  the  grand  discovery  of  the  complete  evi- 
dence of  the  whole  mystery  of  iniquity,  I  much  fear  the  elections 
will  go  unhappily.  For  myself,  I  own,  I  tremble  at  the  thought 
of  an  election.  What  will  be  expected  of  me  ?  What  will  be 
required  of  me  ?  What  duties  and  obligations  will  result  to 
me  from  an  election  ?  What  duties  to  my  God,  my  king,  my 
country,  my  family,  my  friends,  myself?      What  perplexities, 

1  In  the  letter  to  Dr.  Hosack,  already  mentioned,  Mr.  Adams  distinctly  states 
that  Sir  John  Temple  told  him,  in  Holland,  that  he  had  furnished  these  letters 
to  Dr.  Franklin.  He  adds,  however,  his  belief  that  they  were  delivered  through 
the,  hands  of  a  third  person,  a  member  of  Parliament.  This  precisely  corres- 
ponds with  the  impression  of  Governor  Hutchinson  himself,  soon  after  the  time, 
derived  from  sources  wholly  distinct,  but  only  known  to  the  world  since  the  pub- 
lication of  his  third  volume,  in  1828,  two  years  after  Mr.  Adams's  death.  If,  in 
addition  to  this  evidence,  any  credence  at  all  be  given  to  the  rumor  mentioned 
in  the  text,  scarcely  a  doubt  can  remain  thatJSir  JohnJTemple  Mas  the  man 
who  procured  them,  although  the  way  he;  did  it  remains  hidden  as  ever. 

-  The  words  "should  leak  "  erased  in  the  original,  and  none  substituted. 


320  DIARY.  [1773. 

and  intricacies,  and  difficulties  shall  I  be  exposed  to?  What 
snares  and  temptations  will  be  thrown  in  my  way  ?  What  self- 
denials  and  mortifications  shall  I  be  obliged  to  bear  ? 

If  I  should  be  called  in  the  course  of  providence  to  take  a 
\/  part  in  public  life,  I  shall  act  a  fearless,  intrepid,  undaunted  part 
at  all  hazards,  though  it  shall  be  my  endeavor  likewise,  to  act  a 
prudent,  cautious,  and  considerate  part.  But  if  I  should  be 
excused  by  a  non-election,  or  by  the  exertions  of  prerogative 1 , 
from  engaging  in  public  business,  I  shall  enjoy  a  sweet  tran- 
quillity in  the  pursuit  of  my  private  business,  in  the  education 
of  my  children,  and  in  a  constant  attention  to  the  preservation 
of  my  health.  This  last  is  the  most  selfish  and  pleasant  system, 
the  first,  the  more  generous,  though  arduous  and  disagreeable. 
But  I  was  not  sent  into  this  world  to  spend  my  days  in  sports, 
diversions,  and  pleasures  ;  I  was  born  for  business,  for  both 
activity  and  study.  I  have  little  appetite  or  relish  for  any  thing 
else.  I  must  double  and  redouble  my  diligence.  I  must  be 
more  constant  to  my  office  and  my  pen  ;  constancy  accomplishes 
more  than  rapidity ;  continual  attention  will  do  great  things  ; 
frugality  of  time  is  the  greatest  art,  as  well  as  virtue.  This 
economy  will  produce  knowledge  as  well  as  wealth. 

Spent  this  evening  at  Wheelwright's,  with  Parson  Williams 
of  Sandwich,  Parson  Lawrence  of  Lincoln,  Mr.  Pemberton, 
and  Swift.  Williams  took  up  the  whole  evening  with  stories 
about  Colonel  Otis,  and  his  son,  the  Major.2  "  The  Major 
employed  the  Treasurer  and  Parson  Walter  to  represent  him 
to  the  Governor  as  a  friend  to  government,  in  order  to  get 
the  commission  of  lieutenant-colonel.  The  Major  quarrels  and 
fights  with  Bacon ;  they  came  to,  '  you  lie,'  and  '  you  lie ; ' 
and  often  very  near  to  blows,  sometimes  quite.  The  Major 
has  '  Liberty '  written  over  his  manufactory  house,  and  the 
Major  enclosed  the  exceptionable  passages  in  the  Governor's 
proclamation  in  crotchets.  Colonel  Otis  reads  to  large  circles 
of  the  common  people  Allen's  Oration  on  the  Beauties  of  Lib- 
erty, and  recommends  it  as  an  excellent  production." 

1  This  alludes  to  the  nomination  of  him  by  the  friends  of  liberty,  as  a  member 
of  the. Council.  Two  days  afterwards  he  was  chosen  by  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, and  on  the  next,  the  Governor  sent  down  a  message,  interposing  his 
negative.     In  his  History,  he  assigns  as  a  reason  for  this  negative,  the  u  very  i  on- 

\         spicuous  part  Mr.  Adams  had  taken  in  opposition."     Vol.  iii.  p.  396. 

2  The  lather,  and  brother  of  James  Otis. 


iET.  37.]  DIARY.  321 

Stories  of  Colonel  Otis' s  ignorance  of  law,  about  joint-tenan- 
cies. Criticizing  upon  the  word  household-goods  in  a  will  of 
the  Parson's  writing,  and  saying  it  was  a  word  the  law  knew 
nothing  of;  it  should  have  been  household-stuff.  Colonel  Otis's 
orthodoxy,  and  yet  some  years  ago,  his  arguing  in  the  strain  of 
Tindal  against  Christianity. 

Yet  some  years  ago  Otis  and  Williams  were  very  friendly. 
These  prejudices  against  Otis  and  his  family  are  very  carefully 
cultivated  by  the  Tories  in  that  county,  and  by  the  Judges  of  the 
Superior  Court.  They  generally  keep  Sabbath  there.  The 
Chief  Justice  went  to  spend  the  evening  with  him  this  year 
when  I  was  at  Sandwich,  in  order  to  keep  up  his  spirits  and  fill 
his  head  with  malicious  stories.  After  I  got  home  my  wife  sur- 
prised me;  she  had  been  to  Justice  Quincy's.  Mr.  Hancock 
came  in,  and  gave,  before  a  large  company  of  both  sexes,  to  Mr. 
Cooper,  a  particular  account  of  all  the  plans  of  operation  for 
to-morrow,1  which  he  and  many  others  had  been  concerting. 
Cooper,  no  doubt,  carried  it  directly  to  Brattle,  or  at  least,  to  his 
son  Thomas  ;  —  such  a  leaky  vessel  is  this  worthy  gentleman. 

June  8.  Parson  Turner's  sermon,  the  spirited  election,  Parson 
Howard's  artillery  sermon,  the  seventeen  letters,  Dr.  Shipley's 
sermon,  the  Bishop  of  Saint  Asaph,  before  the  Society  for  Propa- 
gating the  Gospel,  discover  the  times  to  be  altered.  But  how 
long  will  the  tides  continue  to  set  this  way  ? 

July  16.  Drank  tea  at  Dr.  Cooper's  with  Mr.  Adams,  Mr.  S. 
Elliot,  Mr.  T.  Chase,  and  with  Mr.  Mifflin,  of  Philadelphia,  and 
a  French  gentleman.  Mr.  Mifflin  2  is  a  grandson,  his  mother 
was  the  daughter,  of  Mr.  Bagnall  of  this  town,  who  was  buried 
the  day  before  yesterday.  Mr.  Mifflin  is  a  representative  of  the 
city  of  Philadelphia  ;  a  very  sensible  and  agreeable  man.  Their 
academy  emits  from  nine  to  fourteen  graduates  annually.  Their 
grammar  school  has  from  ninety  to  one  hundred  scholars  in  all. 
Mr.  Mifflin  is  an  easy  and  a  very  correct  speaker. 

Mr.  F.  Dana  came  to  me  with  a  message  from  Mr.  Henry 
Marchant,  of  Rhode  Island,  and  to  ask  my  opinion  concerning 
the  measures  thev  are  about  to  take  with  Rome's  and  Moffat's  3 

1  The  day  of  election.  Hancock's  allusion  was  probably  to  the  selection 
already  made  of  counsellors,  of  whom  Mr.  Adams  was  one. 

2  Thomas  Mifflin,  afterwards  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania.  His  history  is 
well  known. 

3  These  were  in  the  package  sent  from  England  by  Dr.  Franklin.     See  page 

U 


22  DIARY.  [1773. 


letters.  They  want  the  originals,  that  they  may  be  prosecuted 
as  libels,  by  their  attorney-general  and  grand  jury.  I  told  him 
I  thought  they  could  not  proceed  without  the  originals,  nor  with 
them,  if  there  was  any  material  obliteration  or  erasure,  though 
I  had  not  examined,  and  was  not  certain  of  this  point,  nor  did  I 
remember  whether  there  was  any  obliteration  on  Rome's  and 
Moffat's  letters.  Mr.  Dana  says  the  falsehoods  and  misrepresen- 
tations in  Rome's  letters  are  innumerable  and  very  flagrant. 
Spent  the  evening  with  Cushing,  Adams,  Pemberton,  and  Swift, 
at  Wheelwright's  ;  nobody  very  chatty  but  Pemberton. 


July  19.  Monday. 

To    Thomas    Hutchinson.1 

Sir: —  You  will  hear  from  us  with  astonishment.  You  ought 
to  hear  from  us  with  horror.  You  are  chargeable  before  God 
and  man,  with  our  blood.  The  soldiers  were  but  passive  instru- 
ments, mere  machines ;  neither  moral  nor  voluntary  agents  in 
our  destruction,  more  than  the  leaden  pellets  with  which  we 
were  wounded.  You  was  a  free  agent.  You  acted,  coolly, 
deliberately,  with  all  that  premeditated  malice,  not  against  us  in- 
particular,  but  against  the  people  in  general,  which,  in  the  sight 
of  the  law,  is  an  ingredient  in  the  composition  of  murder.  You 
will  hear  further  from  us  hereafter.  Chrispus  Attucks. 

^August  23.  Monday.  Went  this  morning  to  Mr.  Boylston's 
to  make  a  wedding  visit  to  Mr.  Gill2  and  his  lady.  A  very 
cordial,  polite,  and  friendly  reception,  I  had.  Mr.  Gill  showed 
me  Mr.  Boylston's  garden,  and  a  large,  beautiful,  and  agreeable 
one  it  is;  a  great  variety  of  excellent  fruit,  plums,  pears,  peaches, 
grapes,  currants,  &c.  &c. ;  a  fig  tree,  &c. 

318.  Mr.  George  Rome  was  a  gentleman  of  large  property  who  came  from  the 
mother  country  and  established  himself  in  Rhode  Island.  His  letter  contained 
charges  of  the  worst  kind  against  the  principal  persons  in  that  colony.  Dr. 
_Moff'at  was  a  Scotchman,  and  had  been  one  of  the  officers  appointed  under  the 
Stamp  Act.    See  Updike's  History  of  the  Narragansett  Church,  pp.  252,  332-343. 

1  This  address,  in  the  name  of  the  mulatto  who  was  shot  by  the  soldiers  in  the 
riot  of  the  5th  of  March,  1770,  seems  to  have  been  intended  for  publication  in  a 
newspaper. 

2  Moses  Gill,  afterwards  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Massachusetts,  married  a 
sister  of  Thomas  and  Nicholas  Bovlston. 


JEt.  37.]  DIARY.  323 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gill  both  gave  me  a  very  polite  invitation  to  sup 
and  spend  the  evening  there,  with  Mr.  Lynch  and  his  lady,  which 
I  promised  to  do.  At  noon,  I  met  Mr.  Boylston  upon  'Change, 
and  he  repeated  the  invitation  in  a  very  agreeable  manner. 

In  the  evening  I  waited  on  my  wife  there,  and  found  Mr. 
Lynch1  and  his  lady  and  daughter,  Mr.  Smith,  his  lady  and 
daughter,  and  Miss  Nabby  Taylor ;  and  a  very  agreeable  even- 
ing we  had.  Mr.  Lynch  is  a  solid,  sensible,  though  a  plain  man ; 
a  hearty  friend  to  America  and  her  righteous  cause.  His  lady 
has  the  behavior  and  appearance  of  a  very  worthy  woman,  and 
the  daughter  seems  to  be  worthy  of  such  parents. 

30.  Monday.  Spent  the  evening  with  my  wife  at  her  uncle 
Smith's,  in  company  with  Mr.  Lynch,  his  lady  and  daughter, 
Colonel  Howarth,  Ms  sister  and  daughter,  Mr.  Edward  Green 
and  his  wife,  &c.  The  young  ladies,  Miss  Smith  and  Miss 
Lynch,  entertained  us  upon  the  spinet,  &c.  Mr.  Lynch  still 
maintains  the  character.  Colonel  Howarth  attracted  no  atten- 
tion, until  he  discovered  his  antipathy  to  a  cat. 

December  17.  Last  night,  three  cargoes  of  Bohea  tea  were 
emptied  into  the  sea.  This  morning  a  man-of-war  sails.  This 
is  thejnost  magnificent  movement  of  all.2  There  is  a  dignity, 
a  majesty,  a  sublimity,  in  this  last  effort  of  the  patriots,  that  I 
greatly  admire.  The  people  should  never  rise  without  doing 
something  to  be  remembered,  something  notable  and  striking. 
This  destruction  of  the  tea  is  so  bold,  so  daring,  so  firm,  intrepid 
and  inflexible,  and  it  must  have  so  important  consequences,  and 
so  lasting,  that  I  cannot  but  consider  it  as  an  epocha  in  history. 
This,  however,  is  but  an  attack  upon  property.  Another  similar 
exertion  of  popular  power  may  produce  the  destruction  of  lives , 
Many  persons  wish  that  as  many  dead  carcasses  were  floating  in 
the  harbor,  as  there  are  chests  of  tea.  A  much  less  number  of 
lives,  however,  would  remove  the  causes  of  all  our  calamities. 
The  malicious  pleasure  with  which  Hutchinson  the  Governor, 
the  consignees  of  the  tea,  and  the  officers  of  the  customs,  have 

1  Thomas  Lynch,  of  South  Carolina,  elected  a  delegate  to  the  first  and  suc- 
ceeding Congress.  His  son,  Thomas  Lynch,  Jr.,  was  a  signer  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  A  biography  of  the  latter,  including  a  notice  of  the  father,  is 
found  in  Mr.  Sanderson's  valuable  collection. 

2  In  the  general  correspondence,  will  be  found  a  letter  of  this  date  directed  to 
General  James  Warren,  of  Plymouth,  showing  some  degree  of  acquaintance  with 
this  movement. 


324  DIARY.  [17  73. 

stood  and  looked  upon  the  distresses  of  the  people  and  then- 
struggles  to  get  the  tea  back  to  London,  and  at  last  the  destruc- 
tion of  it,  is  amazing.  'Tis  hard  to  believe  persons  so  hardened 
and  abandoned. 

What  measures  will  the  Ministry  take  in  consequence  of  this  ? 
Will  they  resent  it  ?  Will  they  dare  to  resent  it  ?  WTill  they 
punish  us  ?  How  ?  By  quartering  troops  upon  us  ?  by  annul- 
ling our  charter  ?  by  laying  on  more  duties  ?  by  restraining  our 
trade  ?  by  sacrifice  of  individuals  ?  or  how  ? 

The  question  is,  Whether  the  destruction  of  this  tea  was 
necessary  ?  I  apprehend  it  was  absolutely  and  indispensably 
so.  They  could  not  send  it  back.  The  Governor,  Admiral,  and 
Collector  and  Comptroller  would  not  suffer  it.  It  was  in  then- 
power  to  have  saved  it,  but  in  no  other.  It  could  not  get  by 
the  castle,  the  men-of-war,  &c.  Then  there  was  no  other  altern- 
ative but  to  destroy  it  or  let  it  be  landed.  To  let  it  be  landed, 
would  be  giving  up  the  principle  of  taxation  by  parliamentary 
authority,  against  which  the  continent  has  struggled  for  ten 
years.  It  was  losing  all  our  labor  for  ten  years,  and  subjecting 
ourselves  and  our  posterity  forever  to  Egyptian  task-masters ;  to 
burthens,  indignities ;  to  ignominy,  reproach  and  contempt;  to 
desolation  and  oppression ;  to  poverty  and  servitude.  But  it 
will  be  said,  it  might  have  been  left  in  the  care  of  a  committee 
of  the  town,'  or  in  Castle  William.  To  this  many  objections 
may  be  made. 

Deacon  Palmer  and  Mr.  Isaac  Smith  dined  with  me,  and 
Mr.  Trumbull  came  in.  They  say  the  Tories  blame  the  consign- 
ees as  much  as  the  Whigs  do,  and  say  that  the  Governor  will 
lose  his  place,  for  not  taking  the  tea  into  his  protection  before, 
by  means  of  the  ships  of  war,  I  suppose,  and  the  troops  at  the 
castle.  I  saw  him  this  morning  pass  my  window  in  a  chariot, 
with  the  Secretary;  and  by  the  marching  and  countermarching 
of  counsellors,  I  suppose  they  have  been  framing  a  proclamation, 
offering  a  reward  to  discover  the  persons,  their  aiders,  abettors, 
counsellors,  and  consorters,  who  were  concerned  in  the  riot  last 
night.  Spent  the  evening  with  Cushing,  Pemberton,  and  Swift, 
at  Wheelwright's.  Cushing  gave  us  an  account  of  Bollan's 
letters,  of  the  quantity  of  tea  the  East  India  Company  had  on 
hand,  forty  millions  weight,  that  is,  seven  years  consumption,  — 
two  millions  weight  in  America. 


JEr.  37.]  DIARY.  325 

18.  Saturday.  J.  Quincy  met  me  this  morning,  and,  after 
him,  Kent,  and  told  me  that  the  Governor  said,  yesterday,  in 
council,  that  the  people  had  been  guilty  of_high  treason,  and 
that  he  would  bring  the  Attorney- General,  on  Monday,  to  con- 
vince them  that  it  was  so.  And  that  Hancock  said,  he  was  for 
having  a  body  meeting *  to  take  off  that  brother-in-law  of  his.2 


In  the  interval  between  these  entries  in  his  Diary,  that  is,  on  the  twenty-fifth 
of  January,  1774,  the  following  letter  was  received  by  Mr.  Adams. 

London  Tavern,  21  September,  1773. 

Supporters  of  the  Bill  of  Rights. 
Sir  :  —  In  pursuance  of  a  resolution  of  this  Society,  I  am  to 
signify  to  you  that  you  have  this  day  been  duly  elected  a  mem- 
ber thereof. 

I  am,  sir,  your  most  humble  servant, 

Thomas  Wilson,  Chairmcm. 
Signed  by  his  order, 

John  Wilkes. 

London,  15  October,  1773. 
Sir  :  —  I  have  the  honor  of  transmitting  you  the  inclosed  reso- 
lution of  the  Society  of  the  Bill  of  Rights,  which  was  unanimous. 
It  affords  me  great  pleasure  to  find  so  very  respectable  a  gen- 
tleman of  America,  disposed  to  unite  with  the  Friends  of  Liberty 
in  England  for  our  mutual  safety  and  defence, 
I  am,  most  respectfully, 

Your  very  obedient,  humble  servant, 

Stephen  Sayre.4 

1  Contradistinguished  from  a  town  meeting  which  was  called  by  authority  of 
the  town  officers,  and  in  which  none  but  citizens  of  the  town  could  take  part. 
Body  meetings  more  resemble  what  is  now  called  a  mass  meeting. 

2  Jonathan  Sewall  and  John  Hancock  married  sisters. 

3  This  election  and  that  of  Joseph  Warren  were  made  on  the  recommendation 
of  Samuel  Adams,  through  Arthur  Lee,  who  was  then  in  London.  See  the 
letter  of  the  former,  dated  9tE  April,  1773,  in  the  Life  of  Arthur  Lee,  by  R.  II. 
Lee,  vol.  ii.  p.  203,  and  the  reply  of  the  latter,  on  the  23d  of  June,  in  vol.  i.  p. 
222.  There  is  a  mistake  of  one  year  in  the  date  of  this  last.  It  is  much  to  be 
regretted  that  the  Biography  of  both  the  Lees  should  have  been  so  much  disfig- 
ured as  it  is  by  errors  of  haste,  as  well  in  arrangement  as  in  typography. 

4  Of  the  singular  career  of  this  gentleman,  in  England,  Prussia,  Russia,  and 
America,  an  interesting  account  has  been  given  by  Mr.  Reed,  in  his  Biography 
of  Joseph  Reed,  vol.  i.  p.  27,  note. 

VOL.   II.  28 


326  DIARY.  [1774. 


1774.     February  28.     I  purchased  of  my  brother  my  father's 


homestead,  and  house  where  I  was  born.  The  house,  barn,  and 
thirty-five  acres  of  land,  of  which  the  homestead  consists,  and 
eighteen  acres  of  pasture  in  the  North  Common,  cost  me  four 
hundred  and  forty  pounds.  This  is  a  fine  addition  to  what  I 
had  there  before  of  arable  and  meadow.  The  buildings  and 
the  water  I  wanted  very  much ;  that  beautiful,  winding,  mean- 
dering ^brook^^hich  runs  through  this  farm,  always  delighted 
me.  How  shall  I  improve  it  ?  Shall  I  try  to  introduce  fowl- 
meadow,  and  herds-grass  into  the  meadows  ?  or  still  better,  clover 
and  herds-grass  ?     I  must  ramble  over  it  and  take  a  view. 

March  2.  Wednesday.  Last  evening  at  Wheelwright's  with 
Cushing,  Pemberton,  and  Swift.  Lieutenant-Governor  Oliver, 
senseless  and  dying ;  the  Governor  sent  for,  and  Oliver's  sons. 
Flucker1  has  laid  in  to  be  Lieutenant-Governor,  and  has  per- 
suaded Hutchinson  to  write  in  his  favor.  This  will  make  a 
difficulty.  Chief  Justice  Oliver  and  Flucker  will  interfere. 
Much  said  of  the  impeachment  against  the  Chief  Justice,  and 
upon  the  question  whether  the  Council  have  the  power  of  judica- 
ture in  Parliament,  which  the  Lords  have  at  home,  or  whether 
the  Governor  and  Council  have  this  power.  It  is  said  by  some 
that  the  Council  is  too  precarious  a  body  to  be  intrusted  with 
so  great  a  power.  So  far  from  being  independent,  and  having 
their  dignities  and  power  hereditary,  they  are  annually  at  the 
will,  both  of  the  House  and  the  Governor,  and  therefore  are  not 
sufficiently  independent  to  hold  such  powers  of  judicature  over 
the  lives  and  fortunes  of  mankind.  But  the  answer  is  this  : 
they  may  be  intrusted  with  the  powers  of  judicature  as  safely 
as  with  the  powers  of  legislation,  and  it  should  be  remembered 
that  the  Council  can  in  no  case  here  be  triers  of  fact  as  well  as 
law,  as  the  Lords  are  at  home,  when  a  peer  is  impeached,  be- 
cause the  Council  are  all  Commoners  and  no  more.  The  House 
of  Representatives  are  the  triers  of  the  facts,  and  their  vote 
impeaching  is  equivalent  to  a  bill  of  indictment,  and  their  vote 
demanding  judgment  is  equivalent  to  a  verdict  of  a  jury,  accord- 
ing to  Selden.  Are  not  the  life,  and  liberty,  and  property  of  the 
subject  thus  guarded  as  secure  as  they  ought  to  be,  when  no 

1  Thomas  Flucker,  Secretary  of  the  colony,  a  mandamus  counsellor,  and  after- 
wards an  exile  in  England,  where  he  died  in  1783.     Sabine. 


JEt.  38.]  DIARY.  327 

man  can  be  punished  without  the  vote  of  the  Representatives 
of  the  whole  people,  and  without  the  vote  of  the  Council  Board, 
if  he  can  be  without  the  assent  of  the  Governor  ?  But  it  is  said 
that  there  is  no  court  of  judicature  in  the  Province,  erected  by  the 
charter  only ;  that  in  the  charter  a  power  is  given  to  the  General 
Court  to  erect  courts  ;  that  the  General  Court  has  not  made 
the  Governor  and  Council  a  court  of  judicature,  and  therefore 
it  is  not  one,  only  in  cases  of  marriage  and  probate.  To  this  it 
may  be  answered,  by  inquiring  how  the  Council  came  by  their 
share  in  the  legislative.1  The  charter  says,  indeed,  that  the 
General  Court  shall  consist  of  Governor,  Council,  and  House, 
and  that  they  shall  make  laws ;  but  it  nowhere  says  the  Council 
shall  be  an  integral  part  of  this  General  Court  —  that  they  shall 
have  a  negative  voice.  It  is  only  from  analogy  to  the  British 
legislative,  that  they  have  assumed  this  importance  in  our  con- 
stitution. Why,  then,  may  they  not  derive  from  the  same  anal- 
ogy the  power  of  judicature  ?  About  nine  at  night  I  stepped 
over  the  way,  and  took  a  pipe  with  Justice  Quincy,  and  a  Mr. 
Wendell  of  Portsmouth.  Mi*.  Wendell  seems  a  man  of  sense 
and  education,  and  not  ill  affected  to  the  public  cause. 

1  The  common  form  at  this  period  of  designating  the  law-making  department 
of  government. 


328  DIARY.  [1774. 


[At  this  period  the  universal  cry  among  the  friends  of  their 
country  was,  "  what  shall  we  do  to  be  saved  ?  "  It  was  by  all 
agreed,  as  the  Governor  was  entirely  dependent  on  the  Crown, 
and  the  Council  in  danger  of  becoming  so,  if  the  judges  were 
made  so  too,  the  liberties  of  the  country  would  be  totally  lost, 
and  every  man  at  the  mercy  of  a  few  slaves  of  the  Governor ; 
but  no  man  presumed  to  say  what  ought  to  be  done,  or  what 
could  be  done.  Intimations  were  frequently  given,  that  this 
arrangement  should  not  be  submitted  to.  I  understood  very 
well  what  was  meant,  and  I  fully  expected  that  if  no  expedient 
could  be  suggested,  the  judges  would  be  obliged  to  go  where  Sec- 
retary Oliver  had  gone,  to  Liberty  Tree,  and  compelled  to  take  an 
oath  to  renounce  the  royal  salaries.  Some  of  these  judges  were 
men  of  resolution,  and  the  Chief  Justice,1  in  particular,  piqued 
himself  so  much  upon  it  and  had  so  often  gloried  in  it  on  the 
bench,  that  I  shuddered  at  the  expectation  that  the  mob  might 
put  on  him  a  coat  of  tar  and  feathers,  if  not  put  him  to  death. 
I  had  a  real  respect  for  the  judges ;  three  of  them,  Trowbridge, 
Cushing,  and  Brown,  I  could  call  my  friends.  Oliver  and 
Ropes,  abstracted  from  their  politics,  were  amiable  men,  and  all 
of  them  were  very  respectable  and  virtuous  characters.  I  dreaded 
the  effect  upon  the  morals  and  tempers  of  the  people,  which 
must  be  produced  by  any  violence  offered  to  the  persons  of  those 
who  wore  the  robes  and  bore  the  sacred  characters  of  judges ; 
and  moreover,  I  felt  a  strong  aversion  to  such  partial,  and  irreg- 
ular recurrences  to  original  power.  The  poor  people  them- 
selves, who  by  secret  manoeuvres  are  excited  to  insurrection,  are 
seldom  aware  of  the  purposes  for  which  they  are  set  in  motion, 
or  of  the  consequences  which  may  happen  to  themselves ;  and, 
when  once  heated  and  in  full  career,  they  can  neither  manage 
themselves  nor  be  regulated  by  others. 

Full  of  these  reflections  I  happened  to  dine  with  Mr.  Samuel 
Winthrop  at  New  Boston,  who  was  then  clerk  of  the  Superior 
Court,  in  company  with  several  members  of  the  General  Court 
of  both  Houses,  and  with  several  other  gentlemen  of  the  town. 

1  Peter  Oliver. 


^Et.  38.]  DIARY.  399 

Dr.  John  Winthrop,  philosophical  professor  at  college,  and  Dr. 
Cooper  of  Boston,  both  of  them  very  much  my  friends,  were  of 
the  company.  The  conversation  turned  wholly  on  the  topic  of 
the  day,  and  the  case  of  the  Judges.  All  agreed  that  it  was  a 
fatal  measure,  and  would  be  the  ruin  of  the  liberties  of  the  coun- 
try. But  what  was  the  remedy  ?  It  seemed  to  be  a  measure  that 
would  execute  itself.  There  was  no  imaginable  way  of  resisting 
or  eluding  it.  There  was  lamentation  and  mourning  enough,  but 
no  light  and  no  hope.  The  storm  was  terrible,  and  no  blue  sky 
to  be  discovered.  I  had  been  entirely  silent,  and  in  the  midst  of 
all  this  gloom,  Dr.  Winthrop,  addressing  himself  to  me,  said,  "  Mr. 
Adams,  we  have  not  heard  your  sentiments  on  this  subject ;  how 
do  you  consider  it  ?  "  I  answered  that  my  sentiments  accorded 
perfectly  with  all  that  had  been  expressed.  The  measure  had 
created  a  crisis ;  and  if  it  could  not  be  defeated,  the  liberties  of 
the  Province  would  be  lost.  The  stroke  was  levelled  at  the 
essence  of  the  constitution,  and  nothing  was  too  dear  to  be 
hazarded  in  warding  it  off.  It  levelled  the  axe  at  the  root,  and 
if  not  opposed,  the  tree  would  be  overthrown  from  the  founda- 
tion. It  appeared  so  to  me  at  that  time,  and  I  have  seen  no 
reason  to  suspect  that  I  was  in  an  error  to  this  day. 

"  But,"  said  Dr.  Winthrop,  "what  can  be  done  ?"  I  answered 
that  I  knew  not  whether  any  one  would  approve  of  my  opin- 
ion, yet  I  believed  there  was  one  constitutional  resource ; 
but  I  knew  not  whether  it  would  be  possible  to  persuade  the 
proper  authority  to  have  recourse  to  it.  Several  voices  at  once 
cried  out,  "  A  constitutional  resource !  what  can  it  be  ?  "  I  said 
it  was  nothing  more  nor  less  than  an  impeachment  of  the  Judges, 
by  the  House  of  Representatives,  before  the  Council.  "  An  im- 
peachment !  why,  such  a  thing  is  without  precedent."  I  believed 
it  was,  in  this  Province  ;  but  there  had  been  precedents  enough, 
and  by  much  too  many,  in  England ;  it  was  a  dangerous  experi- 
ment at  all  times,  but  it  was  essential  to  the  preservation  of  the 
constitution  in  some  cases  that  could  be  reached  by  no  other 
power  but  that  of  impeachment.  "  But  whence  can  we  pretend 
to  derive  such  a  power  ?  "  From  our  charter,  which  gives  us  in 
words  as  express,  as  clear,  and  as  strong  as  the  language  affords, 
all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  Englishmen ;  and  if  the  House 
of  Commons  in  England  is  the  grand  inquest  of  the  nation,  the 
House  of  Representatives  is  the  grand  inquest  of  this  Province, 

28* 


330  DIARY.  [1774. 

and  the  Council  must  have  the  powers  of  judicature  of  the 
House  of  Lords  in  Great  Britain.  This  doctrine  was  said  by 
the  company  to  be  wholly  new;  they  knew  not  how  far  it  could 
be  supported,  but  it  deserved  to  be  considered  and  examined. 
After  all,  if  it  should  be  approved  by  the  House,  the  Council 
would  not  convict  the  judges.  That,  I  said,  was  an  after  con- 
sideration ;  if  the  House  was  convinced  that  they  had  the  power 
and  that  it  was  their  duty  to  exercise  it,  they  ought  to  do  it,  and 
oblige  the  Council  to  inquire  into  their  rights,  and  powers,  and 
duties.  If  the  Council  would  not  hearken  to  law  or  evidence, 
they  must  be  responsible  for  the  consequences,  and  the  guilt  and 
blame  must  lie  at  their  door.  The  company  separated,  and  I 
knew  that  the  Governor  and  the  Judges  would  soon  have 
information  of  this  conversation,  and  as  several  members  of  both 
Houses  were  present,  and  several  gentlemen  of  the  town,  I 
was  sensible  that  it  would  soon  become  the  talk  of  the  legisla- 
ture, as  well  as  of  the  town. 

The  next  day,  I  believe,  Major  Hawley  came  to  my  house, 
and  told  me  he  heard  I  had  broached  a  strange  doctrine.  He 
hardly  knew  what  an  impeachment  was ;  he  had  never  read  any 
one,  and  never  had  thought  on  the  subject.  I  told  him  he  might 
read  as  many  of  them  as  he  pleased ;  there  stood  the  State  Trials 
on  the  shelf,  which  was  full  of  them,  of  all  sorts,  good  and  bad. 
I  showed  him  Seidell's  works,  in  which  is  a  treatise  on  judicature 
in  Parliament,  and  gave  it  him  to  read.  I  added,  that  judicature 
in  Parliament  was  as  ancient  as  common  law  and  as  Parliament 
itself ;  that  without  this  high  jurisdiction  it  was  thought  impos- 
sible to  defend  the  constitution  against  princes,  and  nobles,  and 
great  ministers,  who  might  commit  high  crimes  and  misde- 
meanors which  no  other  authority  would  be  powerful  enough  to 
prevent  or  punish;  that  our  constitution  was  a  miniature  of  the 
British  ;  that  the  charter  had  given  us  every  power,  jurisdiction, 
and  right  within  our  limits  which  could  be  claimed  by  the  peo- 
ple or  government  of  England,  with  no  other  exceptions  than 
those  in  the  charter  expressed.  We  looked  into  the  charter 
together,  and  after  a  long  conversation  and  a  considerable 
research,  he  said  he  knew  not  how  to  get  rid  of  it.  In  a  day  or 
two  another  lawyer  in  the  House  came  to  me,  full  of  doubts 
and  difficulties ;  he  said  he  heard  I  had  shown  Major  Hawley 
some  books  relative  to  the   subject,  and  desired  to  see  them. 


;Et.  38.]  DIARY.  331 

I  showed  them  to  him,  and  he  made  nearly  the.  same  comments 
upon  them.  It  soon  became  the  common  topic  and  research  of 
the  bar. 

Major  Hawley  had  a  long  friendship  for  Judge  Trowbridge, 
and  a  high  opinion  of  his  knowledge  of  law,  which  was  indeed 
extensive.  He  determined  to  converse  with  the  Judge  upon  the 
subject ;  went  to  Cambridge  on  Saturday  and  staid  till  Monday. 
On  this  visit  he  introduced  this  subject,  and  appealed  to  Lord 
Coke  and  Selden,  as  well  as  to  the  charter,  and  advanced  all  the 
arguments  which  occurred  to  him.  The  Judge,  although  he  had 
renounced  the  salary,  we  may  suppose  was  not  much  delighted 
with  the  subject  on  account  of  his  brothers.  He  did,  however, 
declare  to  the  Major  that  he  could  not  deny  that  the  constitution 
_had^  given  thejwwerjto  the  House  of  Representatives,  the  char- 
ter was  so  full  and  express,  but  that  the  exercise  of  it  in  this 
case  would  be  vain,  as  the  Council  would  undoubtedly  acquit 
the  judges,  even  if  they  heard  and  tried  the  impeachment. 
Hawley  was  not  so  much  concerned  about  that  as  he  was  to 
ascertain  the  law.  The  first  time  I  saw  Judge  Trowbridge  he 
said  to  me,  "  I  see,  Mr.  Adams,  you  are  determined  to  explore 
the  constitution,  and  bring  to  life  all  its  dormant  and  latent 
powers,  in  defence  of  your  liberties  as  you  understand  them." 
I  answered,  "  I  should  be  very  happy  if  the  constitution  could 
carry  us  safely  through  all  our  difficulties  without  having 
recourse  to  higher  powers  not  written."  The  members  of  the 
House  becoming  soon  convinced  that  there  was  something  for 
them  to  do,  appointed  a  committee  to  draw  up  articles  of 
impeachment  against  the  Chief  Justice  Oliver.  Major  Hawley, 
who  was  one  of  this  committee,  would  do  nothing  without  me, 
and  insisted  on  bringing  them  to  my  house  to  examine  and 
discuss  the  articles,  paragraph  by  paragraph,  which  was  readily 
consented  to  by  the  committee.  Several  evenings  were  spent 
in  my  office  upon  this  business  until  very  late  at  night.  One 
morning,  meeting  Ben  Gridley,  he  said  to  me,  "Brother  Adams, 
you  keep  late  hours  at  your  house  ;  as  I  passed  it  last  night  long 
after  midnight,  I  saw  your  street  door  vomit  forth  a  crowd  of 
senators." 

The  articles,  when  prepared,  were  reported  to  the  House  of 
Representatives,  adopted  by  them,  and  sent  up  to  the  Council 
Board.     The  Council  would  do  nothing,  and  there  they  rested. 


332  DIARY. 


[1774. 


The  friends  of  administration  thought  they  had  obtained  a 
triumph,  but  they  were  mistaken.  The  articles  were  printed  in 
the  journals  of  the  House,  and  in  the  newspapers,  and  the 
people  meditated  on  them  at  their  leisure.  When  the  Superior 
Court  came  to  sit  in  Boston,  the  grand  jurors  and  petit  jurors,  as 
their  names  were  called  over,  refused  to  take  the  oaths.  When 
examined  and  demanded  their  reasons  for  this  extraordinary 
conduct,  they  answered  to  a  man  that  the  Chief  Justice  of  that 
court  stood  impeached  of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors  before 
Iris  Majesty's  Council,  and  they  would  not  sit  as  "jurors^while 
that  accusation  was  depending.  At  the  Charlestown  Court 
the  jurors  unanimously  refused  in  the  same  manner.  They  did 
so  at  Worcester  and  all  the  other  Counties.  The  court  never 
sat  again  until  a  new  one  was  appointed  by  the  Council  exer- 
cising the  powers  of  a  Governor  under  the  charter,  after  the  battle 
of  Lexington  on  the  19th  of  April,  1775.] 


March  5.  Saturday.  Heard  the  oration,  pronounced  by  Col- 
onel Hancock,  in  commemoration  of  the  massacre.  An  elegant, 
a  pathetic,  a  spirited  performance.  A  vast  crowd,  rainy  eyes,  &c. 
The  composition,  the  pronunciation,  the  action,  all  exceeded  the 
expectations  of  everybody.  They  exceeded  even  mine,  which 
were  very  considerable.  Many  of  the  sentiments  came  with 
great  propriety  from  him.  His  invective,1  particularly,  against 
a  preference  of  riches  to  virtue,  came  from  him  with  a  singular 
dignity  and  grace.2  Dined  at  neighbor  Quincy's  with  my  wife. 
Mr.  John  Denny  and  son  there.  Denny  gave  a  few  hints  of 
vacating  the  charter  and  sending  troops,  and  depriving  the  Pro- 
vince of  advantages,  quartering  troops,  &c.  but  all  pretty  faint. 
The  happiness  of  the  family  where  I  dined,  upon  account  of  the 
Colonel's  justly  applauded  oration,  was  complete.  The  Justice 
and  his  daughters  were  all  joyous.3 

6.  Sunday.  Heard  Dr.  Cooper  in  the  morning.  Paine  drank 
coffee  with  me.     Paine  is  under  some  apprehensions  of  troops, 

i  "Despise  the  glare  of  wealth.     That  people  who  pay  greater  respect  to  a 
wealthy  villain,  than  to  an  honest,  upright  man  in  poverty,  almost  deserve  to  be 
enslaved ;  they  plainly  show  that  wealth,  however  it  may  be  acquired,  is  in  their 
esteem,  to  be  preferred  to  virtue."     Extract  from  Mr.  Hancock's  Oration. 
— 2  Mr.  Hancock  was_eonsidered  the  richest  man  in  the  Province. 
3  Edmund  Quin.y.  whose  daughter  was  married  to  Mr.  Hancock. 


2Er.  38.]  DIARY.  333 

on  account  of  the  high  proceedings.  He  says  there  is  a  ship  in 
to-day  with  a  consignment  of  tea  from  some  private  merchants 
at  home,  &c. 

Last  Thursday  morning,  March  3d,  died  Andrew  Oliver,  Esq. 
Lieutenant-Governor.  This  is  but  the  second  death  which  has 
happened  among  the  conspirators,1  the  original  conspirators  i 
against  the  public  liberty,  since  the  conspiracy  was  first  regularly 
formed  and  begun  to  be  executed,  in  1763  or  1764.  Judge  Rus-  \  v 
sell,  who  was  one,  died  in  1766.  Nat  Rogers,  who  was  not  one 
of  the  originals,  but  came  in  afterwards,  died  in  1770.  This 
event  will  have  considerable  consequences ;  —  Peter  Oliver  will 
be  made  Lieutenant-Governor.  Hutchinson  will  go  home,  and 
probably  be  continued  Governor,  but  reside  in  England, -and 
Peter  Oliver  will  reside  here  and  rule  the  Province.  The  duty 
on  tea  will  be  repealed.  Troops  may  come,  but  what  becomes  of 
the  poor  patriots  ?  They  must  starve  and  mourn  as  usual.  The 
Hutchinsons  and  Olivers  will  rule  and  overbear  all  things  as 
usual. 


An  event  happened  last  Friday  that  is  surprising.  At  a  Gen- 
eral Council,  which  was  full,  as  the  General  Court  was  then  sit- 
ting, Huteliinson  had  the  confidence  to  nominate  for  justices  of 
the  peace,  George  Bethune,  Nat  Taylor,  Ned  Loyd,  Benjamin 
Gridley,  and  Sam.  Barrett,  and  informed  the  Board  that  they  had 
all  promised  to  take  the  oath.  The  Council  had  the  pusillanim- 
ity to  consent,  by  their  silence  at  least,  to  these  nominations. 
Nothing  has  a  more  fatal  tendency  than  such  prostitution  of  the 
Council.  They  tamely,  supinely,  timorously  acquiesce  in  the 
appointment  of  persons  to  fill  every  executive  department  in  the 
Province  with  tools  of  the  family  who  are  planning  our  destruc- 
tion.    Neighbor  Quincy  spent  the  evening  with  me. 

7.  Monday.  This  morning  brought  us  news  from  South 
Carolina,  of  the  destruction  of  the  tea  there,  and  from  England, 
of  a  duel  between  Mr.  Temple  and  Mr.  Whately,  and  Mr.  Frank- 
Jin's  explicit  declaration  that  he  alone  sent  the  Governor's  letters 
to  Boston,  and  that  both  Temple  and  Whately  were  ignorant 
and  innocent  of  it;  and  that  three  regiments  are  ordered  to  Bos- 
ton and  New  York ;  that  the  Judges'  opinions  are  required,  and 
the  Board  of  Trade  in  motion,  and  great  things  are  to  be  laid 

1  Hutchinson's  lamentation  over  this  gentleman  is  in  singular  and  remarkable 
contrast  with  this  notice  in  the  text.     Vol.  iii.  p.  45t>,  note. 


334  DIARY.  [1774. 

before  Parliament,  &c.  &c.  Twenty-eight  chests  of  tea  arrived 
^yesterday,  which  are  to  make  an  infusion  in  water  at  seven 
o'clock  this  evening.1  This  evening  there  has  been  an  exhibition 
in  King  Street,  of  the  portraits  of  the  soldiers  and  the  massacre, 
and  of  Hutchinson  and  C.  J.  Oliver  in  the  horrors — reminded  of 
the  fate  of  Empson  and  Dudley,  whose  trunks  were  exposed 
with  their  heads  off,  and  the  blood  fresh  streaming  after  the  axe.2 

8.  Tuesday.  Last  night  twenty-eight  chests  and  a  half  of  tea 
V      were  drowned. 

!).  Wednesday.  Returned  from  Charlestown  Court  with  Co- 
lonel Tyng  of  Dunstable,  who  told  me  some  anecdotes  of  Bernard 
and  Brattle,  Otis,  Hutchinson,  &c.  "  Bernard  said,  he  never 
thought  of  Pratt.  He  would  find  a  place  for  him  now  upon  the 
bench.     Brattle  shall  be  Colonel  and  Brigadier,  &c.     Bernard 


i  It  is  very  clear  that  the  author  knew  what  was  going  to  be  done.  But  lie 
never  knew  the  names  of  the  actors. 

The  following  letter,  written  to  Mr.  Niles,  Editor  of  the  Weekly  Register,  is 
suitable  for  insertion  in  this  connection.  The  writer  was  mistaken  in  his  recol- 
lection of  where  he  was  at  the  moment.  See  the  record  of  the  1 7th  December, 
page  323,  and  the  letter  to  James  Warren,  of  the  same  date,  in  the  general  cor- 
respondence. 

Quincy,  10  May,  1819.- 

In  one  of  your  letters,  you  ask  me  whether  I  can  give  the  names  of  the 
Mohawks,  who  were  concerned  in  the  noyade  of  the  tea  in  Boston  harbor?  I 
now  tell  yon  in  truth,  and  upon  honor,  iliat  I  know  not  and  never  knew  the 
name  of  any  one  of  them.  During  the  week  of  that  transaction,  I  was  employed 
in  the  discharge  of  my  duty,  as  a  barrister  of  law  in  the  Court  of  Judicature,  in 
the  town  and  county  of  Plymouth.  When  I  returned  to  Boston  the  deed  was 
done.  I  never  inquired  who  did  it.  Whenever  any  person  discovered  an  incli- 
nation to  give  me  a  history  of  it,  as  many  did,  I  constantly  stopped  him  short, 
and  said,  say  not  a  word  to  me  on  that  subject ;  name  not  to  me  one  person  con- 
cerned in  it.  My  reason  for  this  caution  was,  that  I  expected  every  day  an 
indictment  against  the  authors  of  it,  and  that  I  should  be  called  upon  to  defend 
them  in  a  court  of  justice  ;  and  I  was  determined  that  no  judge  or  juror,  attorney- 
general  or  solicitor-general,  should  have  it  in  his  power  to  compel  me  to  testify 
as  a  witness  to  any  fact  relative  to  the  transaction ;  and  to  this  day,  I  know  not 
the  name  of  one  man  concerned  in  it.  Within  two  years  past,  a  gentleman,  an 
entire  stranger  to  me,  on  a  visit  he  was  pleased  to  make,  blurted  out  the  name 
of  one  gentleman,  who,  he  said,  told  him  that  he  was  one  of  the  "  Mohawks ; "  but 
this  name  I  will  not  commit  to  writing. 

You  may  depend  upon  it  they  were  no  ordinary  Mohawks.  The  profound 
secrecy  in  which  they  have  held  their  names,  and  the  total  abstinence  from 
plunder,  are  proofs  of  the  characters  of  the  men.  I  believe  they  would  have 
tarred  and  feathered  any  one  of  their  number  who  should  have  been  detected 
in  pocketing  a  pound  of  Hyson. 

2  Hutchinson  betrays  his  sense  of  this  insult  by  the  affected  contempt  with 
which  he  treats  it,  and  quotes  Tacitus,  to  prove  that  such  things  when  left  with- 
out notice  are  forgotten,  at  the  very  moment  when  he  is  giving  it  all  the  perma- 
nency in  his  power,  by  recording  it  in  his  History.     Vol.  iii.  p.  457. 


Mt.  38.]  DIARY.  335 

said,  afterwards,  this  miff  broke  out  into  a  blaze.  Jemmy  Rus- 
sell was  as  sociable  and  familiar  with  Dix  and  Gorham  and 
Stone,  and  with  all  the  members  of  the  House,  as  possible.  An 
artful  fellow,  deeply  covered."  He  told  a  saying  of  the  Admiral 
at  the  funeral  yesterday.  "  There  was  never  any  thing  in  Turkey, 
nor  in  any  part  of  the  world,  so  arbitrary  and  cruel  as  keeping 
old  Mr.  Clarke  at  the  castle  all  this  winter,  an  old  man 1  from  his 
family."  This  day  the  General  Court  prorogued  in  anger  by 
the  Governor. 

11.  Friday.  Dined  at  Charlestown  with  Mr.  Thomas  Russell, 
with  Mr.  Temple,  Mi*.  Jacob  Rowe,  Mr.  Nichols,  Mr.  Bliss,  and 
several  other  gentlemen  and  ladies  to  me  unknown.  No  politics, 
but  Mr.  Temple's  duel  and  the  pieces  in  the  London  papers  rela- 
tive to  it.  A  young  brother  of  Mr.  Russell  came  in.  Conversa- 
tion about  making  porter  here,  our  barley,  hops,  &c.  The  right 
of  private  judgment  and  the  liberty  of  conscience  were  claimed 
by  the  papists,  and  allowed  them  in  the  reign  of  James  II.,  but 
have  been  prohibited  by  law  ever  since.  The  advocates  for  the 
administration  now  in  America,  claim  the  right  of  private  judg- 
ment to  overthrow  the  constitution  of  this  Province,  the  privi- 
leges of  all  America,  and  British  liberties  into  the  bargain. 
Sed  non  allocatur. 

12.  Saturday.  There  has  been  and  is  a  party  in  the  nation, 
a  very  small  one  indeed,  who  have  pretended  to  be  conscien- 
tiously persuaded  that  the  pretender  has  a  right  to  the  throne. 
Their  principles  of  loyalty,  hereditary  right,  and  passive  obedi- 
ence, have  led  them  to  this  judgment  and  opinion ;  and  as  long 
as  they  keep  these  opinions  to  themselves,  there  is  no  remedy 
against  them.  But  as  soon  as  they  express  these  opinions  pub- 
licly, and  endeavor  to  make  proselytes,  especially  if  they  take 
any  steps  to  introduce  the  pretender,  they  become  offenders,  and 
must  suffer  the  punishment  due  to  their  crimes.  Private  judg- 
ment might  be  alleged  in  excuse  for  many  crimes.  A  poor 
enthusiast  might  bring  himself  to  believe  it  lawful  for  him  to 
steal  from  his  rich  neighbor,  to  supply  his  necessities.  But  the 
law  will  not  allow  of  this  plea ;  the  man  must  be  punished  for 
his  theft.     Ravaillac  and   Felton   probably  thought  they  were 

1  Richard  Clarke  and  sons  were  consignees  of  the  tea,  who  took  refuge  in  the 
castle,  from  the  excited  feelings  of  the  community  in  Boston.  Hutchinson,  vol. 
iii.  p.  430. 


^:j6  DIAllY.  [17  74. 

doing  their  duty,  and  nothing  more,  when  they  were  committing 
their  vile  assassinations;  but  the  liberty  of  private  conscience 
did  not  exempt  them  from  the  most  dreadful  punishment  that 
civil  authority  can  inflict  or  human  nature  endure.  Hutchinson 
and  Oliver  might  be  brought,  by  their  interested  views  and 
motives,  sincerely  to  think  that  an  alteration  in  the  constitution 
of  this  Province,  and  an  "  abridgment  of  what  are  called  English 
liberties,"  would  be  for  the  good  of  the  Province,  of  America,  and 
of  the  nation.  In  this  they  deceived  themselves,  and  became 
the  bubbles  of  their  own  avarice  and  ambition.  The  rest  of 
the  world  are  not  thus  deceived.  They  see  clearly  that  such 
innovations  will  be  the  ruin,  not  only  of  the  Colonies,  but  of  the 
empire,  and  therefore  think  that  examples  ought  to  be  made  of 
these  great  offenders  in  terror  em. 

The  enmity  of  Governor  Bernard,  Hutchinson,  and  Oliver,  and 
others,  to  the  constitution  of  this  Province,  is  owing  to  its- being 
an  obstacle  to  their  views  and  designs  of  raising  a  revenue  by 
parliamentary  authority,  andjnaking  their  own  fortunes  out  of 

.it.  The  constitution  of  this  Province  has  enabled  the  people  to 
resist  their  projects  so  effectually,  that  they  see  they  shall  never 
carry  them  into  execution  while  it  exists.  Their  malice  has, 
therefore,  been  directed  against  it,  and  their  utmost  efforts  have 
been  employed  to  destroy  it.  There  is  so  much  of  a  republican 
spirit  among  the  people,  which  has  been  nourished  and  cherished" 
by  Their  form  of  government,  that  they  never  would  submit  to 
tyrants  or  oppressive  projects.  The  same  spirit  spreads  like  a 
contagion  into  all  the  other  colonies,  into  Ireland  and  into  Great 
Britain  too,  from  this  single  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
that  no  pains , are  too  great  to  be  taken,  no  hazards  too  great  to 
be  run,  for  the  destruction  of  our  charter. 

13.  Sunday.  Heard  Mr.  Lathrop  in  the  forenoon,  and  Dr. 
Cooper  in  the  afternoon.  Last  evening,  Justice  Pemberton  spent 
with  me.  He  says  that  Moses  Gill  has  made  many  justices  In- 
tending money.  ^S. 

28.  Monday.  Rode  with  brother  Josiah  Quincy  to  Ipswich 
Court.  Arrived  at  Piemont's,  in  Danvers,  in  good  order  and 
well  conditioned.      Spent  the  evening,  and  lodged  agreeably.     V 

_  Walked  out  in  the  morning  to  hear  the  birds  sirfe.  Piemoni 
says  there  is  a  report  that  the  Sons  of  Liberty  have  received 
some  advices  from  England, Vhich  makes  them  look  down  ;  that 


^Jr  h^   ^  f^  4fiU  of  to*  M~*»* 

tpv^/^i^  ,y^J^sfZf  *,6-/Jr#D_   tf^ 

/^L*-^    o-yi^  /l/eZs<'   t^t^i/l^     ^f    4,tS#tst*<<^#     ^^    /ZTets^S 


Mi.  38.]  DIARY.  337 

they  have  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Bollan,  that  they  must  sub- 
mit ;  and  other  letters  which  they  keep  secret. 

29.  Tuesday.     Rode  to  Ipswich,  and  put  up  at  the  old  place, 
_Treadwcll's.     The  old  lady  has  got  a  new  copy  of  her  great 

grandfather  Governor  Endicott's  picture  hung  up  in  the  house. 
The  old  gentleman  is  afraid  they  will  repeal  the  excise  upon  tea, 
and  then  that  we  shall  have  it  plenty ;  wishes  they  would  double 
the  duty,  and  then  we  should  never  have  any  more.  The  ques- 
tion is,  Who  is  to  succeed  Judge  Ropes?  whether  Brown,  or 
Pynchon,  or  Lee,  or  Hatch  ?  The  bar  here  are  explicit  against 
the  two  laist,  as  unfit.  Lowell  says  Pynchon  would  take  it, 
because  he  wants  to  make  way  for  Wetmore,  who  is  about 
marrying  his  daughter.  Pynchon  says  Judge  Ropes  was  exceed- 
ingly agitated,  all  the  time  of  his  last  sickness,  about  the  public 
affairs  in  general,  and  those  of  the  superior  court  in  particular ; 
afraid  his  renunciation  would  be  attributed  to  timidity ;  afraid 
to  refuse  to  renounce  ;  worried  about  the  opinion  of  the  bar,  &c. 
Mr.  Farnham  is  exceedingly  mollified ;  is  grown  quite  modest 
and  polite,  in  comparison  with  what  he  used  to  be,  in  politics. 
Lowell  is  so,  too ;  seems  inclined  to  be  admitted  among  the 
liberty  men. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  bar,  a  doubt  of  Brother  Lowell  was  men- 
tioned, upon  the  law  of  the  Province  for  the  relief  of  poor  prison- 
ers for  debt.  Questions  were  asked,  whether  appealing  an  action 
was  not  fraud  ?  whether  trading  without  insuring  was  not  fraud  ? 
&c.  A  question  also  about  the  duty  of  the  sheriff.  Whether  a 
party  plaintiff  could  control  the  King's  precept,  &c.  by  ordering 
the  sheriff  not  to  serve  it  ?  &c.  Mr.  Wetmore  was  agreed  to  be 
recommended  for  the  oath,  &c. 

30.  Wednesday.  A  dull  day.  My  head  is  empty,  but  my 
heart  is  full.  I  am  wanted  at  my  office,  but  not  wanted  here ; 
there  is  business  there,  but  none  here.  My  wife,  perhaps,  wants 
to  see  me.  I  am  anxious  about  her ;  I  cannot  get  the  thoughts 
of  her  state  of  health  out  of  my  mind ;  I  think  she  must  remove 
to  Braintree,  and  the  family,  at  least  for  the  season. 

31.  Thursday.  Let  me  ask  my  own  heart,  have  I  patience 
jind  industry  enough  to  write  a  history  of  the  contest  between 

Britain  and    America?      It  would   be  proper  to  begin   at  the 

_Treaty  of  Peace,  in  1763,  or  at  the  commencement  of  Governor 

Bernard's  administration,  or  at  the  accession  of  George  III.  to 

VOL.    II.  29  v 


338  DIARY.  [1774. 

the  throne ;  the  Reign,  or  the  Peace.  Would  not  it  be  proper 
to  begin  with  those  articles  in  the  Treaty  of  Peace  which  relate 
to  America  ?  The  cession  of  Canada,  Louisiana,  and  Florida, 
to  the  English.  Franklin,  Lee,  Chatham,  Camden,  Grenville, 
and  Shelburne,  Hillsborough,  Dartmouth,  Whately,  Hutchinson, 
Oliver,  Judge  Oliver,  Bernard,  Paxton,  Otis,  Thacher,  Adams, 
Mayhew,  Hancock,  Cushing,  Phillips,  HawleVj  Warren,  with 
many  other  figures,  would  make  up  the  group. 

June  20.  Monday.  At  Piemont's,  in  Danvers ;  bound  1<> 
Ipswich.  There  is  a  new  and  a  grand  scene  open  before  me ; 
a  Congress.  This  will  be  an  assembly  of  the  wisest  men  upon 
the  continent,  who  are  Americans  in  principle,  that  is,  against 
the  taxation  of  Americans  by  authority  of  Parliament.  I  feel 
myself  unequal  to  this  business.  A  more  extensive  knowledge  of 
the  realm,  the  colonies,  and  of  commerce,  as  well  as  of  law  and 
policy,  is  necessary,  than  I  am  master  of.  What  can  be  done  ? 
Will  it  be  expedient  to  propose  an  annual  congress  of  commit- 
tees? to  petition?  Will  it  do  to  petition  at  all ? — to  the  King? 
to  the  Lords  ?  to  the  Commons  ?  What  will  such  consultations 
avail  ?  Deliberations  alone  will  not  do.  We  must  petition  or 
recommend  to  the  Assemblies  to  petition,  or  — 

The  ideas  of  the  people  are  as  various  as  their  faces.  One 
thinks,  no  more  petitions, —  former  having  been  neglected  and 
despised ;  some  are  for  resolves,  spirited  resolves,  and  some  are 
for  bolder  counsels.  I  will  keep  an  exact  diary  of  my  journey, 
as  well  as  journal  of  the  proceedings  of  Congress. 

25.  Saturday.  Since  the  Court  adjourned  without  day  this 
afternoon,  I  have  taken  a  long  walk  through  the  Neck,  as  they 
call  it,  a  fine  tract  of  land  in  a  general  field.  Corn,  rye,  grass, 
interspersed  in  great  perfection  this  fine  season.  I  wander  alone 
and  ponder.  I  muse,  I  mope,  I  ruminate.  I  /am  often  in  reve- 
ries and  brown  studies.  The  objects  before  me  are  too  grand 
and  multifarious  for  my  comprehension.  We  have  not  men  fit 
for  the  times.  We  are  deficient  in  genius,  in  education,  in  travel, 
in  fortune,  in  every  thing.  I  feel  unutterable  anxiety.  God  grant 
us  wisdom  and  fortitude !  Should  the  opposition  be  suppressed, 
should  this  country  submit,  what  infamy  and  ruin !  God  forbid. 
Death  in  any  form  is  less  terrible ! 


Mr.  38.]  DIARY.  339 


Extract  from  the  Autobiography. 

[It  is  well  known  that  in  June,  1774,  the  General  Court  at 
Cambridge l  appointed  members  to  meet  with  others  from  the 
other  States  in  Congress,  on  the  5th  of  August.1  Mr.  Bowdoin, 
Mr.  Cushing,  Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  Mr.  John  Adams,  and  Mr. 
Robert  Treat  Paine,  were  appointed.  After  this  election,  I  went 
for  the  tenth  and  last  time  on  the  eastern  circuit.  At  York,  at 
dinner  with  the  court,  happening  to  sit  at  table  next  to  Mr. 
Justice  Sayward,  a  representative  of  York,  but  of  the  unpopular 
side,  we  entered  very  sociably  and' pleasantly  into  conversation, 
and,  among  other  things,  he  said  to  me,  "  Mr.  Adams,  you  are 
going  to  Congress,  and  great  things  are  in  agitation.  I  recom- 
mend to  you  the  doctrine  of  my  former  minister,  Mr.  Moody. 
Upon  an  occasion  of  some  gloomy  prospects  for  the  country,  he 
preached  a  sermon  from  this  text :  '  They  know  not  what  they 
do.'  After  a  customary  introduction,  he  raised  this  doctrine 
from  his  text,  that  in  times  of  great  difficulty  and  danger,  when 
men  know  not  what  to  do,  it  is  the  duty  of  a  person  or  a  people 
to  be  very  careful  that  they  do  not  do  they  know  not  what." 
This  oracular  jingle  of  words,  which  seemed,  however,  to  contain 

1  These  are  mistakes  of  haste.  Governor  Gage  had  adjourned  the  General 
Court  from  Boston  to  Salem,  as  a  place  exercising  a  less  unfavorable  influence 
upon  its  members.  Here,  on  the  17th  of  June,  the  last  act  of  the  body,  done 
whilst  the  Secretary  was  standing  on  the  outside  of  the  locked  doors  with  a  pro- 
clamation dissolving  it  in  his  hand,  was  to  appoint  the  five  gentlemen  named  in 
the  text  a  committee  (as  it  was  called)  to  meet  committees  from  the  other  colo- 
nies, at  Philadelphia,  on  the  first  day  of  September  following.  The  resolution, 
authorizing  this  appointment,  was  adopted  with  twelve  dissenting  voices  out  of  a  ft 
hundred  and  twenty-nine  then  present. 

On  the  same  day,  what  is  described  as  a  legal  and  very  full  adjourned  meet- 
ing of  the  citizens  of  Boston  was  held  at  Faneuil  Hall,  at  which  the  author  of 
the  Diary  presided  as  moderator.  The  object  was  to  consult  upon  the  measures 
made  necessary  by  the  Boston  Port  Bill.  Of  this  meeting  it  is  said,  that,  "  it 
was  as  full  and  respectable  as  ever  was  known ;  —  their  unanimity  and  firmness 
was  never  exceeded ;  not  one,  though  often  called  upon,  had  any  thing  to  offer 
in  favor  of  paying  for  the  tea,  in  compliance  with  the  Boston  Port  Bill ;  all 
appeared  disposed  to  stand  the  utmost  efforts  of  tyranny,  rather  than  make  a 
free  surrender  of  the  rights  of  America.  The  speeches  made  on  the  state  of 
American  affairs  would  do  honor  to  any  Assembly.  The  resolutions  were 
adopted  with  a  single  dissenting  vote." 

American  Archives,  4th  series,  vol.  i.  423. 


340  DIARY.  [1774. 

some  good  sense,  made  us  all  very  gay.  But  I  thought  the 
venerable  preacher,  when  he  had  beat  the  drum  ecclesiastic  to 
animate  the  country  to  undertake  the  expedition  to  Louisburg, 
in  1745,  and  had  gone  himself  with  it  as  a  chaplain,  had  ventured 
to  do  he  knew  not  what,  as  much  as  I  was  likely  to  do  in  the 
expedition  to  Congress.  I  told  the  Deacon  that  I  must  trust 
Providence,  as  Mr.  Moody  had  done  when  he  did  his  duty, 
though  he  could  not  foresee  the  consequences.1 

To  prepare  myself  as  well  as  I  could  for  the  storm  that  was 
coming  on,  I  removed  my  family  to  Braintree.  They  could  not, 
indeed,  have  remained  in  safety  in  Boston ;  and  when  the  time 
arrived,  Mr.  Bowdoin  having  declined  the  appointment,  Mr. 
Cushing,  Mr.  Adams,  Mr.  Paine,  and  myself,  set  out  on  our 
journey  together  in  one  coach.] 


Boston.  August  10.  Wednesday.  The  committee  for  the 
Congress2  took  their  departure  from  Boston,  from  Mr.  Cushin^'s 
house,  and  rode  to  Coolidge's,  where  they  dined  in  companv 
with  a  large  number  of  gentlemen,  who  went  out  and  prepared 
an  entertainment  for  them  at  that  place.  A  most  kindly  and 
affectionate  meeting  we  had,  and  about  four  in  the  afternoon 
we  took  our  leave  of  them,  amidst  the  kind  wishes  and  fervent 


1  The  prophet  of  York  has  not  prophesied  in  vain.  There  is,  in  this  town 
and  county,  a  Laodiceanism  that  I  have  not  found  in  any  other  place.  I  find 
more  persons  here  who  call  the  destruction  of  the  tea  mischief  and  wickedness, 
than  anywhere  else ;  more  persons  who  say  that  the  duty  upon  tea  is  not  a  tax 
nor  an  imposition,  because  we  are  at  liberty  to  use  it  or  not,  than  anywhere 
else.  I  am  told  that  the  Deacon  insinuates  sentiments  and  principles  into  the 
people  here  in  a  very  subtle  manner ;  a  manner  so  plausible  that  they  scarcely 
know  how  they  come  by  them. 

When  I  got  to  the  tavern,  on  the  eastern  side  of  Piscataqua  river,  I  found  the 
sheriff  of  York  and  six  of  his  deputies,  all  with  gold  laced  hats,  ruffles,  swords, 
and  very  gay  clothes,  and  all  likely  young  men,  who  had  come  out  to  that  place, 
ten  miles,  to  escort  the  court  into  town.  This  unusual  parade  excited  my  curi- 
osity, and  I  soon  suspected  that  this  was  to  show  respect,  and  be  a  guard*  to  the 
Chief  Justice  if  he  had  been  coming  to  Court. 

The  foreman  of  the  grand  jury  told  Judge  Trowbridge,  that,  if  the  Chief . 
Justice  had  been  here,  not  a  man  of  their  jury  would  have  refused  to  be  sworn. 
However,  I  have  been  told  by  others  that  the  foreman  is  mistaken ;  that  it  was 
universally  known  he  was  not  at  Ipswich,  and  would  not  be  here ;  but  if  he  had 
been  here,  there  would  have  been  a  difficulty.     /.  A.  to  his  wife,  29  June,  1774. 

2  The  list  of  persons  elected  by  the  respective  Provinces  to  the  Congress  of 
1774,  is  omitted,  because  it  is  found  in  every  copy  of  the  journals. 


jEt.  38.]  DIARY.  341 

prayers  of  every  man  in  the  company  for  our  health  and  success. 
This  scene  was  truly  affecting,  beyond  all  description  affecting.1 
I  lodged  at  Colonel  Buck's. 

15.  Monday.  Mr.  Silas  Deane,2  of  Wethersfield,  came  over 
to  Hartford  to  see  us.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  a  liberal  education, 
about  forty  years  of  age ;  first  kept  a  school,  then  studied  law, 
then  married  the  rich  widow  of  Mr.  Webb,  since  which  he  has 
been  in  trade.  Two  young  gentlemen,  his  sons-in-law,  Messrs. 
Webbs,  came  over  with  him.  They  are  genteel,  agreeable  men, 
largely  in  trade,  and  are  willing  to  renounce  all  their  trade. 

Mr.  Deane  gave  us  an  account  of  the  delegates  of  New  York. 
Duane  and  Jay  are  lawyers.  Livingston,  Low,  and  Alsop  are 
merchants.  Livingston  is  very  popular.  Jay  married  a  Living- 
ston, Peter's  daughter,3  and  is  supposed  to  be  of  his  side. 

Mr.  Deane  says  the  sense  of  Connecticut  is,  that  the  resolu- 
tions of  the  Congress  shall  be  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and  Per- 
sians ;  that  the  Congress  is  the  grandest  and  most  important 
assembly  ever  held  in  America,  and  that  the  all  of  America  is 
intrusted  to  it  and  depends  upon  it. 

Last  evening,  after  spending  the  evening  at  the  meeting-house 
to  hear  the  singing,  we  were  invited  into  Mr.  Church's.  Mr. 
Seymour,  Mr.  Payne,  lawyers,  and  Mr.  Bull,  merchant,  came  to 
see  us,  and  invited  us  to  dine  with  them  this  day,  with  the  prin- 
cipal gentlemen  of  the  place. 

This  morning,  Mr.  Deane  and  two  young  gentlemen,  Messrs. 
Webbs,  came  to  see  us  from  Wethersfield.  Mr.  Deane  says, 
there  are  thirty  thousand  bushels  of  flax-seed  sent  to  New  York 
yearly,  in  exchange  for  salt ;  that  it  would  be  no  loss  to  stop 
this,  as  the  seed  may  be  made  into  oil  more  profitably.     They 

1  Boston,  August  15.  Wednesday  morning,  the  Hon.  Thomas  Cushing,  Esq. 
Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  John  Adams,  and  Robert  Treat  Paine,  Esquires,  —  the 
delegates  appointed  by  the  Hon.  Commons  House  of  Assembly,  for  this  Province, 
to  attend  the  General  Congress  to  be  holden  at  Philadelphia,  some  time  next 
month,  —  set  out  from  hence,  attended  by  a  number  of  gentlemen,  who  accom- 
panied them  to  Watertovvn,  where  they  were  met  by  many  others,  who  provided 
an  elegant  entertainment  for  them.  After  dinner,  they  proceeded  on  their 
journey,  intending  to  reach  Southborough  that  evening.     Boston  Gazette. 

2  According  to  Gordon's  account,  confirmed  hereafter  by  the  author,  Mr. 
Deane's  introduction  to  public  life  was  not  altogether  out  of  character  with  its 
termination.  It  was  effected  by  his  own  vote  for  himself.  Histoni,  vol.  i.  pp. 
369-370. 

3  This  is  a  mistake.  Mrs.  Jay  was  the  daughter  of  William  Livingston,  after- 
wards Governor  of  New  Jersey. 


2'J  * 


342  DIARY.  [1774. 

have  many  oil  mills  in  the  colony.  Connecticut  sends  great 
quantities  of  provisions,  cattle,  and  horses,  to  the  West  Indies, 
and  brings  great  quantities  of  rum,  as  well  as  sugar  and  molasses, 
to  New  York.  Some  lumber  they  send ;  —  staves,  hoops,  head- 
ing, &c.  There  is  a  stream  of  provisions  continually  running 
from  Connecticut.  Mr.  Deane  and  Messrs.  Webbs  are  intimately 
acquainted  and  closely  connected  with  people  at  New  York. 

We  dined  at  the  tavern  with  upwards  of  thirty  gentlemen  of 
the  first  character  in  the  place,  at  their  invitation ;  the  Secre- 
tary, Wyllys,  the  Treasurer,  Judge  Talcott,  Mr.  Alsop,  merchant, 
Mr.  Payne  and  Mr.  Seymour,  lawyers,  two  Mr.  Bulls,  and  many 
others.  The  company  appeared  to  be  determined  to  abide  by 
the  resolutions  of  the  Congress.  After  dinner,  at  four  o'clock, 
we  set  out  for  Middletown.  A  number  of  gentlemen  in  carriages, 
and  a  number  on  horseback,  insisted  upon  attending  us,  which 
they  did,  to  our  brother  Deane's  in  Wethersfield.  There  we, 
stopped,  and  were  most  cordially  and  genteelly  entertained  with 
punch,  wine,  and  coffee. 

We  went  up  the  steeple  of  Wethersfield  meeting-house,  from 
whence  is  the  most  grand  and  beautiful  prospect  in  the  world, 
at  least  that  I  ever  saw.  Then  we  rode  to  Middletown,  and 
lodged  at  Bigelow's.  There  Mr.  Hobby  and  another  gentleman 
came  to  see  us. 

16.  Tuesday.  This  morning,  Dr.  Eliot  Rawson,  Mr.  Alsop, 
Mr.  Mortimer,  and  others,  the  committee  of  correspondence,  Mr. 
Henshaw  and  many  other  gentlemen,  came  to  pay  their  respects 
to  us,  and  to  assure  us  that  they  thought  we  had  then  all  in  our 
hands,  and  that  they  would  abide  by  whatever  should  be  deter- 
mined on,  even  to  a  total  stoppage  of  trade  to  Europe  and  the 
West  Indies. 

This  morning  rode  to  Wallingford,  to  Johnson's,  where  we 
dined.  We  wrote  a  card  to  Dr.  Dana  to  dine  with  us.  He 
came,  and  informed  us  that  he  had  wrote  some  cards  for  us  to 
put  up  with  him  this  night.  The  Doctor  dined  with  us,  and 
was  very  sociable  and  agreeable. 

At  four  we  made  for  New  Haven.  Seven  miles  out  of  town, 
at  a  tavern,  we  met  a  great  number  of  carnages  and  of  horsemen 
who  had  come  out  to  meet  us.  The  sheriff  of  the  county,  and 
constable  of  the  town,  and  the  justices  of  peace,  were  in  the 
train.     As  we  were  coming,  we  met  others  to  the  amount  of  I 


JEt.  38.]  DIARY.  343 

know  not  what  number,  but  a  very  great  one.  As  we  came 
into  the  town,  all  the  bells  in  town  were  set  to  ringing,  and  the 
people,  men,  women,  and  children,  were  crowding  at  the  doors 
and  windows,  as  if  it  was  to  see  a  coronation.  At  nine  o'clock 
the  cannon  were  fired,  about  a  dozen  guns,  I  think. 

These  expressions  of  respect  to  us,  are  intended  as  demonstra- 
tions of  the  sympathy  of  this  people  with  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
and  its  capital,  and  to  show  their  expectations  from  the  Congress, 
and  their  determination  to  carry  into  execution  whatever  shall  be 
agreed  upon.  No  Governor  of  a  Province,  nor  General  of  an 
army,  was  ever  treated  with  so  much  ceremony  and  assiduity 
as  we  have  been  throughout  the  whole  colony  of  Connecticut, 
hitherto,  but  especially  all  the  way  from  Hartford  to  New  Haven 
inclusively. 

Nothing  shows  to  me  the  spirit  of  the  town  of  New  Haven 
in  a  stronger  point  of  light,  than  the  politeness  of  Mr.  Ingersoll, 
Judge  of  Admiralty  for  the  Pennsylvanian  Middle  District,  who 
came  over  with  his  neighbors  this  evening,  and  made  his  com- 
pliments very  respectfully  to  Tom  Cushing,  Sam  Adams,  John 
Adams,  and  Bob  Paine.  The  numbers  of  gentlemen  who  have 
waited  on  us  from  Hartford  to  this  place,  the  heat  of  the  weather 
and  the  shortness  of  the  time  have  made  it  impossible  for  me 
to  learn  their  names. 

17.  Wednesday.  At  New  Haven.  We  are  told  here  that  New 
York  is  now  well  united  and  very  firm.  This  morning,  Roger 
Sherman,  Esquire,  one  of  the  delegates  for  Connecticut,  came 
to  see  us  at  the  tavern,  Isaac  Bears's.  He  is  between  fifty  and 
sixty,  a  solid,  sensible  man.  He  said  he  read  Mr.  Otis's  Rights, 
&c.  in  1764,  and  thought  that  he  had  conceded  away  the  rights 
of  America.  He  thought  the  reverse  of  the  declaratory  act  was 
true,  namely,  that  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  had  authority 
jtojrnake  laws  for  America  in  no  case  whatever.  He  would  have 
been  very  willing  that  Massachusetts  should  have  rescinded  that 
part  of  their  Circular  Letter1  where  they  allow  Parliament  to  be  " 
the  supreme  Legislative  over  the  Colonies  in  any  case. 

Mr.  Jones,  Mr.  Douglass,  and  several  other  gentlemen,  accom- 
panied us  to  take  a  view  of  the  town.  It  is  very  pleasant ;  — 
there  are  three  Congregational  meeting-houses,  and  one  Episco- 

1  The  letter  of  the  11th  February,  1768,  already  alluded  to,  which  the  British 
government  required  the  Legislature  to  rescind.     See  page  243,  note. 


;J44  DIARY.  [1774. 

pal  church,  near  together.  Went  to  view  the  grave-stone  of  Dix- 
well,  the  regicide,  in  the  burying-yard.  Went  to  college,  and 
saw  their  library,  their  apparatus,  and  chapel,  &c.  Mr.  Dwight, 
and  Mr.  Davenport,  two  of  the  tutors,  waited  on  us  with  great 
civility.  We  dined  with  Mr.  Douglass,  with  Mr.  Babcock,  son 
of  Dr.  Babcock  of  Westerly,  Mr.  Odell,  Mr.  Smith,  Mr.  Sherman, 
and  a  number  of  ladies ;  were  very  genteelly  entertained,  and 
spent  the  whole  afternoon  in  politics,  the  depths  of  politics.  Mr. 
Douglass  showed  us  his  garden,  which  is  a  very  good  one ;  fine 
fruit,  and  muskmelons  and  watermelons,  such  as  I  never  saw 
before ;  a  muskmelon  seventeen  inches  long,  and  a  watermelon 
whose  inside  looked  as  if  it  was  painted. 

An  inquiry  was  started,  who  were  the  members  of  the  House 
of  Commons  who  had  plantations  in  the  West  Indies,  and  who 
were  returned  by  the  interest  of  the  West  India  planters  ?  No 
one  could  tell.  None  could  pretend  to  foresee  the  effect  of  a 
total  non-exportation  to  the  West  Indies.  Jamaica  was  said  to 
be  the  most  independent  part  of  the  world.  They  had  their 
plantain  for  bread ;  they  had  vast  forests,  and  could  make  their 
own  heading,  staves,  and  hoops ;  they  could  raise  their  own  pro- 
visions.    This  afternoon  and  evening  we  had  a  plentiful  rain. 

18.  Thursday.  Mr.  Babcock  is  of  the  same  mind  with  Major 
Hawley,  that  a  non-importation  and  non-consumption  agreement 
will  not  be  faithfully  observed ;  that  the  Congress  have  not 
power  to  enforce  obedience  to  their  laws ;  that  they  will  be  like 
a  legislative  without  an  executive. 

We  had  a  good  deal  of  chat  last  evening  with  Mr.  Bears,  our 
landlord.  By  his  account,  the  parade  which  was  made  to  intro- 
duce us  into  town  was  a  sudden  proposal,  in  order  to  divert  the 
populace  from  erecting  a  liberty  pole,  &c.  Ingersoll's  friends 
were  at  the  bottom  of  it. 

Breakfasted  at  Bryant's,  in  Milford,  where  there  are  two  meet- 
ing-houses and  a  church.  We  visited  the  burying-yard  and  the 
tomb  of  Paine's  great  grandfather,  R.  Treat,  thirty  years  Gov- 
ernor and  Deputy- Governor ;  died  1710,  eighty-seven  years  of 
age.  There  is  an  old  venerable  monument  over  him,  with  an 
inscription.  About  ten>  we  passed  the  Housatonic  River,  at 
Stratford,  a  river  which  runs  up  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  and 
more,  though  it  is  not  navigable  above  ten  miles.  We  stopped 
at  Curtis's.     The  people  here  all  say,  Boston  is  suffering  perse- 


^Et.  38.]  DIARY.  345 

cution ;  that  now  is  the  time  for  all  the  rest  to  be  generous,  and 
that  Boston  people  must  be  supported.  Dined  at  Fairfield,  at 
Bulkeley's.  Mr.  Eliot,  the  new  minister  of  this  town,  came  to 
see  us.  This  is  a  county  town,  and  has  an  elegant  court-house, 
meeting-house,  and  church,  as  well  as  many  very  elegant  private 
houses.  Mr.  Burr  came  to  see  us.  After  noon  we  rode  to 
Quintard's,  of  Norwalk,  where  we  are  to  put  up,  having  rode 
thirty-six  miles,  and  having  fifty  miles  to  New  York. 

19.  Friday.  Rode  to  Fitch's,  of  Stamford,  where  we  break- 
fasted. Rode  to  Haviland's,  of  Rye,  the  first  town  in  the  Pro- 
vince of  New  York.  The  barber  says  that  religion  don't  flourish 
in  this  town.  The  Congregational  society  have  no  minister. 
The  Church  minister  has  forty-five  pounds  from  the  Society. 
They  have  a  school  for  writing  and  ciphering,  but  no  grammar 
school.  There  is  no  law  of  this  Province  that  requires  a  minister 
or  schoolmaster. 

20.  Saturday.  Lodged  at  Cock's,  at  Kingsbridge ;  a  pretty 
place,  Uncas  river  running  before  the  door,  and  verdant  hills  all 
round.  This  place  is  about  fifteen  miles  from  New  York. 
Uncas  River  is  the  bound  between  the  comity  of  "Westchester 
and  the  county  of  New  York.  This  place  is  ten  miles  from  Hell 
Gate,  which  is  supposed  to  be  occasioned  by  a  large  cavern  under 
the  rocks,  into  which  the  water  rushes  at  certain  times  of  the 
tide.     This  whirlpool  is  five  miles  from  the  city. 

We  breakfasted  at  Day's,  and  arrived  in  the  city  of  New  York 
at  ten  o'clock,  at  Hull's,  a  tavern,  the  sign  the  Bunch  of  Grapes. 
We  rode  by  several  very  elegant  country  seats  before  we  came 
to  the  city.  This  city  will  be  a  subject  of  much  speculation  to 
me.  From  Hull's,  we  went  to  private  lodgings  at  Mr.  Tobias 
Stoutenberg's,  in  King  Street,  very  near  the  City  Hall  one  way, 
and  the  French  Church  the  other.  Mr.  McDougall  and  Mr.  Piatt 
came  to  see  us.  Mr.  Piatt  asked  us  to  dinner  next  Monday.  Mr. 
McDougall  staid  longer  and  talked  a  good  deal.  He  is  a  very 
sensible  man,  and  an  open  one.1  He  has  none  of  the  mean 
cunning  which  disgraces  so  many  of  my  countrymen.  He  offers 
to  wait  on  us  this  afternoon  to  see  the  city. 

1  General  Alexander  McDougall,  early  engaged  in  the  revolutionary  move- 
ment, and  well  known  for  his  civil  and  military  services  throughout  the  war  that 
ensued.  He  earned  from  Washington  the  commendation  of  being  "  a  brave 
soldier  and  a  disinterested  patriot."     See  Writings  of  Washington,  ix.  p.  186. 


346  DIARY.  [1774. 

After  dinner,  Mr.  McDougall  and  Mr.  Piatt  came,  and  walked 
with  us  to  every  part  of  the  city.  First  we  went  to  the  fort, 
where  we  saw  the  ruins  of  that  magnificent  building,  the  Gov- 
ernor's house.1  From  the  Parade,  before  the  fort,  you  have  a 
fine  prospect  of  Hudson  River,  and  of  the  East  River,  or  the 
Sound,  and  of  the  harbor ;  of  Long  Island,  beyond  the  Sound 
River,  and  of  New  Jersey  beyond  Hudson's  River.  The  walk 
round  this  fort  is  very  pleasant,  though  the  fortifications  are  not 
strong.  Between  the  fort  and  the  city  is  a  beautiful  ellipsis  of 
land,  railed  in  with  solid  iron,  in  the  centre  of  which  is  a  statue 
of  his  majesty  on  horseback,  very  large,  of  solid  lead  gilded  with 
gold,  standing  on  a  pedestal  of  marble,  very  high.  We  then 
walked  up  the  Broad  Way,  a  fine  street,  very  wide,  and  in  a 
right  line  from  one  end  to  the  other  of  the  city.  In  this  route 
we  saw  the  old  church  and  the  new  church.  The  new  is  a  very 
magnificent  building,  cost  twenty  thousand  pounds,  York  cur- 
rency. The  prison  is  a  large  and  a  handsome  stone  building ; 
there  are  two  sets  of  barracks.  We  saw  the  New  York  college, 
which  is  also  a  large  stone  building.  A  new  hospital  is  build- 
ing, of  stone.  We  then  walked  down  to  a  ship-yard,  where  a 
Dutch  East  India  ship  is  building  of  eight  hundred  tons  burthen. 
Then  we  walked  round  through  another  street,  which  is  the  prin- 
cipal street  of  business.  Saw  the  several  markets.  After  this 
we  went  to  the  coffee-house,  which  was  full  of  gentlemen ;  read 
the  newspapers,  &c.  Here  were  introduced  to  us  Mr.  Mo'rin 
Scott  and  a  Mr.  Litchfield,  who  invited  us  to  Hull's  tavern, 
where  we  went  and  staid  till  eleven  o'clock.  We  supped 
together,  and  had  much  conversation.  Mr.  Scott  is  a  lawyer, 
of  about  fifty  years  of  age  ;  a  sensible  man,  but  not  very  polite. 
He  is  said  to  be  one  of  the  readiest  speakers  upon  the  continent. 
It  was  he  who  harangued  the  people,  and  prevailed  upon  them 
to  discard  the  resolves  of  their  committee  of  fifty-one,  as  void  of 
vigor,  sense,  and  integrity.2 

Mr.  Scott  was  censuring  McDougall,  in  a  friendly,  free  way, 
for  not  insisting  upon  choosing  delegates  by  ballot,  &c.     Mr. 

1  This  was  burnt  on  the  night  of  the  29th  December  preceding,  and  the 
inmates  with  difficulty  escaped. 

2  It  was  remarked  by  George  Clymer,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Josiah  Quincy, 
Jr.  in  the  year  1773,  that  patriotism  "then  seemed  to  have  taken  but  shallow 
root  in  some  places,  particularly  at  New  York,  where  political  principles  are 
truly  as  unfixed  as  the  wind.     One  year  sees  the  New  Yorkers  champions  for 


JBet.  38.]  DIA11Y.  347 

Piatt  said  but  little ;  but  McDougall  was  talkative,  and  appears 
to  have  a  thorough  knowledge  of  politics.  The  two  great  fam- 
ilies in  this  Province,  upon  whose  motions  all  their  politics  turn, 
are  the  Delanceys  and  Livingstons.  There  is  virtue,  and  abilities 
as  well  as  fortune,  in  the  Livingstons,  but  not  much  of  either  of 
the  three  in  the  Delanceys,  according  to  him. 

The  streets  of  this  town  are  vastly  more  regular  and  elegant 
thanlhose  in  Boston,  and  the  houses  are  more  grand,  as  welljis 


_neat.     They  are  almost  all  painted,  brick  buildings  and  all.     In 
~ou7walks  they  showed  us  the  house  of  Mr.  William  Smith,  one 

liberty,  and  the  next  hugging  their  chains."  This  characteristic  of  instability 
has  remained  through  all'the'vicissitudes  of  subsequent  times.  Divided  as  the 
population  was  in  sentiment  at  this  period,  (1774,)  the  conservative  and  aristo- 
cratic interest  maintained  a  preponderance  in  the  Province  at  large,  and  pre- 
vented its  Legislature  from  acting  at  all,  whilst  in  the  city  it  was  waging  a  more 
doubtful  struggle  with  the  feeling  which  had,  for  years,  manifested  decided  pop- 
ular tendencies.  This  conflict  developed  the  tendency  to  political  manoeuvering, 
for  which  the  people  of  New  York  have  ever  since  been  noted.  Nowhere, 
perhaps,  have  a  greater  number  of  persons  shaped  their  action  by  the  rule 
of  the  celebrated'Bussy  Rabutin,  in  the  days  of  faction  in  France :  "  Je  suis, 
autant  que  je  puis,  du  parti  le  plus  fort."  Hence  arose  the  ludicrous  embarrass- 
ment of  its  provincial  assembly  in  the  next  year,  1775,  upon  receiving  the  news 
that  General  Washington  and  Governor  Tryon  were  both  on  their  way  to  the 
city  at  the  same  time,  and  hence  their  order  "  that  the  militia  should  stand  ready  to 
receive  the  one  or  the  other,  as  he  might  first  arrive,  and  should  wait  on  both  as 
well  as  circumstances  would  allow."  Hence  the  facts  related  by  Gordon,  in  the 
second  volume  of  his  History,  p.  120.  See  also  the  Life  of  Charles  Lee, 
Sparks's  American  Biography,  vol.  xviii.  pp.  96-105. 

At  the  moment  alluded  to  in  the  text,  the  news  of  the  passage  of  theJBoston 
_Port  Bill  had  given  a  force  to  the  popular  side  in  the  city,  which  threatened  to 
carry  every  thing  before  it.  Sensible  of  the  hazard  attending  open  resistance, 
the  conservative  interest  adopted  the  more  prudent  policy  of  falling  in  with  the 
public  sentiment  so  far  as  to  secure  the  control  of  all  action.  This  was  the  origin 
of  the  plan  to  reorganize  the  committee  of  correspondence,  and  to  place  upon  it, 
in  conjunction  with  some  of  the  popular  leaders,  a  large  number  of  lukewarm, 
if  not  hostile,  persons.  The  history  of  this  committee  of  fifty-one,  is  the  record 
of  a  struggle  between  opposite  forces,  between  skilful  management  on  the  part 
of  a  few,  and  blind  power  on  the  part  of  the  many.  Thus  it  happened,  that 
whilst  at  one  moment  the  former  met  with  a  complete  defeat  in  the  rejection  of 
a  series  of  temporizing  resolutions,  characterized  "  as  void  of  vigor,  sense,  and 
integrity,"  at  another  the  latter  secured  the  more  substantial  advantage  of  pre- 
venting the  choice  of  John  Morin  Scott,  through  whose  energy  they  had  been 
worsted,  as  stated  in  the  text,  and  of  Alexander  McDougall,  as  delegates  to  the 
Congress  of  1774.  There  can  be  no  disputing  that  throughout  the  lie  volution  a 
large  proportion  of  the  population,  including  most  of  the  property-holders  of 
New  York,  sympathized  with  the  mother  country.  Neither  did  the  effect  of 
this  cease  with  the  establishment  of  the  national  independence.  The  history 
yet  remains  as  the  work  for  a  discriminating  and  thoroughly  unbiased  pen.  As 
a  guide  to  the  movements  here  indicated,  it  may  be  well  to  read  with  attention  a 
letter  of  Gouverneur  Morris  to  Mr.  Penn,  and  the  correspondence  of  Lieutenant- 
Governor  Golden  with  Lord  Dartmouth.  Life  of  G.  Morris,  by  J.  Sparks,  vol. 
i.  p.  23.     Force's  American  Archives,  1774. 


348  DIARY.  [1774. 

of  their  Council  and  the  famous  lawyer,  Mr.  Thomas  Smith,  &c. 
Mr.  Rivington's  store,  &c. 

21.  Sunday.  Went  to  meeting  at  the  old  Presbyterian  Soci- 
ety, where  Dr.  Pemberton  formerly  preached.  We  heard  Dr. 
Rogers  on  "  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteous- 
ness, and  all  other  things  shall  be  added  unto  you."  After 
service,  Mr.  Peter  Vanbrugh  Livingston  and  Mr.  Thomas  Smith 
came  to  our  lodgings,  introduced  to  us  by  Mr.  McDougall. 

Mr.  Livingston  is  an  old  man,  extremely  staunch  in  the  cause, 
and  very  sensible.  He  tells  us  that  Dr.  Chandler  and  Dr.  Cooper, 
and  other  Episcopal  clergymen,  were  met  together  about  the 
time  of  the  news  of  the  Boston  Port  Bill,  and  were  employed 
night  and  day  writing  letters  and  sending  despatches  to  the 
other  Colonies  and  to  England.  This  he  thinks  was  to  form  an 
union  of  the  Episcopal  party,  through  the  continent,  in  support 
of  ministerial  measures.  He  says  they  have  never  been  able  to 
obtain  a  charter  for  their  burying-yard,  or  the  ground  on  which 
their  Presbyterian  church  stands !  They  have  solicited  their 
Governors,  and  have  solicited  at  home  without  success. 

In  the  afternoon  we  went  to  the  same  meeting,  and  heard  Mr. 
Treat  from  "  These  shall  go  away  into  everlasting  punishment." 
Both  these  clergymen  are  good  speakers,  and  without  notes. 
The  psalmody  is  an  exact  contrast  to  that  of  Hartford ;  it  is  in 
the  old  ivay,  as  we  call  it  —  all  the  drawling,  quavering,  discord 
in  the  world.  After  meeting,  Mr.  McDougall  introduced  me  and 
Mr.  Paine  to  Mr.  William  Smith,  the  historian  of  New  York,1 
a  gentleman  a  little  turned  of  forty,  a  plain,  composed  man,  to 
appearance.  He  very  politely  invited  us  to  tea  at  his  house  ; 
but  we  were  engaged.  He  then  inquired  where  we  lodged,  and 
said  he  would  wait  on  us.  After  meeting  we  went  to  Mr.  Mc- 
Dougall's,  where  we  saw  his  lady,  a  charming  woman,  and 
his  daughter,  an  agreeable  Miss.  Mrs.  Clymer  was  there  from 
Philadelphia,  who  inquired  very  kindly  after  Mr.  Hancock  and 
his  aunt,  and  Mr.  Jonathan  Mason  and  his  family.  This  is  a 
very  facetious  and  social  lady.  At  Mr.  McDougall's,  Colonel 
Folsom  and  Major  Sullivan,  the  delegates  from  New  Hamp- 
shire, came  to  see  us ;  they  were  hastening  over  the  ferry  for 

1  Though  much  connected  with  the  men  of  the  popular  party,  he  finally  deci- 
ded for  the  royal  side  in  1778.  He  afterwards  became  a  Chief  Justice  of 
Canada.     Sabine's  American  Loyalists. 


^Et.  38.]  DIARY.  349 

fear  of  the  smallpox,  neither  of  them  having  had  that  distemper. 
Also  Mr.  Low,  a  relation  of  the  delegate  from  New  York  of  that 
name,  Mr.  Lamb,  Mr.  Hughes,  a  schoolmaster,  and  many  others 
whose  names  I  cannot  recollect.  We  then  went  to  Mr.  David 
Van  Home's,  who  sent  his  compliments  to  Mr.  McDougall,  and 
requested  him  to  introduce  us  to  his  house,  as  he  was  sick  and 
unable  to  come  out.  He  seems  well  affected  to  the  public  cause, 
and  speaks  very  sensibly  about  it. 

22.  Monday.  This  morning  we  took  Mr.  McDougall  into 
our  coach,  and  rode  three  miles  out  of  town  to  Mr.  Morin 
Scott's  to  breakfast  —  a  very  pleasant  ride.  Mr.  Scott  has  an 
elegant  seat  there,  with  Hudson's  River  just  behind  his  house, 
and  a  rural  prospect  all  around  him.  Mr.  Scott,  his  lady  and 
daughter,  and  her  husband,  Mr.  Litchfield,  were  dressed  to 
receive  us.  We  sat  in  a  fine  airy  entry  till  called  into  a  front 
room  to  breakfast.  A  more  elegant  breakfast  I  never  saw  — 
rich  plate,  a  very  large  silver  coffee-pot,  a  very  large  silver  tea-pot, 
napkins  of  the  very  finest  materials,  toast,  and  bread,  and  but- 
ter, in  great  perfection.  After  breakfast  a  plate  of  beautiful 
peaches,  another  of  pears,  and  another  of  plums,  and  a  musk- 
melon,  were  placed  on  the  table. 

Mr.  Scott,  Mr.  William  Smith,  and  Mr.  William  Livingston, 
are  the  triumvirate  who  figured  away  in  younger  life  against  the 
Church  of  England,  who  wrote  the  Independent  Reflector,  the 
Watch  Tower,  and  other  papers.1  They  are  all  of  them  children 
of  Yale  College.  Scott  and  Livingston  are  said  to  be  lazy ; 
Smith  improves  every  moment  of  his  time.  Livingston  is  lately 
removed  into  New  Jersey,  and  is  one  of  the  delegates  for  that 
Province. 

Mr.  Scott  is  an  eminent  lawyer ;  he  drew  the  answer  of  the 
Council  to  Governor  Colden's  Reasons  in  favor  of  an  Appeal 
in  the  case  of  Forsey  vs.  Cunningham.2  He  is  said  to  be  one  of 
the  readiest  speakers  on  the  continent.  Scott  told  me  that  the 
state  of  the  New  York  claim,  Massachusetts  claim,  New  Hamp- 
shire claim,  and  Canada  claim,  which  is  printed  in  the  Journal 
of  the  House  in  New  York,  1763,  to  the  lands  contested  between 
Connecticut  and  Hudson's  River,  was  principally  drawn  by  Mr. 

1  A  full  account  of  these  publications  is  given  in  the  third  chapter  of  Sedg- 
wick's Memoir  of  W.  Livingston. 

2  See  the  same  Memoir,  pp.  121-124. 

VOL.   II.  30 


350  DIARY.  [1774. 

Duane,  who  has  unhappily  involved  almost  all  his  property  in 
those  lands.  He  has  purchased  patents  of  government,  and 
claims  of  soldiers,  &c,  to  the  amount  of  one  hundred  thousand 
acres.  Mr.  Duane  is  an  Episcopalian ;  so  are  all  the  delegates 
from  New  York  excepting  Mr.  Livingston.  Mr.  Jay  is  a  young 
gentleman  of  the  law,  of  about  twenty-six ;  Mr.  Scott  says,  a 
hard  student  and  a  good  speaker.  Mr.  Alsop  is  a  merchant,  of 
a  good  heart,  but  unequal  to  the  trust  in  point  of  abilities,  as 
Mr.  Scott  thinks.  Mr.  Low,  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  of 
Fifty-one,  they  say,  will  profess  attachment  to  the  cause  of 
liberty,  but  his  sincerity  is  doubted.  Mr.  William  Bayard,  Mr. 
McEvers,  and  Mr.  Beech,  are  gentlemen  who  were  very  intimate 
with  General  Gage  when  he  was  here.  Mr.  Bayard  has  a  son 
and  a  son-in-law  in  the  army,  and  a  son  in  the  service  of  the 
East  India  Company.  These  are  connected  with  Mr.  Apthorp 
and  his  contracts,  and  are  lookers-up  to  government  for  favors, 
are  correspondents  of  General  Gage,  and  will  favor  his  measures, 
though  they  profess  attachment  to  the  American  cause. 

Mr.  McDougall  gave  a  caution  to  avoid  every  expression  here 
which  looked  like  an  allusion  to  the  last  appeal.  He  says  there 
is  a  powerful  party  here  who  are  intimidated  by  fears  of  a  civil 
war,  and  they  have  been  induced  to  acquiesce  by  assurances 
that  there  was  no  danger,  and  that  a  peaceful  cessation  of  com- 
merce would  effect  relief.  Another  party,  he  says,  are  intimi- 
dated lest  the  levelling  spirit  of  the  New  England  Colonies 
should  propagate  itself  into  New  York.1  Another  party  are 
prompted  by  Episcopalian  prejudices  against  New  England. 
Another  party  are  merchants  largely  concerned  in  navigation, 
and  therefore  afraid  of  non-importation,  non-consumption,  and 
non-exportation  agreements.  Another  party  are  those  who  are 
looking  up  to  Government  for  favors.  About  eleven  o'clock, 
four  of  the  delegates  for  the  city  and  county  of  New  York 
came  to  make  their  compliments  to  us  ;  —  Mr.  Duane,  Mr.  Liv- 
ingston, Mr.  Low,  and  Mi-.  Alsop.  Mr.  Livingston  is  a  down- 
right, straightforward  man.  Mr.  Alsop  is  a  soft,  sweet  man.  Mr. 
Duane  has  a  sly,  surveying  eye,  a  little  squint-eyed;  between 
forty  and  forty-five,  I  should  guess ;  very  sensible,  I  think,  and 
very  artful.      He  says,  their  private  correspondence  and  their 

1  This  leading  idea  deserves  to  be  kept  steadily  in  mind  throughout  the  his- 
tory of  the  early  stages  of  the  Revolution. 


2BT.  38.]  DIARY.  351 

agent's  letters,  Mr.  Burke,1  are  that  the  nation  is  against  us ;  that 
we  cannot  depend  upon  any  support  of  any  kind  from  thence ; 
that  the  merchants  are  very  much  against  us ;  that  their  pride  is 
touched,  and  what  they  call  their  rights,  by  our  turning  away 
their  ships  from  our  ports.  A  question  arose,  whether  it  was  a 
prerogative  of  the  Crown  at  common  law,  to  license  wharves. 
I  thought  it  was,  by  statutes  at  home,  which  were  never  extended 
to  America  before  the  Boston  Port  Bill.  Mr.  Duane  was  of  my 
opinion.  Mr.  Livingston  thought  it  was  a  prerogative  of  the 
Crown  at  common  law ;  said  it  had  been  so  understood  here ; 
that  all  the  public  wharves  in  this  town  were  by  charter  from 
the  Governor.  He  questioned  whether  the  officers  of  the  cus- 
toms were  obliged  to  attend  any  wharves  but  licensed  ones. 

Mr.  Morin  Scott  called  upon  us  at  our  lodgings,  and  politely 
insisted  upon  our  taking  a  seat  in  his  chariot  to  Mr.  Piatt's. 
We  accepted  the  invitation,  and,  when  we  came  there,  were 
shown  into  as  elegant  a  chamber  as  ever  I  saw — the  furniture 
as  rich  and  splendid  as  any  of  Mr.  Boylston's.  Mr.  Low,  Mr. 
Peter  Vanbrugh  Livingston,  Mr.  Philip  Livingston,  Dr.  Treat, 
a  brother  of  the  minister,  and  Mr.  McDougall,  Mr.  Scott,  and 
Mr.  Litchfield,  dined  with  us  and  spent  the  afternoon. 

P.  V.  Livingston  is  a  sensible  man  and  a  gentleman.  He  has 
been  in  trade,  is  rich,  and  now  lives  upon  his  income.  Phil. 
Livingston  is  a  great,  rough,  rapid  mortal.  There  is  no  holding 
any  conversation  with  him.  He  blusters  away ;  says,  if  Eng- 
land should  turn  us  adrift,  we  should  instantly  go  to  civil  wars 
among  ourselves,  to  determine  which  Colony  should  govern  all 
the  rest ;  seems  to  dread  New  England,  the  levelling  spirit,  &c. 
Hints  were  thrown  out  of  the  Goths  and  Vandals ;  mention  was 
made  of  our  hanging  the  Quakers,  &c.  I  told  him,  the  very 
existence  of  the  Colony  was  at  that  time  at  stake  —  surrounded 
with  Indians  at  war,  against  whom  they  could  not  have  defended 
the  Colony  if  the  Quakers  had  been  permitted  to  go  on. 

23.  Tuesday.  We  went  upon  the  new  Dutch  church  steeple, 
and  took  a  view  of  the  city.  You  have  a  very  fine  view  of  the 
whole  city  at  once,  the  harbor,  East  River,  North  River,  Long 
Island,  New  Jersey,  &c.  The  whole  city  is  upon  a  level,  a  flat. 
The  houses  in  general  are  smaller  than  in  Boston,  and  the  city 

i  The  letter  referred  to  has  been  preserved  in  the  Life  of  Peter  Van  Schaack 
by  his  son,  pp.  18-20. 


352  DIARY.  [1774. 

occupies  less  ground.  We  breakfasted  with  Mr.  Low,  a  gentle- 
man of  fortune  and  in  trade.  His  lady  is  a  beauty.  Rich 
furniture  again  for  the  tea  table.  Mr.  Lott,  the  treasurer  of  the 
Province,  did  us  the  honor  to  breakfast  with  us,  and  politely 
asked  us  to  dine  or  to  breakfast  with  him ;  but  we  were  engaged 
for  all  the  time  we  were  to  stay.  The  conversation  turned  upon 
the  constitution  of  the  city.  The  mayor  and  recorder  are  ap- 
pointed by  the  Governor;  the  aldermen  and  common  council  are 
annually  elected  by  the  people.  The  aldermen  are  the  magis- 
trates of  the  city,  and  the  only  ones ;  they  have  no  justices  of 
the  peace  in  the  city ;  so  that  the  magistracy  of  the  city  are  all 
the  creatures  of  the  people.  The  city  cannot  tax  itself;  the 
constables,  assessors,  &c,  are  chosen  annually ;  they  petition 
the  assembly  every  year  to  be  empowered  by  law  to  assess  the 
city  for  a  certain  sum.  The  whole  charge  of  the  Province  is 
annually  between  five  and  six  thousand  pounds,  York  money. 
Mr.  Cushing  says  the  charge  of  the  Massachusetts  is  about 
twelve  thousand,  lawful  money,  which  is  sixteen  thousand,  York 
currency.  The  support  of  Harvard  College,  and  of  forts  and 
garrisons  and  other  things,  makes  the  difference.  About  eleven 
o'clock,  Mr.  Low,  Mr.  Curtenius,  Mr.  Pascall  Smith,  Mr.  Van 
Schaack,  and  others,  a  deputation  from  the  committee  of  corres- 
pondence from  this  city,  waited  on  us  with  an  invitation  to  dine 
with  them  Thursday  next,  which  we  accepted.  One  of  the 
gentlemen  said  he  was  in  England  at  the  time  of  a  former  non- 
importation agreement,  and  it  was  not  much  felt  among  the 
merchants  or  manufacturers.  Another  of  them  replied,  the  true 
cause  of  that  was  the  German  contract,  and  the  demand  from 
Russia.  Mr.  Ebenezer  Hazard  waited  on  me  with  a  letter, 
requesting  my  assistance  in  making  his  collection  of  American 
State  papers.  I  recommended  him  to  Mr.  S.  Adams,  and  Dr. 
Samuel  Mather.  I  advised  him  to  publish  from  Hackluyt,  the 
Voyage  of  Sebastian  Cabot,  in  this  collection.  He  thought  it 
good  advice.  Hazard  is  certainly  very  capable  of  the  business 
he  has  undertaken ;  he  is  a  genius.  Went  to  the  Coffee  House 
and  saw  the  Virginia  Paper ;  the  spirit  of  the  people  is  prodi- 
gious; their  resolutions  are  really  grand.  We  then  went  to 
Mr.  Peter  Vanbrugh  Livingston's,  where,  at  three  o'clock,  we 
dined,  with  Scott,  McDougall,  Philip  Livingston,  Mr.  Thomas 
Smith,  and  a  young  gentleman,  son  of  Mr.  Peter  Livingston. 


<®T.  38.]  DIARY.  353 

Smith  and  young  Livingston  seem  to  be 'modest,  decent,  and 
sensible  men. 

The  way  we  have  been  in,  of  breakfasting,  dining,  drinking 
coffee,  &c.,  about  the  city,  is  very  disagreeable  on  some  accounts. 
Although  it  introduces  us  to  the  acquaintance  of  many  respect- 
able people  here,  yet  it  hinders  us  from  seeing  the  college,  the 
churches,  the  printers'  offices,  and  booksellers'  shops,  and  many 
other  things  which  we  should  choose  to  see. 

With  all  the  opulence  and  splendor  of  this  city,  there  is  very 
little  good  breeding  to  be  found.  We  have  been  treated  with 
an  assiduous  respect ;  but  I  have  not  seen  one  real  gentleman, 
onejwell-bred  man,  since  I  came  to  town.  At  their  entertain- 
ments there  is  no  conversation  that  is  agreeable  ;  there  is  no 
modesty,  no  attention  to  one  another.  They  talk  very  loud, 
very  fast,  and  altogether.  If  they  ask  you  a  question,  before 
you  can  utter  three  words  of  your  answer,  they  will  break  out 
upon  you  again,  and  talk  away. 

24.  Wednesday.  This  day  Cushing  and  Paine  went  over  to 
Long  Island  to  dine  with  Phil  Livingston.  Adams  and  I  sent 
our  excuse,  that  we  were  not  very  well ;  it  was  raw  and  wet. 

25.  Thursday.  Mr.  Mathew  Cushing  came  and  escorted  us 
into  Trinity  Church  and  churchyard.  Under  the  chancel  of 
this  church  Mr.  Pratt  was  buried.  This  is  an  old  building. 
We  then  went  into  Saint  Paul's.  This  is  a  new  building,  which 
cost  eighteen  thousand  pounds,  York  money.  It  has  a  piazza 
in  front,  and  some  stone  pillars,  which  appear  grand ;  but  the 
building,  taken  altogether,  does  not  strike  me  like  the  Stone 
Chapel,  or  like  Dr.  Cooper's  meeting-house,  either  on  the  inside 
or  outside.  We  then  went  to  see  Mr.  Cushing  work  his  new 
constructed  pumps,  which  work  easier,  he  says,  and  convey  more 
water,  than  any  other.  We  then  went  to  college ;  were  intro- 
duced to  Mr.  Harper,  who  showed  us  the  library,  the  books,  and 
curiosities.  We  were  then  introduced  to  Dr.  Clossy,  who  was 
exhibiting  a  course  of  experiments  to  his  pupils  to  prove  the 
elasticity  of  the  air. 

There  is  but  one  building  at  this  college,  and  that  is  very  far 
from  full  of  scholars ;  they  never  have  had  forty  scholars  at  a  time. 
WTe  then  made  a  visit  of  ceremony  to  Mr.  William  Smith,  a 
counsellor  at  law,  and  a  counsellor  by  mandamus.  This  gentle- 
man has  the  character  of  a  great  lawyer,  a  sensible  and  learned 


30*  W 


;j;34  DIARY.  [1774. 

man,  and  yet  a  consistent,  unshaken  friend  to  his  country  and 
her  liberties.  He  entertained  us  with  an  account  of  his  negoti- 
ating between  the  Governor  (Golden),  the  General  (Gage),  and 
the  people,  in  the  year  1765,  when  the  people  attacked  the  fort 
to  obtain  the  stamped  papers,  in  which  he  acted  an  intrepid, 
an  honest,  and  a  prudent  part.  Mr.  McDougall  told  me  of  the 
part  he  acted  in  the  affair  of  the  prosecution  of  him  for  a  libel.1 
The  Governor  asked  him  if  he  would  not  act  for  the  Crown. 
Mr.  Smith  said,  he  would  not  do  the  dirty  jobs  of  government ; 
he  would  not  hold  any  thing  under  the  Crown  upon  such  terms. 

Mr.  Smith  expressed  his  sentiments  of  General  Gage  and  his 
new  station  and  character  very  freely.  He  said  he  had  a  great 
personal  regard  for  the  General ;  that  he  was  a  good-natured, 
peaceable,  and  sociable  man  here  ;  but  that  he  was  altogether 
unfit  for  a  Governor  of  the  Massachusetts  ;  that  he  would  lose 
all  the  character  he  had  acquired  as  a  man,  a  gentleman,  and  a 
general,  and  dwindle  down  into  a  mere  scribbling  Governor,  a 
mere  Bernard  or  Hutchinson. 

Mr.  Smith  received  us  very  politely.  We  afterwards  made  a 
visit  to  friend  Holt,  the  liberty  printer,  and  to  Noel  and  Hazard's. 
We  afterwards  dined  in  the  Exchange  Chamber,  at  the  invita- 
tion of  the  Committee  of  Correspondence,  with  more  than  fifty 
gentlemen,  at  the  most  splendid  dinner  I  ever  saw ;  a  profusion 
of  rich  dishes,  &c.  &c. 

I  had  a  great  deal  of  conversation  with  Mr.  Duane,  who  is  a 
sensible,  an  artful,  and  an  insinuating  man.  He  talked  of  Mr. 
Pratt;  said  he  had  the  greatest  memory  of  any  man  he  ever 
saw ;  that  he  had  read  a  great  deal,  but  that  he  had  not  a  clear 
head.  One  of  the  bar  used  to  say  that  Mr.  Pratt  thickened  the 
clear ;  that  he  knew  Mr.  Pratt  try  eight  criminals  in  a  forenoon 
upon  different  indictments,  and  with  the  same  jury ;  that  he  took 
no  notes,  but  summed  the  evidence  with  great  exactness,  remem- 
bered every  circumstance  of  every  testimony,  and  the  names  of 
all  the  witnesses,  although  the  witnesses  were  Dutch  people,  and 
their  names  such  as  Mr.  Pratt  never  could  have  heard.  After 
dinner  the  Connecticut  delegates  came  in.  In  the  evening  sev- 
eral gentlemen  came  to  our  lodgings,  and  among  others,  Mr. 
Sears. 

26.  Friday.     This  morning  we  went  to  see  the  city  hall,  the 
1  This  history  is  given  by  Gordon,  vol.  i.  pp.  301  -  303. 


jEt   38.]  DIARY.  355 


chamber  where  the  Supreme  Court  sits,  and  that  where  the 
Mayor  and  Recorder  sit.  Afterwards  we  went  down  to  the  new 
Dutch  Church,  which  is  a  much  more  elegant  building  than 
Saint  Paul's ;  it  is  the  most  elegant  building  in  the  city.  The 
pillars  are  smaller  than  Dr.  Cooper's,  and  the  pews  are  all 
painted,  but  the  building  is  not  so  handsome.  At  nine  o'clock 
we  crossed  Paulus  Hook  Ferry  to  New  Jersey,  then  Hackinsack 
Ferry,  then  Newark  Ferry,  and  dined  at  Elizabethtown.  After 
dinner  we  rode  twenty  miles,  crossed  Brunswick  ferry,  and  put 
up  at  Farmer's  in  the  city  of  Brunswick.  That  part  of  the  Pro- 
vince of  New  Jersey  which  we  have  passed  is  all  upon  a  level, 
as  fine  a  road  as  ever  was  trod ;  yet  the  lands  seem  to  be  good. 
27.  Saturday.  Went  to  view  the  city  of  Brunswick.  There 
is  a  Church  of  England,  a  Dutch  Church,  and  a  Presbyterian 
Church,  in  this  town ;  there  is  some  little  trade  here ;  small  craft 
can  come  up  to  the  town.  We  saw  a  few  small  sloops.  The 
river  is  very  beautiful.  There  is  a  stone  building  for  barracks, 
which  is  tolerably  handsome  ;  it  is  about  the  size  of  Boston  jail. 
Some  of  the  streets  are  paved,  and  there  are  three  or  four  hand- 
some houses ;  only  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  families  in  the 
town ;  rode  ten  miles  to  Jones's,  where  we  stopped  to  blow  our 
horses.  This  whole  Colony  of  New  Jersey  is  a  champaign. 
About  twelve  o'clock  we  arrived  at  the  tavern  in  Princeton, 
which  holds  out  the  sign  of  Hudibras,  near  Nassau  Hall  College. 
The  tavern  keeper's  name  is  Hire.  The  college  is  a  stone  build- 
ing, about  as  large  as  that  at  New  York ;  it  stands  upon  rising 
ground,  and  so  commands  a  prospect  of  the  country.  After 
dinner,  Mr.  Pigeon,  a  student  of  Nassau  Hall,  son  of  Mr.  Pigeon 
of  Watertown,  from  whom  we  brought  a  letter,  took  a  walk 
with  us  and  showed  us  the  seat  of  Mr.  Stockton,  a  lawyer  in 
this  place,  and  one  of  the  Council,  and  one  of  the  trustees  of 
the  college ;  as  we  returned  we  met  Mr.  Euston,  the  professor 
of  mathematics  and  natural  philosophy,  who  kindly  invited 
us  to  his  chamber.  We  went.  The  college  is  conveniently 
constructed ;  instead  of  entries  across  the  building,  the  entries 
are  from  end  to  end,  and  the  chambers  are  on  each  side  of  the 
entries.  There  are  such  entries,  one  above  another,  in  every 
story ;  each  chamber  has  three  windows,  two  studies  with  one 
window  in  each,  and  one  window  between  the  studies  to 
enlighten  the  chamber.     Mr.  Euston  then  showed  us  the  library; 


;j3G  DIARY.  [17  74. 

it  is  not  large,  but  lias  some  good  books.  He  then  led  us  into 
the  apparatus  ;  here  we  saw  a  most  beautiful  machine  —  an 
orrery  or  planetarium,  constructed  by  Mr.  Rittenhouse,  of  Phila- 
delphia. It  exhibits  almost  every  motion  in  the  astronomical 
world ;  the  motions  of  the  sun  and  all  the  planets,  with  all  their 
satellites,  the  eclipses  of  the  sun  and  moon,  &c.  He  showed  us 
another  orrery,  which  exhibits  the  true  inclination  of  the  orbit 
of  each  of  the  planets  to  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic.  He  then 
showed  us  the  electrical  apparatus,  which  is  the  most  complete 
and  elegant  that  I  have  seen.  He  charged  the  bottle  and 
attempted  an  experiment,  but  the  state  of  the  air  was  not 
favorable.  By  this  time  the  bell  rang  for  prayers  ;  we  went  into 
the  chapel ;  the  President  soon  came  in,  and  we  attended.  The 
scholars  sing  as  badly  as  the  Presbyterians  at  New  York. 
After  prayers  the  President  attended  us  to  the  balcony  of  the 
college,  where  we  have  a  prospect  of  an  horizon  of  about  eighty 
miles  diameter.  We  went  into  the  President's  house,  and  drank 
a  glass  of  wine.  He  is  as  high  a  son  of  liberty  as  any  man  in 
America.  He  says  it  is  necessary  that  the  Congress  should 
raise  money  and  employ  a  number  of  writers  in  the  newspapers  in 
England,  to  explain  to  the  public  the  American  plea,  and  remove 
the  prejudices  of  Britons.  He  says,  also,  we  should  recommend 
it  to  every  Colony  to  form  a  society  for  the  encouragement  of 
Protestant  emigrants  from  the  Three  Kingdoms.  The  Doctor 
waited  on  us  to  our  lodgings,  and  took  a  dish  of  coffee.  He  is 
one  of  the  committee  of  correspondence,  and  was  upon  the 
Provincial  Congress  for  appointing  delegates  from  this  Province 
to  the  General  Congress.  Mr.  William  Livingston  and  he 
labored,  he  says,  to  procure  an  instruction  that  the  tea  should 
not  be  paid  for.  Livingston,  he  says,  is  very  sincere  and  very 
able  in  the  public  cause,  but  a  bad  speaker,  though  a  good 
writer.  Here  we  saw  a  Mr.  Hood,  a  lawyer  of  Brunswick,  and 
a  Mr.  Jonathan  Dickinson  Sergeant,  a  young  lawyer  of  Prince- 
ton, both  cordial  friends  to  American  liberty,  hi  the  evening 
young  Whitwell,  a  student  at  this  college,  son  of  Mr.  Whitwell 
at  Boston,  to  whom  we  brought  a  letter,  came  to  see  us.  By 
the  account  of  Whitwell  and  Pigeon,  the  government  of  this 
college  is  very  strict,  and  the  scholars  study  very  hard.  The 
President  says  they  are  all  sons  of  liberty. 

28.  Sunday.     Heard  Dr.  Witherspoon  all  day ;  a  clear,  sen- 


JEt.  38.]  DIARY.  367 

sible  preacher.  Mr.  Mason  came  to  see  us.  We  sent  a  card 
to  Mr.  Sergeant,  a  lawyer ;  he  dined,  drank  coffee,  and  spent  the 
evening  with  us.  He  is  a  young  gentleman  of  about  twenty- 
five,  perhaps ;  very  sociable.  He  gave  us  much,  light  concerning 
the  characters  of  the  delegates  from  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
Virginia,  &c,  and  concerning  the  characters  of  the  principal 
law  vers  in  all  these  Provinces.  Smith,  he  says,  is  the  oracle  of 
New  York  for  chamber  counsel ;  Scott  is  a  character  very  much 
like  that  of  old  Mr.  Auchmuty ;  sit  up  all  night  at  his  bottle,  yet 
argue  to  admiration  next  day ;  an  admirable  speaker,  according 
to  him.  Duane  is  a  plodding  body,  but  has  a  very  effeminate, 
feeble  voice.  He  says  the  Virginians  speak  in  raptures  about 
Richard  Henry  Lee  and  Patrick  Henry,  one  the  Cicero,  and  the 
other  the  Demosthenes  of  the  age.1  Jo  Reed  is  at  the  head  of 
his  profession  in  Philadelphia ;  Fisher  is  next.  Wain  and  Dick- 
inson have  retired. 

29.  Monday.  Rode  to  Trenton  upon  Delaware  River  to 
breakfast.  At  Williams's,  the  tavern  at  Trenton  ferry,  we  saw 
four  very  large  black  walnut  trees  standing  in  a  row  behind 
the  house.  It  seems  that  these  trees  are  plenty  in  these  southern 
Provinces ;  all  the  black -walnut  timber  which  is  used  by  our 
cabinet  makers  in  Boston  is  brought  from  the  southern  Pro- 
vinces. This  town  of  Trenton  is  a  pretty  village ;  it  appears  to 
be  the  largest  town  that  we  have  seen  in  the  Jerseys,  larger  than 
Elizabethtown,  Brunswick,  or  Princeton. 

We  then  crossed  the  ferry  over  Delaware  River,  to  the  Pro- 
vince of  Pennsylvania.  We  then  rode  across  an  elbow  and 
came  to  the  Delaware  again,  a  beautiful  river,  navigable  up  as 
far  as  Trenton ;  the  country  on  each  side  is  very  level.  We 
arrived  at  Bristol  about  eleven  o'clock; — a  village  on  the  Dela- 
ware, opposite  to  which  is  Burlington.  The  scenes  of  nature 
are  delightful  here.  This  is  twenty  miles  from  Philadelphia. 
Here  we  saw  two  or  three  passage  wagons,  a  vehicle  with  four 
wheels,  contrived  to  carry  many  passengers  and  much  baggage. 
We  then  rode  to  the  Red  Lion  and  dined.  After  dinner  we 
stopped  at  Frankfort,  about  five  miles  out  of  town.  A  number 
of  carriages  and  gentlemen  came  out  of  Philadelphia  to  meet 

1  From  this  it  is  plain  that  these  titles  were  already  made  in  Virginia,  before 
these  gentlemen  ever  appeared  on  the  floor  of  the  Continental  Congress.  But 
see  Wirt's  Life  of  Henry,  p.  107. 


358  DIARY.  [1774. 

us, —  Mr.  Thomas  Mifflin,  Mr.  McKean,  of  the  lower  counties, 
one  of  their  delegates,  Mr.  Rutledge  of  Carolina,  and  a  number 
of  gentlemen  from  Philadelphia,  Mr.  Folsom  and  Mr.  Sullivan, 
the  New  Hampshire  delegates.  We  were  introduced  to  all 
these  gentlemen,  and  most  cordially  welcomed  to  Philadelphia. 
We  then  rode  into  town,  and  dirty,  dusty,  and  fatigued  as  we 
were,  we  could  not  resist  the  importunity  to  go  to  the  tavern, 
the  most  genteel  one  in  America.  There  we  were  introduced 
to  a  number  of  other  gentlemen  of  the  city:  Dr.  Shippen,  Dr. 
Knox,  Mr.  Smith,  and  a  multitude  of  others,  and  to  Mr.  Lynch 
and  Mr.  Gadsden  of  South  Carolina.  Here  we  had  a  fresh 
welcome  to  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  after  some  time  spent 
in  conversation,  a  curtain  was  drawn,  and  in  the  other  half  of 
the  chamber  a  supper  appeared  as  elegant  as  ever  was  laid  upon 
a  table.     About  eleven  o'clock  we  retired. 

By  a  computation  made  this  evening  by  Mr.  McKean,  there 
will  be  at  the  Congress  about  fifty-six  members,  twenty-two  of 
them  lawyers.  Mr.  McKean  gave  me  an  account  this  evening  of 
the  behavior  of  Ruggles  at  the  former  Congress,  1765.  He  was 
treated  pretty  cavalierly.     His  behavior  was  very  dishonorable. 

A  gentleman  who  returned  into  town  with  Mr.  Paine  and  me 
in  our  coach,  undertook  to  caution  us  against  two  gentlemen 
particularly  ;  one  was  Dr.  Smith,  the  provost  of  the  college,  who 
is  looking  up  to  government  for  an  American  episcopate,  and  a 
pair  of  lawn  sleeves.  Soft,  polite,  insinuating,  adulating,  sen- 
sible, learned,  industrious,  indefatigable;  he  has  had  art  enough, 
and  refinement  upon  art,  to  make  impressions  even  upon  Mr. 
Dickinson  and  Mr.  Reed.1 

30.  Tuesday.  Walked  a  little  about  town ;  visited  the  mar- 
ket, the  State  House,  the  Carpenters'  Hall,  where  the  Congress 
is  to  sit,  &c. ;  then  called  at  Mr.  Mifflin's ;  a  grand,  spacious,  and 
elegant  house.  Here  we  had  much  conversation  with  Mr. 
Charles  Thomson,  who  is,  it  seems,  about  marrying  a  lady,  a 
relation  of  Mr.  Dickinson's,  with  five  thousand  pounds  sterling. 
This  Charles  Thomson  is  the  Sam  Adams  of  Philadelphia,  the 
life  of  the  cause  of  liberty,2  they  say.     A  Friend,  Collins,  came 

1  Mr.  Reed,  if  he  ever  fell  into  this  delusion,  must  have  been  very  soon  res- 
cued from  it.     See  his  Life,  by  his  grandson,  vol.  ii.  p.  169  -  170. 

2  Mr.  W.  B.  Reed  quotes  the  description  given  of  him  by  the  Abbe  Robin, 
a  French  priest  who  came  out  with  Rochambeau.    "  Sa  figure  maigre,  sillonneux, 


2Et.  88.]  DIARY.  359 

to  see  us,  and  invited  us  to  dine  on  Thursday.  We  returned  to 
our  lodgings,  and  Mr.  Lynch,  Mr.  Gadsden,  Mr.  Middleton,  and 
young  Mr.  Rutledge  came  to  visit  us.  Mr.  Lynch  introduced 
Mr.  Middleton  to  us  ;  Mr.  Middleton  was  silent  and  reserved ; 
young  Rutledge  was  high  enough.  A  promise  of  the  King  was 
mentioned.  He  started  !  "  I  should  have  no  regard  to  his  word ; 
his  promises  are  not  worth  any  thing,"  &c.  This  is  a  young, 
smart,  spirited  body.  Mr.  Blair  came  to  visit  us  with  another 
gentleman  ;  Mr.  Smith,  an  old  gentleman,  was  introduced  to  us 
by  his  son ;  another  Mr.  Smith  came  in  with  our  Mr.  Paine. 
The  regularity  and  elegance  of  this  city  an-  very  sinking,  li  is 
situated  upon  a  neck  of  land  about  two  miles  wide  between  the 
river  Delaware  and  the  river  Schuylkill;  the  streets  are  all  exactly 
straight  and  parallel  to  the  river  ;  Front  Street  is  near  the  river, 
then  2d  Street,  3d,  4th,  5th,  6th,  7th,  8th,  9th.  The  cross  streets 
which  intersect  these  are  all  equally  wide,  straight,  and  parallel 
to  each  other,  and  are  named  from  forest  and  fruit  trees,  —  Pear 
Street,  Apple  Street,  "Walnut  Street,  Chestnut  Street,  &c. 

Towards  the  evening,  Mr.  Thomas  Smith,  son  of  the  old  gen- 
tleman who  made  us  a  visit,  who  is  a  brother  of  Mr.  Smith  the 
minister  of  Casco  Bay,  and  Dr.  Shippen  and  his  brother,  and  Mr. 
Reed,  went  with  us  to  the  Hospital.  We  saw,  in  the  lower 
rooms  under  ground,  the  cells  of  the  lunatics,  a  number  of  them , 
some  furious,  some  merry,  some  melancholy,  and,  among  the 
rest,  John  Ingham,  whom  I  once  saved  at  Taunton  Court  from 
being  whipped  and  sold  for  horse-stealing.  We  then  went  into 
the  sick-rooms,  which  are  very  long,  large  walks,  with  rows  of 
beds  on  each  side,  and  the  lame  and  sick  upon  them ;  a  dreadful 
scene  of  human  wretchedness.  The  weakness  and  languor,  the 
distress  and  misery  of  these  objects,  is  truly  a  woful  sight.  Dr. 
Shippen  then  carried  us  into  his  chamber,  where  he  showed  us 
a  series  of  anatomical  paintings,  of  exquisite  art.  Here  was  a 
great  variety  of  views  of  the  human  body,  whole  and  in  parts. 
The  Doctor  entertained  us  with  a  very  clear,  concise,  and  compre- 
hensive lecture  upon  all  the  parts  of  the  human  frame.  This 
entertainment  charmed  me.  He  first  showed  us  a  set  of  paint- 
ings of  bodies,  entire  and  alive,  then  of  others  with  the  skin  taken 

ses  yeux  caves  et  etincelans,  ses  cheveux  blancs,  droits,  ne  descendant  pas  a  ses 
oreilles  fixcrent  et  surprirent  tous  nos  regards."     Life  of  J.  Reed,  vol.  ii.  p.  307. 


360  DIARY.  [17  74. 

off,  then  with  the  first  coat  of  muscles  taken  off,  then  with  the 
second,  then  with  all  —  the  bare  bones.  Then  he  showed  us 
paintings  of  the  insides  of  a  man,  seen  before,  all  the  muscles 
of  the  belly  being  taken  off;  the  heart,  lungs,  stomach,  &c. 

31.  Wednesday.  Breakfasted  at  Mr.  Bayard's,  of  Philadel- 
phia, with  Mr.  Sprout,  a  Presbyterian  minister. 

Made  a  visit  to  Governor  Ward,  of  Rhode  Island,  at  his  lodg- 
ings. There  we  were  introduced  to  several  gentlemen.  Mr. 
Dickinson,  the  farmer  of  Pennsylvania,  came  in  his  coach  with 
four  beautiful  horses  to  Mr.  Ward's  lodgings,  to  see  us.  He  was 
introduced  to  us,  and  very  politely  said  he  was  exceedingly  glad 
to  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  these  gentlemen ;  made  some 
inquiry  after  the  health  of  his  brother  and  sister,  who  are  now 
in  Boston ;  gave  us  some  account  of  his  late  ill  health  and  his 
present  gout.  This  was  the  first  time  of  his  getting  out.  Mr. 
Dickinson  has  been  subject  to  hectic  complaints.  He  is  a 
shadow ;  tall,  but  slender  as  a  reed ;  pale  as  ashes ;  one  would 
think  at  first  sight  that  he  could  not  live  a  month ;  yet,  upon  a 
more  attentive  inspection,  he  looks  as  if  the  springs  of  life  were 
strong  enough  to  last  many  years.  We  dined  with  Mr.  Lynch, 
his  lady  and  daughter,  at  their  lodgings,  Mrs.  McKenzie's ;  and  a 
very  agreeable  dinner  and  afternoon  we  had,  notwithstanding 
the  violent  heat.  We  were  all  vastly  pleased  with  Mr.  Lynch. 
He  is  a  solid,  firm,  judicious  man.  He  told  us  that  Colonel 
Washington  made  the  most  -eloquent  speech  at  the  Virginia 
Convention  that  ever  was  made.  Says  he,  "  I  will  raise  one 
thousand  men,  subsist  them  at  my  own  expense,  and  march 
myself  at  their  head  for  the  relief  of  Boston." 

Mr.  Lynch  says,  they  shall  export  this  year  twelve  thousand 
weight  of  indigo,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  tierces 
of  rice  from  South  Carolina.  About  three  hundred  ships  are 
employed.  Mrs.  Lynch  inquired  kindly  after  Mrs.  Adams's 
health,  and  Mrs.  Smith  and  family,  and  Mr.  Boylston,  and  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Gill,  &c. 

September  1.  Thursday.  This  day  we  breakfasted  at  Mr. 
Mifllin's.  Mr.  C.  Thomson  came  in,  and  soon  after,  Dr.  Smith, 
the  famous  Dr.  Smith,  the  provost  of  the  college.  He  appears 
a  plain  man,  tall  and  rather  awkward ;  there  is  an  appearance 
of  art.  We  then  went  to  return  visits  to  the  gentlemen  who  had 
visited  us.     We  visited  a  Mr.  Cadwallader,  a  gentleman  of  large 


JEt.  38.]  DIARY.  361 

fortune,  a  grand  and  elegant  house  and  furniture.  We  then 
visited  Mr.  Powell,  another  splendid  seat.  We  then  visited  the 
gentlemen  from  South  Carolina,  and,  about  twelve,  were  intro- 
duced to  Mr.  Galloway,  the  Speaker  of  the  House  in  Pennsyl- 
vania. 

We  dined  at  Friend  Collins's,  Stephen  Collins's,1  with  Gov- 
ernor Hopkins,  Governor  Ward,  Mr.  Galloway,  Mr.  Rhoades, 
&c.  In  the  evening,  all  the  gentlemen  of  the  Congress  who 
were  arrived  in  town,  met  at  Smith's,  the  new  city  tavern,  and 
spent  the  evening  together.  Twenty-five  members  were  come. 
Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Maryland,  and  the  city  of  New  York, 
were  not  arrived.  Mr.  William  Livingston,  from  the  Jerseys, 
lately  of  New  York,  was  there.  He  is  a  plain  man,  tall,  black, 
wears  his  hair;  nothing  elegant  or  genteel  about  him.  They 
say  he  is  no  public  speaker,  but  very  sensible  and  learned,  and  a 
ready  writer.  Mr.  Rutleclge,  the  elder,  was  there,  but  his  appear- 
ance is  not  very  promising.  There  is  no  keenness  in  his  eye,  no 
depth  in  his  countenance ;  nothing  of  the  profound,  sagacious, 
brilliant,  or  sparkling,  in  his  first  appearance. 

Yesterday  we  removed  our  lodgings  to  the  house  of  Miss 
Jane  Port,  in  Arch  Street,  about  half  way  between  Front  Street 


and  Second  Street.  I  find  that  there  is  a  tribe  of  people  here 
exactly  like  the  tribe,  in  the  Massachusetts,  of  Hutchinsonian 
Addressers.  There  is,  indeed,  a  set  in  every  colony.  We  have 
seen  the  revolutions  of  their  sentiments.  Their  opinions  have 
undergone  as  many  changes  as  the  moon.  At  the  time  of  the 
Stamp  Act,  and  just  before  it,  they  professed  to  be  against  the 
parliamentary  claim  of  right  to  tax  Americans,  to  be  friends  to 
our  constitutions,  our  charter,  &c.  Bernard  was  privately, 
secretly,  endeavoring  to  procure  an  alteration  of  our  charter. 
But  he  concealed  his  designs  until  his  letters  were  detected. 
Hutchinson  professed  to  be  a  staunch  friend  to  liberty  and  to  our 
charter,  until  his  letters  were  detected.  A  great  number  of  good 
people  thought  him  a  good  man,  and  a  sincere  friend  to  the 

1  "  This  gentleman  is  of  figure  and  eminence,  as  well  as  fortune,  in  this  place. 
He  is  of  the  profession  of  the  Friends,  but  not  stiff  nor  rigid.  He  is  a  native  of 
Lynn,  in  New  England,  a  brother  of  Ezra  Collins  in  Boston.  I  have  been 
treated  by  him  in  this  city,  both  in  the  former  Congress  and  the  present,  with 
unbounded  civility  and  friendship.  His  house  is  open  to  every  New  England 
man.  I  never  knew  a  more  agreeable  instance  of  hospitality."  /•  A.  to  1m 
Wife,  4  July,  1775. 

VOL.    11.  31 


362  DIARY.  [1774. 

Congregational  interest  in  religion,  and  to  our  charter  privileges. 
They  went  on  with  this  Machiavelian  dissimulation,  until  those 
letters  were  detected.  After  that,  they  waited  until  the  Boston 
Port  Bill  was  passed,  and  then,  thinking  the  people  must  submit 
immediately  and  that  Lord  North  would  carry  his  whole  system 
triumphantly,  they  threw  off  the  mask.  Dr.  Smith,  Mr.  Galloway, 
Mr.  Vaughan,  and  others  in  this  town,  are  now  just  where  the 
Hutchinsonian  faction  were  in  the  year  1764,  when  we  were 
endeavoring  to  obtain  a  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act. 

2.  Friday.  Dined  at  Mr.  Thomas  Mifflin's,  with  Mr.  Lynch, 
Mr.  Middleton,  and  the  two  Rutledges  with  their  ladies.  The 
two  Rutledges  are  good  lawyers.  Governor  Hopkins  and  Gov- 
ernor Ward  were  in  company.  Mr.  Lynch  gave  us  a  sentiment : 
"  The  brave  Dantzickers,  who  declare  they  will  be  free  in  the 
face  of  the  greatest  monarch  in  Europe."  We  were  very  soci- 
able and  happy.  After  coffee,  we  went  to  the  tavern,  where  we 
were  introduced  to  Peyton  Randolph,  Esquire,  Speaker  of  Vir- 
ginia, Colonel  Harrison,  Richard  Henry  Lee,  Esquire,  and  Co- 
lonel Bland.  Randolph  is  a  large,  well  looking  man ;  Lee  is  a 
tall,  spare  man5_Bland  is  a  learned,  bookish  man. 

These  gentlemen  from  Virginia  appear  to  be  the  most  spirited 
and  consistent  of  any.  Harrison  said  he  would  have  come  on 
foot  rather  than  not  come.  Bland  said  he  would  have  gone, 
upon  this  occasion,  if  it  had  been  to  Jericho. 

3.  Saturday.  Breakfasted  at  Dr.  Shippen's  ;  Dr.  Witherspoon 
was  there.  Col.  R.  H.  Lee  lodges  there ;  he  is  a  masterly 
man.  This  Mr.  Lee  is  a  brother  of  the  sheriff  of  London,  and 
of  Dr.  Arthur  Lee,  and  of  Mrs.  Shippen ;  they  are  all  sensible 
and  deep  thinkers.  Lee  is  for  making  the  repeal  of  every  reve- 
nue law, — the  Boston  Port  Bill,  the  bill  for  altering  the  Massa- 
chusetts constitution,  and  the  Quebec  Bill,  and  the  removal  of 
all  the  troops,  the  end  of  the  Congress,  and  an  abstinence  from 
all  dutied  articles,  the  means,  —  rum,  molasses,  sugar,  tea,  wine, 
fruits,  &c.  He  is  absolutely  certain  that  the  same  ship  which 
carries  home  the  resolution  will  bring  back  the  redress.  If  we 
were  to  suppose  that  any  time  would  intervene,  he  should  be  for 
exceptions.  He  thinks  we  should  inform  his  Majesty  that  we 
never  can  be  happy,  while  the  Lords  Bute>  Mansfield,  and 
North,  are  his  confidants  and  counsellors.  He  took  his  pen  and 
attempted  a  calculation  of  the  numbers  of  people  represented  by 


Mr.  38.]  DIARY.  363 

the  Congress,  which  he  made  about  two  millions  two  hundred 
thousand;  and  of  the  revenue,  now  actually  raised,  which  he 
made  eighty  thousand  pounds  sterling.  He  would  not  allow 
Lord  North  to  have  great  abilities ;  he  had  seen  no  symptoms 
of  them ;  his  whole  administration  had  been  blunder.  He  said 
the  opposition  had  been  so  feeble  and  incompetent  hitherto,  that 
it  was  time  to  make  vigorous  exertions. 

Mrs.  Shippen  is  a  religious  and  a  reasoning  lady.     She  said 
she  had  often  thought  that  the  people  of  Boston  could  not  have 
behaved  through  their  trials  with  so  much  prudence  and  firm- 
ness at  the  same  time,  if  they  had  not  been  influenced  by  a 
superior  power.     Mr.  Lee  thinks  that  to  strike  at  the  Navigation 
Acts  would  unite  every  man  in  Britain  against  us,  because  the 
kingdom  could  not  exist  without  them,  and  the  advantages  they 
derive  from  these  regulations  and  restrictions  of  our  trade  are  an 
ample  compensation  for  all  the  protection  they  have  afforded  us, 
or  will  afford  us.     Dr.  Witherspoon  enters  with  great  spirit  into 
the  American  cause.     He  seems  as  hearty  a  friend  as  any  of  the 
natives,  an  animated  Son  of  Liberty.     This  forenoon,  Mr.  Caesar 
Rodney  of  the  lower  counties  on  Delaware  "River,  two  Mr.  Tilgh- 
mans  from  Maryland,  were  introduced  to  us.     We  went  with 
Mr.  William  Barrell  to  his  store,  and  drank  punch,  and  eat  dried 
smoked  sprats  with  him ;  read  the  papers  and  our  letters  from 
Boston  ;    dined  with  Mr.  Joseph  Reed,  the  lawyer,  with  Mrs. 
Deberdt  and  Mrs.  Reed,  Mr.  Willing,  Mr.  Thomas  Smith,  Mr. 
Dehart,  &c. ;  spent  the  evening  at  Mr.  Mifflin's,  with  Lee  and 
Harrison  from  Virginia,  the  two  Rutledges,  Dr.  Witherspoon, 
Dr.  Shippen,  Dr.  Steptoe,  and  another  gentleman ;  an  elegant 
supper,  and  we  drank  sentiments  till  eleven  o'clock.     Lee  and 
Harrison  were  very  high.     Lee  had  dined  with  Mr.  Dickinson, 
and  drank  Burgundy  the  whole  afternoon. 

Harrison  gave  us  for  a  sentiment,  "  A  constitutional  death  to 
the  Lords  Bute,  Mansfield,  and  North."  Paine  gave  us,  "  May 
the  collision  of  British  flint  and  American  steel  produce  that 
spark  of  liberty  which  shall  illumine  the  latest  posterity." 
"  Wisdom  to  Britain,  and  firmness  to  the  Colonies ;  may  Bri- 
tain be  wise,  and  America  free."  "  The  friends  of  America 
throughout  the  world."  "  Union  of  the  Colonies."  "  Unanim- 
ity to  the  Congress."  "  May  the  result  of  the  Congress  answer 
the  expectations  of  the   people."     "  Union  of  Britain  and  the 


364  MARY.  [1774. 

Colonies  on  a  constitutional  foundation,"  and  many  other  such 
toasts.  Young  Rutledge  told  me  he  studied  three  years  at  the 
Temple.  He  thinks  this  a  great  distinction  ;  says  he  took  a 
volume  of  notes  which  J.  Quincy  transcribed ;  says  that  young 
gentlemen  ought  to  travel  early,  because  that  freedom  and  ease 
of  behavior  which  is  so  necessary  cannot  be  acquired  but  in 
early  life.  This  Rutledge  is  young,  sprightly,  but  not  deep ;  he 
has  the  most  indistinct,  inarticulate  way"  of  speaking ;  speaks 
through  his  nose;  a  wretched  speaker  in  conversation.  How  he 
will  shine  in  public,  I  don't  yet  know.  He  seems  good-natured, 
though  conceited.  His  lady  is  with  him,  in  bad  health.  His 
brother  still  maintains  the  air  of  reserve,  design,  and  cunning, 
like  Duane  and  Galloway  and  Bob  Auchmuty.  Caesar  Rod- 
ney is  the  oddest  looking  man  in  the  world  ;  he  is  tall,  thin  and 
slender  as  a  reed,  pale ;  his  face  is  not  bigger  than  a  large  apple, 
yet  there  is  sense  and  fire,  spirit,  wit,  and  humor  in  his  counte- 
nance. He  made  himself  very  merry  with  Ruggles  and  his  pre- 
tended scruples  and  timidities  at  the  last  Congress.  Mr.  Reed 
told  us,  at  dinner,  that  he  never  saw  greater  joy  than  he  saw  in 
London  when  the  news  arrived  that  the  non-importation  agree- 
ment was  broke.  They  were  universally  shaking  hands  and 
congratulating  each  other.  He  says  that  George  Hayley  is  the 
worst  enemy  to  America  that  he  knew  there.  Swore  to  him 
that  he  would  stand  by  government  in  all  its  measures,  and  was 
■always  censuring  and  cursing  America. 

4.  Sunday.  Went  to  the  Presbyterian  meeting,  and  heard 
Mr.  Sprout  in  the  forenoon.  He  uses  no  notes ;  don't  appear  to 
have  any ;  opens  his  Bible  and  talks  away.  Not  a  very  numer- 
ous nor  very  polite  assembly.  Dined  at  our  lodgings,  at  Mrs. 
Yard's,  with  Major  De  Bure,  a  French  gentleman,  a  soldier,  Mr. 
Webb  and  another.  Went  in  the  afternoon  to  Christ  Church, 
and  heard  Mr.  Coombe.  This  is  a  more  noble  building,  and  a 
genteeler  congregation.  The  organ  and  a  new  choir  of  singers 
were  very  musical.  Mr.  Coombe  is  celebrated  here  as  a  fine 
speaker;  he  is  sprightly,  has  a  great  deal  of  action,  speaks  dis- 
tinctly. But  I  confess  I  am  not  charmed  with  his  oratory;  his 
style  was  indifferent ;  his  method  confused.  In  one  word,  his 
composition  was  vastly  inferior  to  the  ordinary  sermons  of  our 
How,  Hunt,  Chauncy,  Cooper,  Eliot,  and  even  Stillman.  Mr. 
Mifflin  spent  the  Sunday  evening  with  us  at  our  lodgings. 


-St.  38.]  DIARY.  365 

■'>.  Monday.  At  ton  the  delegates  all  met  a1  the  City  Tavern, 
and  walked  to  the  Carpenters'  Hall,  where  they  took  a  view  of 
the  room,  and  of  the  chamber  where  is  an  excellent  library ; 
there  is  also  a  long  entry  where  gentlemen  may  walk,  and  a 
convenient  chamber  opposite  to  the  library.  The  general  cry 
was,  that  this  was  a  good  room,  and  the  question  was  put, 
whether  we  were  satisfied  with  this  room  ?  and  it  passed  in  the 
affirmative.  A  very  few  were  for  the  negative,  and  they  were 
chiefly  from  Pennsylvania  and  New  York.  Then  Mr.  Lynch 
arose,  and  said  there  was  a  gentleman  present  who  had  presided 
with  great  dignity  over  a  very  respectable  society,  greatly  to  the 
advantage  of  America,  and  he  therefore  proposed  that  the  Hon- 
orable Peyton  Randolph,  Esquire,  one  of  the  delegates  from  Vir- 
ginia, and  the  late  Speaker  of  their  House  of  Burgesses,  should  be 
appointed  Chairman,  and  he  doubted  not  it  would  be  unanimous. 

The  question  was  put,  and  he  was  unanimously  chosen. 

Mr.  Randolph  then  took  the  chair,  and  the  commissions  of 
the  delegates  were  all  produced  and  read. 

Then  Mr.  Lynch  proposed  that  Mr.  Charles  Thomson,  a  gen- 
tleman of  family,  fortune,  and  character  in  this  city,  should  be 
appointed  Secretary,  which  was  accordingly  done  without  oppo- 
sition, though  Mr.  Duane  and  Mr.  Jay  discovered  at  first  an  incli- 
nation to  seek  further. 

Mr.  Duane  then  moved  that  a  committee  should  be  appointed 
to  prepare  regulations  for  this  Congress.  Several  gentlemen 
objected. 

I  then  arose  and  asked  leave  of  the  President  to  request  of 
the  gentleman  from  New  York  an  explanation,  and  that  he 
would  point  out  some  particular  regulations  which  he  had  in 
his  mind.  He  mentioned  particularly  the  method  of  voting, 
whether  it  should  be  by  Colonies,  or  by  the  poll,  or  by  interests. 

Mr.  Henry  then  arose,  and  said  this  was  the  first  General 
Congress  which  had  ever  happened ;  that  no  former  Congress 
could  be  a  precedent ;  that  we  should  have  occasion  for  more 
general  congresses,  and  therefore  that  a  precedent  ought  to  be 
established  now;  that  it  would  be  great  injustice  if  a  little  Col- 
ony should  have  the  same  weight  in  the  councils  of  America  as 
a  great  one,  and  therefore  he  was  for  a  committee.1 

1  The  above  very  simple  narrative,  of  the  action  of  Mr.  Henry  upon  this  occa- 
sion, strangely  contrasts  with  the  picture  painted  by  the  florid  imagination  of 

31  * 


366  DIARY.  [1774. 

Major  Sullivan  observed  that  a  little  Colony  had  its  all  at 
stake  as  well  as  a  great  one. 

This  is  a  question  of  great  importance.  If  we  vote  by  Colo- 
nies, this  method  will  be  liable  to  great  inequality  and  injustice ; 
for  five  small  Colonies,  with  one  hundred  thousand  people  in 
each,  may  outvote  four  large  ones,  each  of  which  has  five  hun- 
dred thousand  inhabitants.  If  we  vote  by  the  poll,  some  Colo- 
nies have  more  than  their  proportion  of  members,  and  others 
have  less.  If  we  vote  by  interests,  it  will  be  attended  with 
insuperable  difficulties  to  ascertain  the  true  importance  of  each 
Colony.  Is  the  weight  of  a  Colony  to  be  ascertained  by  the 
number  of  inhabitants  merely,  or  by  the  amount  of  their  trade, 
the  quantity  of  their  exports  and  imports,  or  by  any  compound 
ratio  of  both  ?  This  will  lead  us  into  such  a  field  of  contro- 
versy as  will  greatly  perplex  us.  Besides,  I  question  whether  it 
is  possible  to  ascertain,  at  this  time,  the  numbers  of  our  people 
or  the  value  of  our  trade.  It  will  not  do  in  such  a  case  to  take 
each  other's  word ;  it  ought  to  be  ascertained  by  authentic  evi- 
dence from  records. 

The  following  brief  notes  of  the  discussion  this  day,  upon  the  method  of  voting, 
are  found  in  a  separate  sheet. 

DEBATES. 

Mr.  Henry.  Government  is  dissolved.  Fleets  and  armies 
and  the  present  state  of  things  show  that  government  is  dis- 
solved. Where  are  your  landmarks,  your  boundaries  of  Colo- 
nies ?  We  are  in  a  state  of  nature,  sir.  I  did  propose  that  a 
scale  should  be  laid  down ;  that  part  of  North  America  which 
was  once  Massachusetts  Bay,'  and  that  part  which  was  once 
Virginia,  ought  to  be  considered  as  having  a  weight.  Will  not 
people  complain  ?  Ten  thousand  Virginians  have  not  out- 
weighed one  thousand  others. 

I  will  submit,  however ;  I  am  determined  to  submit,  if  I  am 
overruled. 

A  worthy  gentleman  (ego)  near  me  seemed  to  admit  the 
necessity  of  obtaining  a  more  adequate  representation. 

I  hope  future  ages  will  quote  our  proceedings  with  applause. 
It  is  one  of  the  great  duties  of  the  democratical  part  of  the  con- 
Mr.  Wirt,  as  does  also  the  abstract  of  the  speech,  with  his  idea  of  it.  Life  of 
Patrick  Henri/,  p.  106. 


^Et.  38.]  DIARY.  367 

stitution  to  keep  itself  pure.  It  is  known  in  my  Province  that, 
some  other  Colonies  are  not  so  numerous  or  rich  as  they  are.  I 
am  for  giving  all  the  satisfaction  in  my  power. 

The  distinctions  between  Virginians,  Pennsylvanians,  New 
Yorkers,  and  New  Englanders,  are  no  more.  I  am  not  a  Vir- 
ginian, but  an  American. 

Slaves  are  to  be  thrown  out  of  the  question,  and  if  the  freemen 
can  be  represented  according  to  their  numbers,  I  am  satisfied.1 

Mr.  Lynch.  I  differ  in  one  point  from  the  gentleman  from 
Virginia,  that  is,  in  thinking  that  numbers  only  ought  to  deter- 
mine the  weight  of  Colonies.  I  think  that  property  ought  to  be 
considered,  and  that  it  ought  to  be  a  compound  of  numbers  and 
property  that  should  determine  the  weight  of  the  Colonies. 

I  think  it  cannot  be  now  settled. 

Mr.  Rutledge.  We  have  no  legal  authority ;  and  obedience  to 
our  determinations  will  only  follow  the  reasonableness,  the  appa- 
rent utility  and  necessity  of  the  measures  we  adopt.  We  have 
no  coercive  or  legislative  authority.  Our  constituents  are  bound 
only  in  honor  to  observe  our  determinations. 

Governor  Ward.  There  are  a  great  number  of  counties,  in 
Virginia,  very  unequal  in  point  of  wealth  and  numbers,  yet  each 
has  a  right  to  send  two  members. 

Mr.  Lee.    But  one  reason,  which  prevails  with  me,  and  that  is, 
that  we  are  not  at  this  time  provided  with  proper  materials, 
am  afraid  we  are  not. 

Mr.  Gadsden.    I  can't  see  any  way  of  voting,  but  by  Colonies. 

Colonel  Bland.  I  agree  with  the  gentleman  (ego)  who  spoke 
near  me,  that  we  are  not  at  present  provided  with  materials  to 
ascertain  the  importance  of  each  Colony.  The  question  is, 
whether  the  rights  and  liberties  of  America  shall  be  contended 
for,  or  given  up  to  arbitrary  powers. 

Mr.  Pendleton.  If  the  committee  should  find  themselves  una- 
ble to  ascertain  the  weight  of  the  Colonies,  by  their  numbers 
and  property,  they  will  report  this,  and  this  will  lay  the  founda- 
tion for  the  Congress  to  take  some  other  steps  to  procure  evidence 
of  numbers  and  property  at  some  future  time. 

Mr.  Henry.  I  agree  that  authentic  accounts  cannot  be  had, 
if  by  authenticity  is  meant  attestations  of  officers  of  the  Crown. 

1  This  is  probably  all  that  has  been  saved  of  the  celebrated  speech  of  Patrick 
Henry  at  the  opening  of  the  Congress,  which  earned  for  him  the  national  repu- 
tation he  has  ever  since  enjoyed.  " 


:368  DIARY.  [1774. 

I  go  upon  the  supposition  that  government  is  at  an  end.  All 
distinctions  are  thrown  down.  All  America  is  thrown  into  one 
mass.     We  must  aim  at  the  minutiae  of  rectitude. 

Mr.  Jay,  Could  I  suppose  that  we  came  to  frame  an  Ameri- 
can constitution,  instead  of  endeavoring  to  correct  the  faults  in 
an  old  one  —  I  can't  yet  think  that  all  government  is  at  an  end. 
The  measure  of  arbitrary  power  is  not  full,  and  I  think  it  must 
run  over,  before  we  undertake  to  frame  a  new  constitution. 

To  the  virtue,  spirit,  and  abilities  of  Virginia,  we  owe  much. 
J  should  always,  therefore,  from  inclination  as  well  as  justice,  be 
for  giving  Virginia  its  full  weight. 

I  am  not  clear  that  we  ought  not  to  be  bound  by  a  majority, 
though  ever  so  small,  but  I  only  mentioned  it  as  a  matter  of 
danger,  worthy  of  consideration.1 


6.  Tuesday.  Went  to  Congress  again;  received  by  an  ex- 
press an  intimation  of  the  bombardment  of  Boston,2  a  confused 
account,  but  an  alarming  one  indeed ;  God  grant  it  may  not  be 
found  true. 

7.  Wednesday.  Went  to  Congress  again,  heard  Mr.  Duche 
read  prayers  ;  the  collect  for  the  day,  the  7th  of  the  month,  was 
most  admirably  adapted,  though  this  was  accidental,  or  rather 
providential.  A  prayer  which  he  gave  us  of  his  own  composi- 
tion was  as  pertinent,  as  affectionate,  as  sublime,  as  devout,  as 
I  ever  heard  offered  up  to  Heaven.3  He  filled  every  bosom  pres- 
ent.4 

1  "  The  mode  of  voting  in  this  Congress  was  first  resolved  upon ;  which  was, 
that  each  Colony  should  have  one  voice  ;  but,  as  this  was  objected  to  as  unequal, 
an  entry  was  made  on  the  journals  to  prevent  its  being  drawn  into  precedent  in 
future."  Letter  of  Connecticut  Delegates  to  Governor  Trumbull,  10  October, 
1774. 

2  This  rumor  grew  out  of  the  seizure  made  by  an  armed  force  under  orders 
from  General  Gage,  of  the  gunpowder  belonging  to  the  Province,  stored  in 
Charlestown.     See  Frothingham's  History  of  the  Siege  of  Boston,  p.  13. 

3  The  subsequent  conduct  of  Mr.  Duche  did  not  prove  him  worthy  of  the  com- 
mendation here  awarded.  In  his  letter  to  General  Washington  he  most  point- 
edly sneers  at  the  New  England  delegates,  to  whom  he  was  indebted  for  the 
distinction  of  being  selected.  Their  motive  is  explained  in  Samuel  Adams's 
letter  to  Dr.  Joseph  Warren,  dated  9  September.  See  Force's  American 
Archives,  1774,  c.  802.     Sparks's  Washington,  vol.  v.  p.  47G. 

4  This  is  more  fully  spoken  of  by  the  writer  in  a  private  letter  to  his  wife, 
dated  the  16th  instant,  of  which,  the  following  is  the  substance :  — 

"  When  the  Congress  first  met,  Mr.  Cushing  made  a  motion  that  it  should  be 
opened  with  prayer.     It  was  opposed  by  Mr.  Jay  of  New  York,  and  Mr.  Rut- 


jEt.  38.]  DIARY.  369 

Dined  with  Mr.  Miers  Fisher,  a  young  Quaker  and  a  lawyer. 
We  saw  his  library,  which  is  clever.  But  this  plain  Friend  and 
his  plain  though  pretty  wife,  with  her  Thees  and  Thous,  had  pro- 
vided us  the  most  costly  entertainment ;  ducks,  hams,  chickens, 
beef,  pig,  tarts,  creams,  custards,  jellies,  fools,  trifles,  floating 
islands,  beer,  porter,  punch,  wine,  and  a  long  &c.  We  had  a 
large  collection  of  lawyers  at  table;  Mr.  Andrew  Allen,  the 
Attorney- General,  a  Mr.  Morris,  the  Prothonotary,  Mr.  Fisher, 
Mr.  McKean,  Mr.  Rodney  ;  besides  these,  we  had  Mr.  Reed, 
Governor  Hopkins,  and  Governor  Ward.  We  had  much  con- 
versation upon  the  practice  of  law  in  our  different  Provinces, 
but  at  last  we  got  swallowed  up  in  politics,  and  the  great  ques- 
tion of  parliamentary  jurisdiction.  Mr.  Allen  asks  me,  from 
whence  do  you  derive  your  laws  ?  How  do  you  entitle  your- 
selves to  English  privileges  ?  Is  not  Lord  Mansfield  on  the  side 
of  power? 

8.  Thursday.     Attended  my  duty  on  the  committee  all  day, 

ledge  of  South  Carolina,  because  we  were  so  divided  in  religious  sentiments; 
some  Episcopalians,  some  Quakers,  some  Anabaptists,  some  Presbyterians,  and 
some  Congregationalists,  that  we  could  not  join  in  the  same  act  of  worship.  Mr. 
Samuel  Adams  arose  and  said,  '  he  was  no  bigot,  and  could  hear  a  prayer  from 
a  gentleman  of  piety  and  virtue,  who  was  at  the  same  time  a  friend  to  his 
country.  He  was  a  stranger  in  Philadelphia,  but  had  heard  that  Mr.  Duehe 
(Dushay  they  pronounce  it,)  deserved  that  character,  and  therefore  he  moved 
that  Mi-.  Duche,  an  episcopal  clergyman,  might  be  desired  to  read  prayers  to  the 
Congress  to-morrow  morning.'  The  motion  was  seconded  and  passed  in  the 
affirmative.  Mr.  Randolph,  our  President,  waited  on  Mr.  Duche  and  received 
for  answer  that,  if  his  health  would  permit,  he  certainly  would.  Accordingly, 
next  morning  he  appeared  with  his  clerk  and  in  his  pontificals,  and  read  several 
prayers  in  the  established  form,  and  then  read  the  collect  for  the  seventh  day 
of  September,  which  was  the  thirty -fifth  Psalm.  You  must  remember,  this  was 
the  next  morning  after  we  heard  the  horrible  rumor  of  the  cannonade  of  Boston. 
I  never  saw  a  greater  effect  upon  an  audience.  It  seemed  as  'if  Heaven  had 
ordained  that  Psalm  to  be  read  on  that  morning. 

"  After  this,  Mr.  Duche,  unexpectedly  to  every  body,  struck  out  into  an  extem- 
porary prayer,  which  filled  the  bosom  of  every  man  present.  I  must  confess,  I 
never  heard  a  better  prayer,  or  one  so  well  pronounced.  Episcopalian  as  he  is, 
Dr.  Cooper  himself  never  prayed  with  such  fervor,  such  ardor,  such  earnestness 
and  pathos,  and  in  language  so  elegant  and  sublime,  for  America,  for  the  Con- 
gress, for  the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  especially  the  town  of  Boston. 
It  has  had  an  excellent  effect  upon  every  body  here.  I  must  beg  you  to  read 
that  Psalm.  If  there  was  any  faith  in  the  sortes  Virgilianae,  or  sortes  Homericse, 
or  especially  the  sortes  Biblicae,  it  would  be  thought  providential. 

"  It  will  amuse  your  friends  to  read  this  letter  and  the  thirty-fifth  Psalm  to  them. 
Read  it  to  your  father  and  Mr.  Wibird.  I  wonder  what  our  Braintree  church- 
men would  think  of  this.  Mr.  Duche  is  one  of  the  most  ingenious  men,  and 
best  characters,  and  greatest  orators  in  the  episcopal  order  upon  this  continent ; 
yet  a  zealous  friend  of  liberty  and  his  country." 


370  DIARY.  [1774. 

and  a  most  ingenious,  entertaining  debate  we  had.  The  happy 
news  were  brought  us  from  Boston,  that  no  blood  had  been 
spilled,  but  that  General  Gage  had  taken  away  the  provincial 
powder  from  the  magazine  at  Cambridge.  This  last  was  a  dis- 
agreeable circumstance.  Dined  at  Mr.  Powell's,  with  Mr.  Duche, 
Dr.  Morgan,  Dr.  Steptoe,  Mr.  Goldsborough,  Mr.  Johnson,  and 
many  others ;  a  most  sinful  feast  again !  every  thing  which 
could  delight  the  eye  or  allure  the  taste ;  curds  and  creams, 
jellies,  sweetmeats  of  various  sorts,  twenty  sorts  of  tarts,  fools, 
trifles,  floating  islands,  whipped  sillabubs,  &c.  &c,  Parmesan 
cheese,  punch,  wine,  porter,  beer,  &c.  At  evening  we  climbed 
up  the  steeple  of  Christ  Church  with  Mr.  Reed,  from  whence 
we  had  a  clear  and  full  view  of  the  whole  city,  and  of  Delaware 
River. 


DEBATES. 


September  8.  In  the  Committee  for  stating  rights,  grievances, 
and  means  of  redress. 

Colonel  Lee.  The  rights  are  built  on  a  fourfold  foundation ; 
on  nature,  on  the  British  cpnstitution,  on  charters,  and  on  im- 
memorial usage.     The  Navigation  Act,  a  capital  violation. 

Mr.  Jay.  It  is  necessary  to  recur  to  the  law  of  nature,  and 
the  British  constitution,  to  ascertain  our  rights.  The  constitu- 
tion of  Great  Britain  will  not  apply  to  some  of  the  charter 
rights. 

A  mother  country  surcharged  with  inhabitants,  they  have  a 
right  to  emigrate.  It  may  be  said,  if  we  leave  our  country,  we 
cannot  leave  our  allegiance.  But  there  is  no  allegiance  without 
protection,  and  emigrants  have  a  right  to  erect  what  government 
they  please. 

Mr.  J.  Rutledge.  Emigrants  would  not  have  a  right  to  set 
up  what  constitution  they  please.  A  subject  could  not  alienate 
his  allegiance. 

Lee.  Can't  see  why  we  should  not  lay  our  rights  upon  the 
broadest  bottom,  the  ground  of  nature.1  Our  ancestors  found 
here  no  government. 

1  From  this  declaration  it  is  clear  that  the  delegation  from  Virginia  was  not 
unanimous  in  the  policy  imputed  to  them  by  Mr.  Rutledge  and  the  Carolinians. 
See  the  next  note. 


' 


Mr.  38.]  DIARY.  371 

Mr.  Pendleton.  Consider  how  far  we  have  a  right  to  interfere 
with  regard  to  the  Canada  constitution.  If  the  majority  of  the 
people  there  should  be  pleased  with  the  new  constitution,  would 
not  the  people  of  America  and  of  England  have  a  right  to 
oppose  it,  and  prevent  such  a  constitution  being  established  in 
our  neighborhood  ? 

Lee.  It  is  contended  that  the  Crown  had  no  right  to  grant 
such  charters  as  it  has  to  the  Colonies,  and  therefore,  we  shall 
rest  our  rights  on  a  feeble  foundation,  if  we  rest  them  only  on 
charters ;  nor  will  it  weaken  our  objections  to  the  Canada  bill. 

Mr.  Rutledge.  Our  claims,  I  think,  are  well  founded  on  the 
British  constitution,  and  not  on  the  law  of  nature. 

Colonel  Dyer.  Part  of  the  country  within  the  Canada  bill  is 
a  conquered  country,  and  part  not.  It  is  said  to  be  a  rule  that 
the  King  can  give  a  conquered  country  what  law  he  pleases. 

Mr.  Jay.  I  can't  think  the  British  constitution  inseparably 
attached  to  the  person  of  every  subject.  Whence  did  the  con- 
stitution derive  its  authority?  from  compact;  might  not  that 
authority  be  given  up  by  compact  ? 

Mr.  William  Livingston.  A  corporation  cannot  make  a  cor- 
poration ;  charter  governments  have  done  it.  King  can't  appoint 
a  person  to  make  a  justice  of  peace ;  all  governors  do  it.  There- 
fore it  will  not  do  for  America  to  rest  wholly  on  the  laws  of 
England. 

Mr.  Sherman.  The  ministry  contend  that  the  Colonies  are 
only  like  corporations  in  England,  and  therefore  subordinate  to 
the  legislature  of  the  kingdom.  The  Colonies  not  bound  to  the 
King  or  Crown  by  the  act  of  settlement,  but  by  their  consent  to 
it.  There  is  no  other  legislative  over  the  Colonies  but  their 
respective  assemblies. 

The  Colonies  adopt  the  common  law,  not  as  the  common 
law,  but  as  the  highest  reason. 

Mr.  Duane.  Upon  the  whole,  for  grounding  our  rights  on  the 
laws  and  constitution  of  the  country  from  whence  we  sprung, 
and  charters,  without  recurring  to  the  law  of  nature ;  because 
this  will  be  a  feeble  support.  Charters  are  compacts  between 
the  Crown  and  the  people,  and  I  think  on  this  foundation  the 
charter  governments  stand  firm. 

England  is  governed  by  a  limited  monarchy  and  free  consti- 
tution.    Privileges  of  Englishmen  were  inherent,  their  birthright 


372  DIARY.  [1774. 

and  inheritance,  and  cannot  be  deprived  of  them  without  their 
consent. 

Objection  ;  that  all  the  rights  of  Englishmen  will  make  us 
independent.  I  hope  a  line  may  be  drawn  to  obviate  this  ob- 
jection. 

James  was  against  Parliament  interfering  with  the  Colonies. 
In  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  the  sentiments  of  the  Crown  seem 
to  have  been  changed.  The  Navigation  Act  was  made ;  Massa- 
chusetts denied  the  authority,  but  made  a  law  to  enforce  it  in 
the  Colony. 

Lee.  Life,  and  liberty  which  is  necessary  for  the  security  of 
life,  cannot  be  given  up  when  we  enter  into  society. 

Mr.  Kutledge.  The  first  emigrants  could  not  be  considered 
as  in  a  state  of  nature ;  they  had  no  right  to  elect  a  new  king. 

Mr.  Jay.  I  have  always  withheld  my  assent  from  the  position 
that  every  subject  discovering  land  (does  it)  for  the  state  to 
which  he  belongs. 

Mr.  Galloway.  I  never  could  find  the  rights  of  Americans 
in  the  distinction  between  taxation  and  legislation,  nor  in  the 
distinction  between  laws  for  revenue  and  for  the  regulation  of 
trade.  I  have  looked  for  our  rights  in  the  law  of  nature,  but 
could  not  find  them  in  a  state  of  nature,  but  always  in  a  state 
of  political  society. 

I  have  looked  for  them  in  the  constitution  of  the  English 
government,  and  there  found  them.  We  may  draw  them  from 
this  source  securely. 

Power  results  from  the  real  property  of  the  society.  The  states 
of  Greece,  Macedon,  Rome  were  founded  on  this  plan.  None 
but  landholders  could  vote  in  the  comitia  or  stand  for  offices. 

English  constitution  founded  on  the  same  principle.  Among 
the  Saxons,  the  landholders  were  obliged  to  attend,  and  shared 
among  them  the  power.  In  the  Norman  period,  the  same. 
When  the  landholders  could  not  all  attend,  the  representatives 
of  the  freeholders  came  in.  Before  the  reign  of  Henry  IV.  an 
attempt  was  made  to  give  the  tenants  in  capite  a  right  to  vote. 
Magna  Charta  —  archbishops,  bishops,  abbots,  earls,  and  barons, 
and  tenants  in  capite  held  all  the  lands  in  England. 

It  is  of  the  essence  of  the  English  constitution  that  no  laws 
shall  be  binding,  but  such  as  are  made  by  the  consent  of  the 
proprietors  in  England. 


&t.  38.]  DIARY.  373 

How  then,  did  it  stand  with  our  ancestors  when  they  came 
over  here  ?  They  could  not  be  bound  by  any  laws  made  by  the 
British  Parliament,  excepting  those  made  before.  I  never  could 
see  any  reason  to  allow  that  we  are  bound,  to  any  law  made 
since,  nor  could  I  ever  make  any  distinction  between  the  sorts 
of  law. 

I  have  ever  thought  we  might  reduce  our  rights  to  one  —  an 
exemption  from  all  laws  made  by  British  Parliament  since  the 
emigration  of  our  ancestors.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  all  the 
acts  of  Parliament  made  since,  are  violations  of  our  rights. 

These  claims  are  all  defensible  upon  the  principles  even  of 
our  enemies, — Lord  North  himself,  when  he  shall  inform  him- 
self of  the  true  principles  of  the  constitution,  &c. 

I  am  well  aware  that  my  arguments  tend  to  an  independency 
of  the  Colonies,  and  militate  against  the  maxims  that  there 
must  be  some  absolute  power  to  draw  together  all  the  wills  and 
strength  of  the  empire. 

9.  Friday.  Attended  my  duty  upon  committees;  dined  at 
home. 


Extract  from  the  Autobiography. 

[The  more  we  conversed  with  the  gentlemen  of  the  country, 
and  with  the  members  of  Congress,  the  more  we  were  encour- 
aged to  hope  for  a  general  union  of  the  continent.  As  the  pro- 
ceedings of  this  Congress  are  in  print,  I  shall  have  occasion  to 
say  little  of  them.     A  few  observations  may  not  be  amiss. 

After  some  days  of  general  discussions,  two  committees  were 
appointed  of  twelve  members  each,  one  from  each  state,  Georgia 
not  having  yet  come  in.  The  first  committee  was  instructed  to 
prepare  a  bill  of  rights,  as  it  was  called,  or  a  declaration  of  the 
rights  of  the  Colonies ;  the  second,  a  list  of  infringements  or 
violations  of  those  rights.  Congress  was  pleased  to  appoint  me 
on  the  first  committee,  as  the  member  for  Massachusetts. 

It  would  be  endless  to  attempt  even  an  abridgment  of  the 
discussions  in  this  committee,  which  met  regularly  every  morn- 
ing for  many  days  successively,  till  it  became  an  object  of  jeal- 
ousy to  all  the  other  members  of  Congress.  It  was,  indeed,  very 
much  against  my  judgment  that  the  committee  was  so  soon 

VOL.    II.  32 


374  DIARY.  [1774. 

appointed,  as  I  wished  to  hear  all  the  great  topics  handled  in 
Congress  at  large  in  the  first  place.  They  were  very  deliber- 
ately considered  and  debated  in  the  committee,  however.  The 
two  points  which  labored  the  most  were:  1.  Whether  we  should 
recur  to  the  law  of  nature,  as  well  as  to  the  British  constitution, 
and  our  American  charters  and  grants.  Mr.  Galloway  and  Mr. 
Duane  were  for  excluding  the  law  of  nature.  I  was  very  stren- 
uous for  retaining  and  insisting  on  it,  as  a  resource  to  which  we 
might  be  driven  by  Parliament  much  sooner  than  we  were  aware. 
2.  The  other  great  question  was,  what  authority  we  should 
concede  to  Parliament ;  whether  we  should  deny  the  authority 
of  Parliament  in  all  cases ;  whether  we  should  allow  any  author- 
ity to  it  in  our  internal  affairs ;  or  whether  we  should  allow  it  to 
regulate  the  trade  of  the  empire  with  or  without  any  restrictions. 
These  discussions  spun  into  great  length,  and  nothing  was  de- 
cided. After  many  fruitless  essays,  the  committee  determined  to 
appoint  a  sub-committee  to  make  a  draught  of  a  set  of  articles 
that  might  be  laid  in  writing  before  the  grand  committee,  and 
become  the  foundation  of  a  more  regular  debate  and  final  deci- 
sion. I  was  appointed  on  the_sub-committee,  in  which,  after 
going  over  the  ground  again,  a  set  of  articles  were  drawn  and 
debated  one  by  one.  After  several  days  deliberation,  we  agreed 
upon  all  the  articles  excepting  one,  and  that  was  the  authority 
of  Parliament,  which  was  indeed  the  essence  of  the  whole  con- 
troversy ;  some  were  for  a  flat  denial  of  all  authority ;  others  for 
denying  the  power  of  taxation  only ;  some  for  denying  internal, 
but  admitting  external,  taxation.  After  a  multitude  of  motions 
had  been  made,  discussed,  negatived,  it  seemed  as  if  we  should 
never  agree  upon  any  thing.  Mr.  John  Rutledge  of  South  Car- 
olina, one  of  the  committee,  addressing  himself  to  me,  was  pleased 
to  say,  "  Adams,  we  must  agree  upon  something ;  you  appear  to 
be  as  familiar  with  the  subject  as  any  of  us,  and  I  like  your 
expressions,  — '  the  necessity  of  the  case,''  and  '  excluding-  all  ideas 
of  taxation,  external  and  internal;'  I  have  a  great  opinion  of  that 
same  idea  of  the  necessity  of  the  case,  and  I  am  determined 
against  all  taxation  for  revenue.  Come,  take  the  pen  and  see  if 
you  can't  produce  something  that  will  unite  us."  Some  others 
of  the  committee  seconding  Mr.  Rutledge,  I  took  a  sheet  of 
paper  and  drew  up  an  article.  When  it  was  read,  I  believe  not 
one  of  the  committee  was  fully  satisfied  with  it ;  but  they  all 


Mr.  38.]  DIARY.  375 

soon  acknowledged  that  there  was  no  hope  of  hitting  on  any 
thing  in  which  we  could  all  agree  with  more  satisfaction.  All 
therefore  agreed  to  this,  and  upon  this  depended  the  union  of 
the  Colonies.  The  sub-committee  reported  their  draught  to  the 
grand  committee,  and  another  long  debate  ensued,  especially  on 
this  article,  and  various  changes  and  modifications  of  it  were 
attempted,  but  none  adopted.1 

1  This  account,  written  in  1804,  evidently  from  recollection  only  and  without 
consulting  the  record,  appears  by  comparison,  though  substantially  correspond- 
ing with  Ft,  not  to  be  precisely  accurate  in  the  details.  And,  inasmuch  as  every 
step  in  this  commencement  of  the  federative  union,  of  which  so  little  is  now 
known,  is  of  some  interest,  it  may  not  be  deemed  out  of  place  to  subjoin  here 
what  it  has  been  found  possible  to  gather  together  concerning  the  formation  and 
objects  of  these  first  committees. 

The  Journal  of  1774,  for  Tuesday,  September  6,  has  the  following  entry : 

"  Resolved,  unanimously,  That  a  committee  be  appointed  to  state  the  rights  of 
the  Colonies  in  general,  the  several  instances  in  which  these  rights  are  violated 
or  infringed,  and  the  means  most  proper  to  be  pursued  for  obtaining  a  restoration 
of  them. 

"  Resolved,  That  a  committee  be  appointed  to  examine  and  report  the  several 
Statutes  which  affect  the  trade  and  manufactures  of  the  Colonies." 

On  the  next  day,  Wednesday  7th,  the  Journal  says :  — 

"  The  Congress  taking  into  consideration  the  appointment  of  the  Committees, 
a  vote  was  taken  on  the  number  of  which  the  first  committee  should  consist,  and 
by  a  great  majority  agreed  that  it  consist  of  two  from  each  of  the  Colonies." 

As  the  delegates  from  North  Carolina  did  not  come  in  until  a  week  later,  it 
follows  that  this  committee  was  at  first  composed  of  twenty-two  members,  of 
whom  those  selected  from  Massachusetts,  were  Samuel  and  John  Adams.     But  y 
on  the  14th  instant  the  two  delegates  of  North  Carolina  were" added,  making  up 
the  number  of  twenty-four. 

The  Journal  proceeds :  — 

"  Agreed,  That  the  second  committee  consist  of  one  chosen  from  each  Colony." 

Hence  it  follows  that  the  second  committee  was  only  half  as  large  as  the  first. 
Major  John  Sullivan,  of  New  Hampshire,  is  the  first  named  person  in  both ; 
he,  Governor  Hopkins  of  Rhode  Island,  and  latterly,  William  Hooper  of  North 
Carolina,  are  the  only  persons  who  served  in  both  committees,  the  small  number 
delegated  from  those  Colonies  making  this  step  unavoidable. 

It  further  appears  that  the  second  of  these  committees  was  first  ready  to  report ; 
for  the  Journal  of  Saturday,  1 7th  September,  has  the  following  entry :  — 

"  The  committee  appointed  to  examine  and  report  the  several  statutes  which 
affect  the  trade  and  manufactures  of  the  Colonies,  brought  in  their  report,  which 
was  ordered  to  lie  on  the  table." 

On  Monday,  1 9  September  :  — 

"  The  report  brought  in  on  Saturday  being  read,  as  follows :  — 

"  Ordered,  That  the  same  be  referred  to  the  committee  appointed  to  state  the   • 
rights  of  the  Colonies,  &c.  to  which  committee  the  Honorable  Thomas  Cushing, 
Patrick  Henry,  and  Thomas  Mifflin,  Esquires,  were  added." 

The  report  does  not  seem  to  have  been  inserted  in  the  Journal,  although  space 
was  left  for  it.  It  is  not  difficult,  however,  to  identify  it  in  the  final  draught  of 
the  resolutions,  as  will  presently  appear. 

On  the  19th,  there  was  then  only  one  committee  left  to  which  the  whole  of 
the  subject,  which  had  originally  been  distributed  between  two,  was  now  referred. 


376  DIARY.  [1774. 

The  articles  were  then  reported  to  Congress,  and  debated,  par- 
agraph by  paragraph.  The  difficult  article  was  again  attacked 
and  defended.  Congress  rejected  all  amendments  to  it,  and  the 
general  sense  of  the  members  was,  that  the  article  demanded  as 
little  as  could  be  demanded,  and  conceded  as  much  as  could  be. 
conceded  with  safety,  and  certainly  as  little  as  would  be  accepted 
by  Great  Britain ;  and  that  the  country  must  take  its  fate,  in 

This  committee  consisted  of  twenty-seven  members,  or  about  one  half  of  the  whole 
assembly,  every  Colony  having  two  representatives,  with  the  exception  of  Vir- 
ginia, Massachusetts,  and  Pennsylvania,  to  each  of  which  another  had  been  con- 
ceded, thus  framing  a  species  of  compromise  between  the  two  principles  of  fed- 
eration and  population  presented  in  the  first  day's  debate. 

The  abstract  of  the  discussion  which  took  place  in  this  committee  on  the  eighth 
and  ninth  instant,  is  inserted  in  its  place.  It  will  be  examined  with  more  inter- 
est from  the  light  shed  upon  it  by  the  preceding  extract  from  the  Autobiography. 
The  subject  seems  to  have  been  elaborately  discussed  by  Mr.  Adams  himself,  as 
well  as  by  the  other  gentlemen,  though,  whilst  taking  notes  of  their  remarks,  he 
neglected  to  make  any  record  of  his  own.  On  the  tenth,  twelfth,  and  thirteenth 
of  September,  his  Diary  shows  him  to  have  been  acting  on  the  s«6-committee, 
which  sat  whilst  the  Congress  and  the  full  committee  did  nothing,  in  order  to 
give  it  room.  On  the  last  named  day,  it  agreed  upon  a  report  to  the  larger 
body.  But  it  was  not  until  nine  days  afterwards,  to  wit,  Thursday,  the  22d, 
that  the  grand  committee  itself  was  ready  to  report,  and  then  it  did  so  only  in 
part,  as  follows :  — 

"  The  committee  appointed  to  state  the  rights  of  the  Colonies,  &c.  having 
brought  in  a  report  of  the  rights,  the  same  was  read,  and  the  consideration  of  it 
referred  till  Saturday  next. 

"  Ordered,  That  a  copy  of  this  report  be  made  out  for  each  Colony." 

On  Saturday,  24  September,  the  record  says,  — 

"  The  Congress  entered  upon  the  consideration  of  the  report  referred  to  this 
day,  and  after  some  debate,  upon  motion,  — 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Congress  do  confine  themselves,  at  present,  to  the  con- 
sideration of  such  rights  only  as  have  been  infringed  by  acts  of  the  British  Par- 
liament since  the  year  1763,  postponing  the  further  consideration  of  the  general 
state  of  American  rights  to  a  future  day." 

This  decision  was  not  arrived  at  without  much  difference  of  opinion.  From 
the  report  of  the  South  Carolina  delegates,  it  appears  that  the  limitation  was 
fixed  by  the  influence  of  Virginia  combining  with  the  least  resolute  party,  desi- 
rous of  avoiding  abstract  principles  on  which  a  dilference  would  admit  of  no 
reconciliation,  and  keeping  the  issue  exclusively  upon  the  temporary  action  of 
the  existing  ministry  at  home. 

This  point  being  definitively  settled,  in  favor  of  the  narrow  construction,  the 
committee  appointed  to  state  the  rights,  &c.  brought  in  the  other  part  of  their 
report  upon  the  infringements  and  violations  of  American  rights,  which  being 
read,  upon  motion,  — 

"  Resolved,  That  the  consideration  of  this  report  be  referred  till  Monday,  and 
that  the  Congress,  in  the  meanwhile,  deliberate  on  the  means  most  proper  to 
be  pursued  for  a  restoration  of  our  rights."  * 

*  "  Committees  were  then  appointed  to  state  American  rights  and  grievances,  and  the  various  acts 
of  the  British  Parliament  which  affect  the  trade  and  manufactures  of  these  Colonies.  On  these  sub- 
jects the  committees  spent  several  days,  when  the  Congress  judged  it  necessary,  previous  to  com- 
pleting and  resolving  on  these  subjects,  to  take  under  consideration  that  of  ways  and  means  for 
redress."     Letter  of  Connecticut  Delegates  to  Governor  Trumbull,  10  October,  1771. 


Mr.  38.]  DIARY.  377 

consequence  of  it.  When  Congress  had  gone  through  the  arti- 
cles, I  was  appointed  to  put  them  into  form  and  report  a  fair 
draught  for  their  final  acceptance.  This  was  done,  and  they 
were  finally  accepted. 

The  committee  of  violations  of  rights  reported  a  set  of  articles 
which  were  drawn  by  Mr.  John  Sullivan  of  New  Hampshire; 
and  these  two  declarations,  the  one  of  rights  and  the  other  of 
violations,  which  are  printed  in  the  journals  of  Congress  for  1774, 
were  two  years  afterwards  recapitulated  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1776.] 


10.  Saturday.  Attended  my  duty  upon  the  sub-committee. 
Dined  at  home.  Dr.  Morgan,  Dr.  Cox,  Mr.  Spence,  and  several 
other  gentlemen,  Major  Sullivan  and  Colonel  Folsom,  dined  with 
us  upon  salt  fish.  Rambled  in  the  evening  with  Jo  Reed,  and 
fell  into  Mr.  Sprout's  meeting,  where  we  heard  Mr.  Spence 
preach.  Mr.  Reed  returned  with  Mr.  Adams  and  me  to  our 
lodgings,  and  a  very  sociable,  agreeable,  and  communicative 

This  second  report  of  the  large  committee  is  the  one  which,  from  its  being    */ 
made  separately,  Mr.  Adams  in  his  later  recollection  appears  to  have  blended 
with  the  action  of  the  second  committee. 

On  Monday  and  Tuesday,  the  26th  and  27th  of  September,  the  Congress 
proceeded  to  deliberate  on  the  question,  as  stated  above,  and  the  result  was  the 
adoption  of  a  non-importation  agreement,  as  it  stands  upon  the  journals.  The 
notes  taken  by  Mr.  Adams  of  this  discussion  will  be  found  appended  to  the  record 
of  the  27  th. 

On  the  28th,  Mr.  Galloway,  of  Pennsylvania,  made  his  celebrated  motion,  and 
proposed  his  plan  of  union,  which  he  prefaced  with  a  speech.  The  notes  of  that 
speech,  and  of  a  part  of  the  debate  which  is  known  to  have  been  the  critical 
one  in  the  career  of  this  assembly,  are  appended  to  the  record  of  that  day.  The 
plan  is  said  to  have  been  defeated  only  by  a  majority  of  one  State. 

The  Congress  did  not  resume  the  consideration  of  the  subject  of  rights  and  V 
grievances  until  Wednesday,  October  12  ;  and  on  Friday,  the  14th,  they  adopted 
the  resolutions  as  they  are  found  in  the  Journals  of  that  day.  Among  the  papers  of 
Mr.  Adams  there  is,  in  handwriting  somewhat  resembling  that  of  Major  Sullivan,  /~ 
a  draught  of  the  articles  as  they  were  doubtless  first  submitted  to  the  committee. 
SoTiftle  is  known  of  the  proceedings  of  this  Congress,  that  it  may  not  be  deemed 
superfluous,  in  the  Appendix  C.  to  this  volume,  to  place  this  draught  in  contrast 
with  the  resolutions  as  they  were  ultimately  passed.  From  this  comparison  it 
will  appear  that  the  critical  article  alluded  to  by  Mr.  Adams,  as  finally  drawn  up 
by  himself,  is  the  fourth^  in  the  series.  It  was  this  article  agairtst  which  Mr. 
Galloway  afterwards,  in  his  pamphlet,  directed  his  main  attack,  on  the  ground 
that  it  aimed  at  independence.  It  will  likewise  be  seen  that  all  after  the  tenth 
resolution  constitutes  that  portion  of  the  report  which  had  its  origin  in  the  labors 
of  the  second  committee,  before  it  was  merged  in  the  larger  one,  and  which  was 
reported  afterwards,  to  wit,  on  the  24th  of  September. 

31* 


378  DIARY.  [1774. 

evening  we  had.  He  says  we  never  were  guilty  of  a  more 
masterly  stroke  of  policy,  than  in  moving  that  Mr.  Duche  might 
read  prayers ;  it  has  had  a  very  good  effect,  &c.  He  says  the 
sentiments  of  people  here  are  growing  more  and  more  favorable 
every  day. 

11.  Sunday.  There  is  such  a  quick  and  constant  succession 
of  new  scenes,  characters,  persons,  and  events,  turning  up  before 
me,  that  I  can't  keep  any  regular  account.  This  Mr.  Reed  is  a 
very  sensible  and  accomplished  lawyer,  of  an  amiable  disposi- 
tion, soft,  tender,  friendly,  &c. ;  he  is  a  friend  to  his  country  and 
to  liberty.  Mr.  Reed  was  so  kind  as  to  wait  on  us  to  Mr.  Sprout's 
meeting,  where  we  heard  Mr.  Spence.  These  ministers  all  preach 
without  notes.  We  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the  custom  of 
the  Presbyterians  in  administering  the  sacrament.  The  com- 
municants all  come  to  a  row  of  seats,  placed  on  each  side  of  a 
narrow  table  spread  in  the  middle  of  the  alley,  reaching  from 
the  deacons'  seat  to  the  front  of  the  house.  Three  sets  of  per- 
sons of  both  sexes  came  in  succession.  Each  new  set  had  the 
bread  and  the  cup  given  them  by  a  new  minister.  Mr.  Sprout 
first,  Mr.  Treat  next,  and  Mr.  Spence  last.  Each  communicant 
has  a  token  which  he  delivers  to  the  deacons  or  elders,  I  don't 
know  which  they  call  them.  As  we  came  out  of  meeting,  a  Mr. 
Webster  joined  us,  who  has  just  come  from  Boston,  and  has 
been  a  generous  benefactor  to  it  in  its  distresses.  He  says  he 
was  at  the  town  meeting,  and  he  thinks  they  managed  their 
affairs  with  great  simplicity,  moderation,  and  discretion.  Dined 
at  Mr.  Willing's,  who  is  a  judge  of  the  supreme  court  here,  with 
the  gentlemen  from  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  New  York.  A 
most  splendid  feast  again,  —  turtle  and  every  thing  else.  Mr. 
Willing  told  us  a  story  of  a  lawyer  here,  who  the  other  day 
gave  him,  upon  the  bench,  the  following  answer  to  a  question, 
Why  the  lawyers  were  so  increased  ? 

"  You  ask  me  why  lawyers  so  much  are  increased, 
Tho'  most  of  the  country  already  are  fleeced ; 
The  reason,  I  'm  sure,  is  most  strikingly  plain  ;  — 
Tho'  sheep  are  oft  sheared,  yet  the  wool  grows  again ; 
And  tho'  you  may  think  e'er  so  odd  of  the  matter, 
The  oftener  they  're  fleeced,  the  wool  grows  the  better. 
Thus  downy  chin'd  boys,  as  oft  I  have  heard, 
By  frequently  shaving,  obtain  a  large  beard." 


Mi.  38.]  DIARY.  379 

By  Mr.  Peters,1  written  at  the  bar,  and  given  to  a  judge,  Mr. 
Willing,  who  had  asked  the  question  at  dinner  in  pleasantry. 
Mr.  Willing  is  the  most  sociable,  agreeable  man  of  all.  He 
told  us  of  a  law  of  this  place,  that  whereas  oysters,  between  the 
months  of  May  and  September,  were  found  to  be  unwholesome 
food,  if  any  were  brought  to  market  they  should  be  forfeited  and 
given  to  the  poor.  We  drank  coffee,  and  then  Reed,  Cushing, 
and  I  strolled  to  the  Moravian  evening  lecture,  where  we  heard 
soft,  sweet  music,  and  a  Dutchified  English  prayer  and  preach- 
ment. 

12.  Monday.  Attended  my  duty  on  the  committee  until  one 
o'clock,  and  then  went  with  my  colleagues  and  Messrs.  Thomson 
and  Mifflin  to  the  Falls  of  Schuylkill,  and  viewed  the  Museum 
at  Fort  St.  David's ;  a  great  collection  of  curiosities.  Returned 
and  dined  with  Mr.  Dickinson  at  his  seat  at  Fair  Hill,  with  his 
lady,  Mrs.  Thomson,  Miss  Norris,  and  Miss  Harrison.  Mr. 
Dickinson  has  a  fine  seat,  a  beautiful  prospect  of  the  city,  the 
river,  and  the  country,  fine  gardens,  and  a  very  grand  library. 
The  most  of  his  books  were  collected  by  Mr.  Norris,  once 
Speaker  of  the  House  here,  father  of  Mrs.  Dickinson.  Mr.  Dick- 
inson is  a  very  modest  man,  and  very  ingenious  as  well  as  agree- 
able ;  he  has  an  excellent  heart,  and  the  cause  of  his  country  lies 
near  it.  He  is  full  and  clear  for  allowing  to  Parliament  the  regu- 
lation of  trade,  upon  principles  of  necessity,  and  the  mutual 
interest  of  both  countries. 

13.  Tuesday.  Attended  my  duty  all  day  on  the  sub-commit- 
tee.    Agreed  on  a  report. 

14.  Wednesday.  Visited  Mr.  Gadsden,  Mr.  Deane,  Colonel 
Dyer,  &c.  at  their  lodgings.  Gadsden  is  violent  against  allowing 
to  Parliament  any  power  of  regulating  trade,  or  allowing  that 
they  have  any  thing  to  do  with  us.  "  Power  of  regulating 
trade,"  he  says,  "  is  power  of  ruining  us ;  as  bad  as  acknow- 
ledging them  a  supreme  legislative  in  all  cases  whatsoever ;  a 
right  of  regulating  trade  is  a  right  of  legislation,  and  a  right  of 
legislation  in  one  case  is  a  right  in  all;  this  I  deny."  Attended 
the  Congress  and  committee  all  the  forenoon;  dined  with  Dr. 

1  Richard  Peters,  long  celebrated  in  Philadelphia  for  his  wit,  as  well  as  for 
other  and  higher  qualities.  He  served  as  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  War,  until 
1781,  and  as  Judge  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  until  his  death, 
in  1828,  at  an  advanced  age. 


380  DIARY.  [1774. 

Cox.  Dr.  Morgan,  Dr.  Rush,  Mr.  Bayard,  and  old  Mr.  Smith, 
dined  with  us.  Dr.  Rush  lives  upon  Water  Street,  and  has, 
from  the  window  of  his  back  room  and  chamber,  a  fine  prospect 
of  Delaware  River  and  of  New  Jersey  beyond  it.  The  gentlemen 
entertained  us  with  absurdities  in  the  laws  of  Pennsylvania,  New 
Jersey,  and  Maryland.  This,  I  find,  is  a  genteel  topic  of  con- 
versation here.  A  mighty  feast  again ;  nothing  less  than  the 
very  best  of  Claret,  Madeira,  and  Burgundy ;  melons,  fine  beyond 
description,  and  pears  and  peaches  as  excellent.  This  day  Mr. 
Chase  introduced  to  us  a  Mr.  Carroll,  of  Annapolis,  a  very  sen- 
sible gentleman,  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  of  the  first  fortune  in 
America.  His  income  is  ten  thousand  pounds  sterling  a  year 
now,  will  be  fourteen  in  two  or  three  years,  they  say ;  besides, 
his  father  has  a  vast  estate  which  will  be  his  after  his  father. 

16.  Friday.  Dined  with  Mr.  Wallace  with  a  great  deal  of 
company  at  an  elegant  feast  again. 

17.  Saturday.  This  was  one  of  the  happiest  days  of  my  life. 
In  Congress  we  had  generous,  noble  sentiments,  and  manly  elo- 
quence. This  day  convinced  me  that  America  will  support  the 
Massachusetts  or  perish  with  her.1  Dined  with  old  Mr.  Smith, 
with  much  company;  visited  the  Bettering  House, a  large  build- 
ing, very  clean,  neat,  and  convenient  for  the  poor ;  viewed  the 
gardens,  &c. 

18.  Sunday.  Went  to  church  and  heard  Mr.  Coombs  read 
prayers,  and  Mr.  Duche  preach  —  a  fine. preacher  indeed;  dined 
at  home.      Went  to   Dr.   Allison's  meeting  in  the   afternoon  ; 

heard  Mr. ,  a  very  ingenious  preacher  of  benevolence  and 

humanity.  Spent  the  evening  at  home  with  General  Lee, 
Captain  Dagworthy,  Mr.  McDougall  and  others;  wrote  many 
letters  to  go  by  Mr.  Paul  Revere. 


1  On  this  day  the  celebrated  resolutions  of  Suffolk  County,  in  Massachusetts, 
had  been  laid  before  Congress,  and  resolutions  were  adopted  by  the  Congress 
expressive  of  sympathy  and  support.     See  the  Journals. 

"  The  proceedings  of  the  Congress  are  all  a  profound  secret  as  yet,  except  two 
votes  which  were  passed  yesterday,  and  ordered  to  be  printed.  You  will  see 
them  from  every  quarter.  These  votes  were  passed  in  full  Congress  with  per- 
fect unanimity.  The  esteem,  the  affection,  the  admiration  for  the  people  of 
Boston  and  the  Massachusetts,  which  were  expressed  yesterday,  and  the  fixed 
determination  that  they  should  be  supported,  were  enough  to  melt  a  heart  of 
stone.  I  saw  the  tears  gush  into  the  eyes  of  the  old,  grave,  pacific  Quakers  of 
Pennsylvania."  J.  A.  to  his  Wife,  18  Sept.  Compare  the  letter  of  S.  Adams  to 
Dr.  Chauncy.     Quincy's  Life  of  Quincy,  p.  180. 


JEt.  38.]  DIARY.  381 

19.  Monday.  Dined  with  Dr.  Rush,  in  company  with  Dr. 
Shippon  and  many  others,  Folsom  and  Sullivan  from  New 
Hampshire,  Mr.  Blair,  &c.  &c. 

20.  Tuesday.  Had  cards  a  week  ago  to  dine  with  Mr.  Mease, 
but  forgot  it  and  dined  at  home.  After  we  had  dined,  after  four 
o'clock,  Mr.  Mease's  brother  came  to  our  lodgings  after  us.  We 
went,  after  dinner,  and  found  Mr.  Dickinson,  Mifflin,  Dr.  Rush, 
Mr.  West,  Mr.  Biddle,  and  Captain  Allen,  and  Mr.  Mease's 
brother  ;  a  very  agreeable  company.  Our  regret  at  the  loss  of 
this  company  was  very  great.  Mr.  Dickinson  was  very  agree- 
able. A  question  was  started  about  the  conduct  of  the  Bostonian 
merchants,  since  the  year  1770,  in  importing  tea  and  paying  the 
duty.  Mr.  Hancock,  it  is  said,  has  received  the  freight  of  many 
chests  of  tea.  I  think  the  Bostonian  merchants  are  not  wholly 
justifiable,  yet  their  conduct  has  been  exaggerated ;  their  fault 
and  guilt  have  been  magnified.  Mr.  Hancock,  I  believe,  is  justi- 
fiable, but  I  am  not  certain  whether  he  is  strictly  so.  He  owned 
a  ship  in  partnership  with  George  Hayley,  who  is  agreed  here 
to  be  a  ministerial  man,  and  Hayley,  I  suppose,  sent  the  tea  in 
the  ship. 

21.  Wednesday.  Captain  Callender  came  to  breakfast  with 
us.  Colonel  Dagworthy  and  his  brother,  Captain  Dagworthy, 
breakfasted  with  us.  Mrs.  Yard  entertained  us  with  muffins, 
buckwheat  cakes,  and  common  toast.  Buckwheat  is  an  excel- 
lent grain,  and  is  very  plenty  here.  Attended  Congress  from 
nine  to  after  three.  Rode  out  of  town  six  miles,  to  Mr.  Hill's, 
where  we  dined  with  Mr.  Hill  and  lady,  Mr.  Dickinson  and  his 
lady,  Mr.  Thomson  and  his  lady,  old  Mr.  Meredith,  father  of 
Mrs.  Hill,  Mr.  Johnson  of  Maryland,  and  Mr.  Jo  Reed. 

22.  Thursday.  Dined  with  Mr.  Chew,  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Province,  with  all  the  gentlemen  from  Virginia,  Dr.  Shippen, 
Mr.  Tilghman,  and  many  others.  We  were  shown  into  a  grand 
entry  and  stair-case,  and  into  an  elegant  and  most  magnificent 
chamber,  until  dinner.  About  four  o'clock,  we  were  called  down 
to  dinner.  The  furniture  was  all  rich.  Turtle,  and  every  other 
thing,  flummery,  jellies,  sweetmeats  of  twenty  sorts,  trifles, 
whipped  sillabubs,  floating  islands,  fools,  &c.  and  then  a  dessert 
of  fruits,  raisins,  almonds,  pears,  peaches.  Wines  most  excellent 
and  admirable.  I  drank  Madeira  at  a  great  rate,  and  found  no 
inconvenience  in  it.     In  the  evening,  General  Lee  and  Colonel 


382  DIARY.  [1774. 

Lee,  and  Colonel  Dyer,  and  Mr.  Deane,  and  half  a  score  friends 
from  Boston  came  to  our  lodgings.  Colonel  Lee  staid  till  twelve 
o'clock,  and  was  very  social  and  agreeable. 

23.  Friday.  Walked  along  Second  Street,  southward,  until 
I  got  out  of  the  city  into  the  country.  The  uniformity  of  this 
city  is  disagreeable  to  some.  I  like  it.  Dined  with  the  late 
Chief  Justice  Allen,  with  all  the  gentlemen  from  North  Caro- 
lina, and  Mr.  Hamilton,  late  Governor,  and  Mr.  Andrew  Allen, 
Attorney-General.  We  had  much  conversation  about  Mr.  Frank- 
lin. The  Chief  Justice  and  Attorney- General  had  much  droll 
chat  together. 

24.  Saturday.  Dined  with  Mr.  Charles  Thomson,  with  only 
Mr.  Dickinson,  his  lady  and  niece  in  company.  A  most  delight- 
ful afternoon  we  had ;  sweet  communion,  indeed,  we  had.  Mr. 
Dickinson  gave  us  his  thoughts  and  his  correspondence  very  freely. 

25.  Sunday.  Went  in  the  evening  to  Quaker  meeting,  and 
afterwards  went  to  supper  at  Stephen  Collins's. 

26.  Monday.  Dined  at  old  Dr.  Shippen's,  with  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Blair,  young  Dr.  Shippen,  the  Jersey  delegates,  and  some  Vir- 
ginians.1 Afterwards  went  to  the  hospital,  and  heard  another 
lecture  upon  anatomy  from  young  Dr.  Shippen. 

27.  Tuesday.  Dined  at  Mr.  Bayard's,  with  Dr.  Cox,  Dr.  Rush, 
Mr.  Hodge,  Mr.  Deane,  Colonel  Dyer.  Dr,  Cox  gave  us  a  toast : 
"  May  the  fair  dove  of  liberty,  in  this  deluge  of  despotism,  find 
rest  to  the  sole  of  her  foot  in  America." 


The  notes  which  follow  appear  to  have  been  taken  in  a  discussion  which 
terminated  in  the  adoption  of  the  non-importation  resolution  recorded  in  the 
Journal  of  the  27th.2 

DEBATES. 

Mr.  Lee  made  a  motion  for  a  non-importation. 

Mr.  Mifflin.     The  first  of  November  ought  to  be  fixed ;  for  no 

1  The  following  extract  from  the  writer's  letter  of  this  date,  to  the  late  Judge 
Tudor,  is  of  importance  to  elucidate  the  motives  of  action  at  this  time. 

"  We  have  had  numberless  prejudices  to  remove  here.  We  have  been  obliged 
to  act  with  great  delicacy  and  caution.  We  have  been  obliged  to  keep  ourselves 
out  of  sight,  and  to  feel  pulses  and  sound  the  depths ;  to  insinuate  our  sentiments, 
designs,  and  desires,  by  means  of  other  persons ;  sometimes  of  one  Province,  and 
sometimes  of  another." 

2  "  Resolved,  unanimously,  That  from  and  after  the  first  day  of  December 
next,  there  be  no  importation  into  British  America,  from  Great  Britain  or  Ire- 


aj-r.  38.]  DIARY.  383 

honest  orders  were  sent  after  the  first  of  June.  Orders  are  gen- 
erally sent  in  April  and  May.  But  the  intention  was  known  of 
a  non-importation. 

Colonel  Bland.  I  think  the  time  ought  to  be  fixed,  when  goods 
are  shipped  in  Great  Britain,  because  a  ship  may  have  a  long 
voyage. 

Mr.  Gadsden.  For  the  first  of  November ;  we  may  be  deceived 
and  defrauded  if  we  fix  the  time,  when  goods  are  shipped. 

Colonel  Lee.     Invoices  have  been  antedated. 

Mr.  John  Rutledge.  I  think  all  the  ways  and  means  should 
be  proposed. 

Mr.  Mifflin  proposes  stoppage  of  flax-seed  and  lumber  to  the 
West  Indies,  and  non-importation  of  dutied  articles  ;  to  com- 
mence 1  August,  1775. 

Mr.  Chase.  Force,  I  apprehend,  is  out  of  the  question  in  our 
present  inquiry.  In  1770,  the  annual  tax  was  thirteen  millions ; 
last  year  it  was  only  ten  millions.  Land  tax,  malt  tax,  perpet- 
ual funds,  amount  to  only  ten  millions.  They  are  compelled  to 
raise  ten  millions  in  time  of  peace. 

The  emigrations  from  Great  Britain  prove  that  they  are  taxed 
as  far  as  they  can  bear.  A  total  non-importation  and  non- 
exportation  to  Great  Britain  and  the  West  Indies  must  produce 
a  national  bankruptcy,  in  a  very  short  space  of  time.1  The 
foreign  trade  of  Great  Britain  is  but  four  millions  and  a  half; 
as  great  a  man  as  ever  Britain  produced  calculated  the  trade 
with  the  Colonies  at  two  millions.  I  believe  the  importation  to 
the  Colonies  now  represented,  may  be  three  millions.  A  non- 
exportation  amounts  to  three  millions  more,  and  the  debt  due  to 
four  millions.  Two  thirds  in  the  Colonies  are  clothed  in  British 
manufactures.  Non-exportation  of  vastly  more  importance  than 
a  non-importation ;  it  affects  the  merchants  as  well  as  manufac- 
turers, the  trade  as  well  as  the  revenue.  Sixty  thousand  hogs- 
heads of  tobacco.  Two  hundred  and  twenty-five  British  ships 
employed. 

land,  of  any  goods,  wares,  or  merchandises  whatsoever,  or  from  any  other  place, 
of  any  such  goods,  wares,  or  merchandises,  as  shall  have  been  exported  from 
Great  Britain  or  Ireland,  and  that  no  such  goods,  wares,  or  merchandises 
imported  after  the  said  first  day  of  December  next,  be  used  or  purchased." 

A  non-exportation  rule  was  also  adopted  on  Friday,  the  30th. 

1  This  was  a  common  impression  of  the  times.  The  whole  action  of  this 
Congress  was  predicated  upon  the  error.  Yet  the  commercial  position  of  China 
could  not  have  been  entirely  unknown,  even  at  that  period. 


384  DIARY.  [1774. 

I  am  for  a  non-exportation  of  lumber  to  the  West  Indies 
immediately. 

The  importance  of  the  trade  of  the  West  Indies  to  Great 
Britain  almost  exceeds  calculation.  The  sugar  carries  the  great- 
est revenue ;  the  rum  a  great  deal.  If  you  don't  stop  the  lumber 
immediately,  you  can't  stop  it  at  all.  If  it  takes  place  immedi- 
ately, they  can't  send  home  their  next  year's  crop. 

A  non-exportation  at  a  future  day  cannot  avail  us.  What  is 
the  situation  of  Boston  and  the  Massachusetts  ? 

A  non-exportation  at  the  Virginia  day  will  not  operate  before 
the  fall  of  1776.  I  would  not  affect  the  trade  of  the  Colonies  to 
the  Mediterranean  or  other  parts  of  the  world. 

I  am  for  a  more  distant  day  than  the  first  of  November. 

Mr.  Lynch.  We  want  not  only  redress,  but  speedy  redress. 
The  mass  can't  live  without  government,  I  think,  one  year. 
Nothing  less  than  what  has  been  proposed  by  the  gentleman 
last  speaking,  will  put  the  Colonies  in  the  state  I  wish  to  see 
them  in.  I  believe  the  Parliament  would  grant  us  immediate 
relief.     Bankruptcy  would  be  the  consequence  if  they  did  not. 

Mr.  Gadsden.  By  saving  our  own  liberties,  we  shall  save 
those  of  the  WTest  Indies.  I  am  for  being  ready,  but  I  am  not 
for  the  sword.  The  only  way  to  prevent  the  sword  from  being 
used,  is  to  have  it  ready. 

Though  the  Virginians  are  tied  up,1  I  would  be  for  doing  it 
without  them.  Boston  and  New  England  can't  hold  out.  The 
country  will  be  deluged  in  blood,  if  we  don't  act  with  spirit. 

1  In  the  account,  given  by  Judge  Drayton,  of  the  report  made  by  the  South 
Carolina  delegates  of  the  proceedings  of  this  Congress,  there  is  a  little  obscurity, 
which  appears  to  grow  out  of  a  confounding  of  two  separate  positions  taken  by 
the  Virginia  delegates.  The  one  related  to  the  limitation  of  the  statement  of 
grievances  to  the  period  of  the  present  reign.  The  other  to  the  hesitation  to  come 
into  a  measure  of  non-exportation,  on  the  ground  of  insufficient  powers.  The 
first  case,  however  decided,  would  scarcely  present  sufficient  cause  for  serious 
division.  The  second  seems  at  one  time  to  have  threatened  seriously  to  impair 
the  harmony  of  the  union.  The  language  of  Judge  Drayton,  if  applied  to  this, 
receives  some  illustration  from  the  remarks  attributed  in  the  text  to  Messrs. 
Gadsden  and  Chase.     It  runs  thus :  — 

"  It  was  then  pressed  in  Congress  that  the  other  Colonies  should,  in  this 
measure,  act  independently  of  Virginia;  but  Maryland  and  North  Carolina 
represented,  that  as  their  exports  were  similar  to  those  of  Virginia,  so  they  could 
not,  with  any  advantage  to  the  common  cause,  act  independently  of  her ;  for 
their  own  commodities  would  be  carried  to  the  Virginia  ports,  which  would  run 
away  with  all  their  trade."     Memoirs  of  the  American  Revolution,  vol.  i.  p.  168. 

The  delegates  from  Virginia  finally  signed  the  agreement  in  its  fullest  extent. 


JEt.  38.]  DIARY.  385 

Don't  let  America  look  at  this  mountain  and  let  it  bring  forth  a 
mouse. 

Mr.  Chase.  We  can't  come  into  a  non-exportation,  immedi- 
ately, without  Virginia. 

Mr.  Gushing-  for  a  non-importation,  non-exportation,  and  non- 
consumption  ;  and  immediately. 

Colonel  Bland.     It  has  been  our  glory  — 

Mr.  Hooper.  We  make  some  tobacco.  I  was  instructed  to 
protest  against  petitioning  alone.  Tar,  pitch,  and  turpentine, 
we  can  ship  nowhere  but  to  Great  Britain.  The  whole  of  the 
subsistence  of  the  people  in  the  southern  ports  is  from  naval 
stores.  Great  Britain  cannot  do  without  naval  stores  from 
North  Carolina. 

Mr.  Edward  Rutledge.  A  gentleman  from  the  other  end  of 
the  room  talked  of  generosity.  True  equality  is  the  only  public 
generosity.  If  Virginia  raises  wheat,  instead  of  tobacco,  they 
will  not  suffer.  Our  rice  is  an  enumerated  commodity.  We 
shall,  therefore,  lose  all  our  trade.1  I  am  both  for  non-importa- 
tion and  non-exportation,  to  take  place  immediately. 

Mr.  Henry.  We  don't  mean  to  hurt  even  our  rascals,  if  we 
have  any.  I  move  that  December  may  be  inserted  instead  of 
November. 

Mr.  Jay.  Negotiation,  suspension  of  commerce,  and  war,  are 
the  only  three  things.  War  is,  by  general  consent,  to  be  waved 
at  present.     I  am  for  negotiation  and  suspension  of  commerce. 


1  This  article  of  rice  proved  another  great  stumbling-block  in  the  way  of 
union,  which  was  at  last  removed  only  by  consenting  to  except  it  from  the 
agreement  of  non-exportation  to  Europe.  In  the  lirst  instance,  the  bare  propo- 
sition of  excepting  that  and  indigo,  is  stated  by  Mr.  Gadsden,  who  disagreed  with 
the  rest  of  his  colleagues,  to  have  occasioned  a  cessation  from  business  for  several 
days,  in  order  to  give  the  refractory  deputies  time  to  recollect  themselves, 
although  it  is  difficult  now  to  tell  exactly  when  this  cessation  could  have  taken 
place.  He  further  says,  that  even  when  the  association  was  completing,  without 
any  exception,  and  the  members  were  signing  it,  all  the  deputies  from  South 
Carolina,  but  himself,  withdrew  ;  and  that  State  was  on  the  point  of  being  exclu- 
ded, when  a  compromise  was  proposed,  by  which  indigo  being  surrendered  on 
the  one  side,  the  exception  was  admitted  of  rice  on  the  other. 

This  compromise  was  not,  however,  altogether  relished  by  their  constituents  in 
Carolina,  and  especially  by  the  cultivators  of  indigo,  who  considered  their  interests 
sacrificed  for  the  benefit  of  the  rice  planters.  An  account  of  the  violent  strug- 
gle between  these  two  parties  in  the  provincial  legislature,  is  given  by  Judge 
Drayton  in  his  interesting  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  pp.  168-  174.  Ramsay  says  nothing 
of  it,  but  leaves  a  directly  contrary  impression  on  the  mind  of  the  reader.  His- 
tory, vol.  i.  p.  24. 

VOL.  II.  33  Y 


386  DIARY.  [1774. 

Colonel  Lee.  All  considerations  of  interest,  and  of  equality 
of  sacrifice,  should  be  laid  aside. 

Produce  of  the  other  Colonies  is  carried  to  market  in  the  same 
year  when  it  is  raised,  even  rice.  Tobacco  is  not  until  the  next 
year. 

Mr.  Sullivan.  We  export  masts,  boards,  plank,  fish,  oil,  and 
some  potash.  Ships  we  load  with  lumber  for  the  West  Indies, 
and  thence  carry  sugar  to  England,  and  pay  our  debts  that  way. 
Every  kind  of  lumber  we  export  to  the  West  Indies.  Our  lumber 
is  made  in  the  winter.  Our  ships  sail  in  January  or  February 
for  the  West  Indies. 

Colonel  Dyer.  They  have  now  drawn  the  sword,  in  order  to 
execute  their  plan  of  subduing  America;  and  I  imagine  they 
will  not  sheathe  it,  but  that  next  summer  will  decide  the  fate  of 
America.  To  withdraw  all  commerce  with  Great  Britain  at 
once,  would  come  upon  them  like  a  thunderclap.  By  what  I 
heard  yesterday,  Great  Britain  is  much  more  in  our  power  than 
I  expected;  —  the  masts  from  the  northward,  the  naval  stores 
from  North  Carolina. 

We  are  struggling  for  the  liberties  of  the  West  Indies  and  of 
the  people  of  Great  Britain,  as  well  as  our  own,  and  perhaps  of 
Europe. 

Stopping  the  flax-seed  to  Ireland  would  greatly  distress  them. 

Mr.  dishing.  Whoever  considers  the  present  state  of  Great 
Britain  and  America,  must  see  the  necessity  of  spirited  measures. 
Great  Britain  has  drawn  the  sword  against  us,  and  nothing  pre- 
vents her  sheathing  it  in  our  bowels,  but  want  of  sufficient  force. 

I  think  it  absolutely  necessary  to  agree  to  a  non-importation 
and  non-exportation  immediately. 


28.  Wednesday.  Dined  with  Mr.  R.  Penn ;  a  magnificent 
house,  and  a  most  splendid  feast,  and  a  very  large  company. 
Mr.  Dickinson  and  General  Lee  were  there,  and  Mr.  Moylan, 
besides  a  great  number  of  the  delegates.  Spent  the  evening  at 
home,  with  Colonel  Lee,  Colonel  Washington,  and  Dr.  Shippen, 
who  came  in  to  consult  with  us.1 

1  This  meeting,  and  the  motives  which  induced  it,  are  alluded  to  by  General 
Washington  in  a  letter  to  Captain  Mackensie,  of  the  9th  of  October  following. 

See  Sparks's  Washington,  vol.  ii.  p.  401. 


Mr.  38.]  DIARY.  ;3H7 


DEBATES. 

Among  all  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  effective  and  united  action,  in  1774, — 
and  they  were  far  greater  than  the  members  of  the  Congress  were,  at  the  time, 
for  vei-y  obvious  reasons,  willing  to  admit,  or  than  the  people  of  the  present 
generation,  who  judge  only  from  results,  are  apt  to  imagine,  —  no  more 
alarming  one  happened  than  the  "  plan  of  a  proposed  union  between  Great 
Britain  and  the  Colonies,"  presented,  on  the  28th  of  September,  by  Mr.  Joseph 
Galloway,  a  delegate  from  Pennsylvania.  Himself  a  gentleman  of  abilities,  of 
property,  and  of  extensive  influence  on  the  popular  side,  he  seems  to  have 
accepted  a  seat  in  this  Congress  rather  for  the  purpose  of  "  sitting  on  the  skirts 
of  the  American  advocates,"  than  of  promoting  any  valuable  end.  He  prefaced 
his  formidable  motion  with  a  speech,  of  which  the  outline  is  now  to  be  given. 
How  near  he  came,  to  success,  may  be  judged  not  only  from  his  own  account, 
which  he  afterwards  gave  in  a  pamphlet,  but  still  more  from  the  extreme  earn- 
estness of  his  opponents  to  expunge  from  the  record  all  traces  of  the  proceed- 
ings, and  to  discredit  his  statements  as  those  of  a  renegade  and  a  traitor.  Never- 
theless, there  is  no  good  reason  for  doubting  his  substantial  accuracy.  He  says 
of  the  fate  of  his  scheme  :  — 

"  The  plan  read,  and  warmly  seconded  by  several  gentlemen  of  the  first 
abilities,  after  a  long  debate,  was  so  far  approved  as  to  be  thought  worthy  of 
further  consideration,  and  referred,  under  a  rule  for  that  purpose,  by  a  majority 
of  the  Colonies.  Under  this  promising  aspect  of  things,  and  an  expectation  that 
the  rule  would  have  been  regarded,  or  at  least  that  something  rational  would 
take  place  to  reconcile  our  unhappy  differences,  the  member  proposing  it  was 
weakly  led  to  sign  the  non-importation  agreement,  although  he  had  uniformly 
opposed  it;  but  in  this  he  was  disappointed.  The  measures  of  independence 
and  sedition  were  soon  after  preferred  to  those  of  harmony  and  liberty,  and  no 
arguments,  however  reasonable  and  just,  could  prevail  on  a  majority  of  the  Col- 
onies to  desert  them."  Candid  Examination  of  the  Mutual  Claims  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  Colonies. 

The  plan  was  not  a  new  one.  It  had  been  suggested  to  Governor  Hutchin- 
son, and  opposed  by  him,  early  in  the  controversy.  Though  it  does  not  appear 
in  the  Journals,  its  detads  were  published  by  Mr.  Galloway  himself  in  the 
pamphlet  from  which  the  pi-eceding  extract  is  taken,  and  it  has  been  inserted 
in  its  place  in  the  republication  made  by  Mr.  Force  in  the  American  Archives 
of  1774.  It  was  defeated  by  the  close  vote  of  six  Colonies  to  five.  The  mover 
continued,  nevertheless,  to  act  with  the  majority,  and  he  actually  signed  the 
non-importation  agreement  and  the  Address  to  the  King.  But  in  the  next  year 
he  got  himself  excused  from  further  service  in  Congress,  and,  in  1776,  he  openly 
joined  the  royalist  forces  in  New  York. 

Mr.  Gall oio ay.  The  proposal  I  intended  to  make  having 
been  opposed,  I  have  waited  to  hear  a  more  effectual  one.  A 
general   non-importation  from    Great   Britain  and   Ireland  has 


388  DIARY.  [1774. 

been  adopted,  but  1  think  this  will  be  too  gradual  in  its  opera- 
tion for  the  relief  of  Boston.  A  general  non-exportation  I  have 
ever  looked  on  as  an  undigested  proposition.  It  is  impossible 
America  can  exist  under  a  total  non-exportation.  We,  in  this 
Province,  should  have  tens  of  thousands  of  people  thrown  upon 
the  cold  hand  of  charity.  Our  ships  would  lie  by  the  walls,  our 
seamen  would  be  thrown  out  of  bread,  our  shipwrights,  &c.  out 
of  employ,  and  it  would  affect  the  landed  interest.  It  would 
weaken  us  in  another  struggle,  which  I  fear  is  too  near. 

To  explain  my  plan,  I  must  state  a  number  of  facts  relative 
to  Great  Britain  and  relative  to  America.  I  hope  no  facts  which 
I  shall  state  will  be  disagreeable. 

In  the  last  war,  America  was  in  the  greatest  danger  of  destruc- 
tion. This  was  held  up  by  the  Massachusetts,  and  by  the  Con- 
gress in  1754.  They  said  we  are  disunited  among  ourselves. 
There  is  no  indifferent  arbiter  between  us. 

Requisitions  came  over.  A  number  of  the  Colonies  gave  most 
extensively  and  liberally ;  others  gave  nothing  or  late.  Pennsyl- 
vania gave  late,  not  for  want  of  zeal  or  loyalty,  but  owing  to 
their  disputes  with  proprietors,  their  disunited  state.  These 
delinquencies  were  handed  up  to  the  parent  State,  and  these 
gave  occasion  to  the  Stamp  Act.  America,  with  the  greatest 
reason  and  justice,  complained  of  the  Stamp  Act. 

Had  they  proposed  some  plan  of  policy,  some  negotiation 
been  set  afoot,  it  would  have  terminated  in  the  most  happy  har- 
mony between  the  two  countries.  They  repealed  the  Stamp 
Act,  but  they  passed  the  Declaratory  Act. 

Without  some  supreme  legislature,  some  common  arbiter,  you 
are  not,  say  they,  part  of  the  State. 

I  am  as  much  a  friend  of  liberty  as  exists ;  and  no  man  shall 
go  further  in  point  of  fortune,  or  in  point  of  blood,  than  the  man 
who  now  addresses  you. 

Burlamaqui,  Grotius,  Puffendorf,  Hooker.  There  must  be  a 
union  of  wills  and  strength ;  distinction  between  a  State  and  a 
multitude ;  a  State  is  animated  by  one  soul. 

As  we  are  not  within  the  circle  of  the  supreme  jurisdiction  of 
the  Parliament,  we  are  independent  States.  The  law  of  Great 
Britain  does  not  bind  us  in  any  case  whatever. 

We  want  the  aid  and  assistance  and  protection  of  the  arm  of 
our  mother  country.     Protection  and  allegiance  are  reciprocal 


/Et.  38.]  DIARY.  389 

duties.  Can  we  lay  claim  to  the  money  and  protection  of  Great 
Britain  upon  any  principles  of  honor  or  conscience  ?  Can  we 
wish  to  become  aliens  to  the  mother  state  ? 

We  must  come  upon  terms  with  Great  Britain. 

Some  gentlemen  are  not  for  negotiation.  I  wish  I  could  hear 
some  reason  against  it. 

The  minister  must  be  at  twenty  or  thirty  millions  [expense]  to 
enforce  his  measures. 

I  propose  this  proposition.  The  plan,  —  two  classes  of  laws. 
1.  Laws  of  internal  policy.  2.  Laws  in  which  more  than  one 
Colony  are  concerned,  —  raising  money  for  war.  No  one  act 
can  be  done  without  the  assent  of  Great  Britain.  No  one  with- 
out the  assent  of  America.     A  British  American  Legislature. 

Mr.  Duane.  As  I  mean  to  second  this  motion,  I  think  myself 
bound  to  Jay  before  the  Congress  my  reasons.  New  York  thought 
it  necessary  to  have  a  Congress  for  the  relief  of  Boston  and  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  to  do  more,  to  lay  a  plan  for  a  lasting  accommo- 
dation with  Great  Britain. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  motive  for  departing  from  the 
first  plan  of  the  Congress,  I  am  unhappy  that  we  have  departed 
from  it.  The  Post-office  Act  was  before  the  year  1763.  Can 
we  expect  lasting  tranquillity  ?  I  have  given  my  full  assent  to 
a  non-importation  and  non-exportation  agreement. 

The  right  of  regulating  trade,  from  the  local  circumstances  of 
the  Colonies,  and  their  disconnection  with  each  other,  cannot  be 
exercised  by  the  Colonies.  Massachusetts  disputed  the  Naviga- 
tion Act,  because  not  represented,  but  made  a  law  of  their  own, 
to  inforce  that  Act.     Virginia  did  the  same  nearly. 

I  think  justice  requires  that  we  should  expressly  cede  to  Parli- 
ament the  right  of  regulating  trade.  In  the  Congress  of  1754, 
which  consisted  of  the  greatest  and  best  men  in  the  Colonies, 
this  was  considered  as  indispensable. 

A  civil  war  with  America  would  involve  a  national  bankruptcy. 

Colonel  Lee.  How  did  we  go  on  for  one  hundred  and  sixty 
years  before  the  year  1763?  We  flourished  and  grew.  This 
plan  would  make  such  changes  in  the  Legislature  of  the  Colo- 
nies, that  I  could  not  agree  to  it  without  consulting  my  constitu- 
ents. 

Mr.  Jay.  I  am  led  to  adopt  this  plan.  It  is  objected  that  this 
plan  will  alter  our  constitutions,  and  therefore  cannot  be  adopted 

33* 


390  DIARY.  [1774. 

without  consulting  constituents.  Does  this  plan  give  up  any 
one  liberty,  or  interfere  with  any  one  right  ? 

Mr.  Henry.  The  original  constitution  of  the  Colonies  was 
founded  on  the  broadest  and  most  generous  base.  The  regula- 
tion of  our  trade  was  compensation  enough  for  all  the  protection 
we  ever  experienced  from  her. 

We  shall  liberate  our  constituents  from  a  corrupt  House  of 
Commons,  but  throw  them  into  the  arms  of  an  American  Leg- 
islature, that  may  be  bribed  by  that  nation  which  avows,  in  the 
face  of  the  world,  that  bribery  is  a  part  of  her  system  of  govern- 
ment. 

Before  we  are  obliged  to  pay  taxes  as  they  do,  let  us  be  as 
free  as  they ;  let  us  have  our  trade  open  with  all  the  world. 

We  are  not  to  consent  by  the  representatives  of  representatives. 

I  am  inclined  to  think  the  present  measures  lead  to  war. 

Mr.  Edioard  Rutledge.  I  came  with  an  idea  of  getting  a  bill 
of  rights  and  a  plan  of  permanent  relief.  I  think  the  plan  may 
be  freed  from  almost  every  objection.  I  think  it  almost  a  perfect 
plan. 

Mr.  Galloway.  In  every  government,  patriarchal,  monarchial, 
aristocratical,  or  democratical,  there  must  be  a  supreme  legisla- 
ture. 

I  know  of  no  American  constitution ;  a  Virginia  constitution, 
a  Pennsylvania  constitution  we  have ;  we  are  totally  independ- 
ent of  each  other. 

Every  gentleman  here  thinks  the  Parliament  ought  to  have  the 
power  over  trade,  because  Britain  protects  it  and  us.  Why  then 
will  we  not  declare  it? 

Because  Parliament  and  Ministry  is  wicked  and  corrupt,  and 
will  take  advantage  of  such  declaration  to  tax  us,  and  will  also 
reason  from  this  acknowledgment  to  further  power  over  us. 

Answer.  We  shall  not  be  bound  further  than  we  acknow- 
ledge it. 

Is  it  not  necessary  that  the  trade  of  the  empire  should  be  reg- 
ulated by  some  power  or  other  ?  Can  the  empire  hold  together 
without  it?  No.  Who  shall  regulate  it?  Shall  the  Legisla- 
ture of  Nova  Scotia  or  Georgia  regulate  it  ?  Massachusetts,  or 
Virginia  ?  Pennsylvania  or  New  York  ?  It  can't  be  pretended. 
Our  legislative  powers  extend  no  further  than  the  limits  of  our 
governments.      Where  then   shall  it  be   placed?      There  is  a 


IEt.  38.]  DIAHY.  391 

necessity  that  an   American   Legislature  should  be  set  up,  or 
else  that  we  should  give  the  power  to  Parliament  or  King. 

Protection.     Acquiescence.     Massachusetts.     Virginia. 

Advantages  derived  from  our  commerce. 


29.  Thursday.     Dined  at  home,  with  the  delegates  from  North 
Carolina  and  a  number  of  other  gentlemen.1 

30.  Friday.     Dined   at   Mr.  Jonathan   Smith's.     Dr.  Allison, 
Mr.  Sprout,  and  many  other  gentlemen.2 


1  "  Patience,  forbearance,  long  suffering,  are  the  lessons  taught  here  for  our 
Province,  and,  at  the  same  time,  absolute  and  open  resistance  to  the  new  gov- 
ernment. I  wish  I  could  convince  gentlemen  of  the  danger  or  impracticability  of 
this,  as  fully  as  I  believe  it  myself.  The  art  and  address  of  ambassadors  from  a 
dozen  belligerent  powers  of  Europe,  nay,  of  a  conclave  of  cardinals  at  the  elec- 
tion of  a  Pope,  or  of  the  princes  in  Germany  at  the  choice  of  an  Emperor,  would 
not  exceed  the  specimens  we  have  seen  ;  yet  the  Congress  all  profess  the  same 
political  principles.  They  all  profess  to  consider  our  Province  as  suffering  in 
the  common  cause,  and  indeed  they  seem  to  feel  for  us,  as  if  for  themselves. 
We  have  had  as  great  questions  to  discuss  as  ever  engaged  the  attention  of  men, 
and  an  infinite  multitude  of  them."     /.  A.  to  his  wife,  29  September. 

2  Among  the  papers  of  Mr.  Adams  is  the  draught  of  the  following  resolutions, 
on  which,  m  the  handwriting  of  another  person,  is  indorsed  "J.  Adams's  motion, 
September  30th."  No  such  motion  is  recorded  in  the  journal,  although  some  of 
the  language  is  found  incorporated  into  the  resolution,  adopted  on  the  seventh  of 
October,  instructing  a  committee  to  prepare  a  letter  to  General  Gage.  The 
probability  is,  that  the  Congress  was  not  at  the  moment  ready  to  pledge  all  the 
Colonies  quite  so  deeply  as  these  resolutions  would  have  done,  although  some  of 
the  measures  recommended  were  ultimately  adopted. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Province  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  and  the  town  of  Boston 
are  now  suffering  and  struggling  in  the  common  cause  of  American  freedom,  and, 
therefore,  that  it  is  the  indispensable  duty  of  all  the  Colonies  to  support  them  by 
every  necessary  means,  and  to  the  last  extremity." 

"  Whereas  hostilities  have  been  already  commenced  against  the  Province  of 
Massachusetts  Bay,  and  through  them  against  all  the  Colonies,  and  whereas  this 
Congress  have  already  advised  the  people  of  that  Province  by  no  means  to  sub- 
mit to  the  late  Act  of  Parliament  for  altering  their  government,  — 

"  Resolved,  That  in  case  hostilities  should  be  further  pursued  against  that  Pro- 
vince, and  submission  be  attempted  to  be  compelled  by  force  of  arms,  as  soon  as 
intelligence  of  this  shall  be  communicated  to  the  several  Colonies,  they  ought 
immediately  to  cease  all  exportations  of  goods,  wares,  and  merchandise,  to  Great 
Britain,  Ireland,  and  the  West  Indies." 

"  Resolved,  That  in  case  any  person  or  persons  should  be  arrested,  in  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay  or  any  other  Colony,  by  General  Gage  or  any  other  person,  in 
order  to  be  sent  to  Great  Britain  to  be  there  tried  for  any  crime  whatsoever, 
committed  in  America,  under  pretence  of  authority  of  the  statute  of  Henry  VJJLL 
or  that  of  the  present  reign,  this  ought  to  be  considered  as  a  declaration  "of  war 
and  a  commencement  of  hostilities  against  all  the  Colonies,  and  reprisals  ought 
to  be  made  in  all  the  Colonies  and  held  as  hostages  for  the  security  of  the  person 
or  persons  so  arrested ;  and  all  exportations  of  merchandise  to  Great  Britain, 
Ireland,  and  the  West  Indies,  ought  immediately  to  cease." 


392  DIARY.  [1774. 

October  1.  Saturday.  Dined  with  Mr.  Webster ;  spent  the 
evening  with  Stephen  Collins;  went  to  see  the  election  at  the 
State  House.     Mr.  Dickinson  was  chosen. 

2.  Sunday.  Went  to  Christ  Church  and  heard  Mr.  Coombe 
upon  "  Judge  not  according  to  the  appearance,  but  judge  right- 
eous judgment."  Went  to  Mr.  Sprout's,  in  the  afternoon,  and 
heard  Mr.  Tennent.  Spent  the  evening  at  home  with  Mr.  Mc- 
Dougall,  Mr.  Cary  of  Charlestown,  Mr.  Reed,  and  Colonel 
Floyd. 

3.  Monday.  Breakfasted  at  home  with  Colonel  Dagworthy, 
of  Maryland,  Captain  Dagworthy,  his  brother,  Major  De  Bois, 
Mr.  Webb,  Dr.  Clopton,  &c.  The  hurry  of  spirits  I  have  been 
in,  since  my  arrival  in  this  city,  has  prevented  my  making 
remarks  in  my  journal,  as  I  wished  to  have  done.  The  quick 
succession  of  objects,  the  variety  of  scenes  and  characters,  have 
rendered  it  impracticable.  Major  De  Bois  says  he  will  drink 
dispute  this  morning.  The  Congress  not  come  to  decision  yet. 
Dined  at  home.  This  day,  Charles  Thomson  and  Thomas  Mif- 
flin were  chosen  burgesses  for  this  city.  The  change  in  the 
elections  for  this  city  and  county  is  no  small  event.  Mr.  Dick- 
inson and  Mr.  Thomson,  now  joined  to  Mr.  Mifflin,  will  make 
a  great  weight  in  favor  of  the  American  cause. 

4.  Tuesday.  Dined  with  Mr.  Alexander  Wilcox,  with  all  the 
delegates  from  New  York,  and  several  other  gentlemen.  This 
evening,  General  Lee  came  to  my  lodgings  and  showed  me  an 
Address  from  the  C.  to  the  people  of  Canada,  which  he  had.1 

5.  Wednesday.  Dined  with  Dr.  Cadwallader,  in  company 
with  Governor  Hamilton,  General  Lee,  Mr.  Henry,  Mr.  Pendle- 
ton, Mr.  De  Hart,  and  many  others.  Spent  the  evening  at  home, 
with  Mr.  McDougall  and  Mr.  Sherman,  in  sad  and  solemn  con- 
sultation about  the  miseries  and  distresses  of  our  dear  town  of 
Boston. 

6.  Thursday.  Dined  with  Mr.  Hodge,  father-in-law  to  Mr. 
Bayard. 

1  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  this  is  more  than  a  fortnight  before  the  resolution, 
directing  such  a  memorial  to  be  prepared,  passed  in  Congress,  and,  further,  that 
it  is  in  the  hands  of  General  Lee.  The  committee  afterwards  appointed  con- 
sisted of  Mr.  Gushing,  R.  H.  Lee,  and  J.  Dickinson.  They  reported  on  the 
24th,  and  their  report  was  recommitted.  They  again  reported,  on  the  26th,  the 
paper  which  was  adopted. 


.Et.  38.]  DIARY.  393 


DEBATES. 

The  following  brief  and  fragmentary  report  of  a  discussion  upon  the  proposi- 
tion of  a  non-importation  agreement  has  no  date  attached  to  it.  The  probability 
is  that  it  took  place  on  or  before  the  6th  of  October,  when  the  committee 
appointed  to  consider  and  report  upon  the  subject  were  finally  instructed  to 
insert  the  following  clause  :  — 

"  That  from  and  after  the  first  day  of  December  next,  no  molasses,  coffee,  or 
pimento,  from  the  British  plantations  or  from  Dominica,  or  wines  from  Madeira 
and  the  Western  Islands,  or  foreign  indigo,  be  imported  into  these  Colonies." 

Mr.  Gadsden.  There  are  numbers  of  men  who  will  risk 
their  all.  I  shudder  at  the  thought  of  the  blood  which  will  be 
spilled,  and  would  be  glad  to  avoid  it. 

Mr.  Pendleton.  How  is  the  purchaser  to  know  whether  the 
molasses,  sugar,  or  coffee,  has  paid  the  duty  or  not  ?  It  can't  be 
known.  Shan't  we  by  this  hang  out  to  all  the  world  our  inten- 
tions to  smuggle  ? 

Don't  we  complain  of  these  acts  as  grievances,  and  shan't  we 
insist  on  the  repeal  ? 

But  this  will  give  an  advantage  to  the  West  Indians,  and  will 
make  it  their  interest  to  oppose  our  obtaining  any  redress. 

Colonel  Dyer.  This  subject,  as  every  part  of  our  deliberations, 
is  important.  The  question  is,  how  far  to  extend  the  non- 
importation of  dutiable  articles. 

Mr.  Chase.  I  am  against  the  question  before  you.  What 
are  the  ways  and  means  of  obtaining  redress  ?  In  the  manner 
it  is  penned  it  would  not  answer  the  end.  How  shall  the  buyer 
know  whether  the  duties  have  been  paid  or  not? 

Our  enemies  will  think  that  we  mean  to  strike  at  the  right  of 
Parliament  to  lay  duties  for  the  regulation  of  trade. 

I  am  one  of  those  who  hold  the  position  that  Parliament  has 
a  right  to  make  laws  for  us  in  some  cases  to  regulate  the  trade, 
and  in  all  cases  where  the  good  of  the  whole  empire  requires  it. 

My  fears  were  up  when  we  went  into  the  consideration  of  a 
bill  of  rights.     I  was  afraid  we  should  say  too  little  or  too  much. 

It  is  said,  this  is  not  a  non-importation  resolution.  But  it  is ; 
for  there  is  no  importation  of  goods  but  according  to  the  law  of 
the  land. 

Mr.  Lynch.     I  came  here  to  get  redress  of  grievances,  and  to 


394  DIARY.  •  [1774. 

adopt  every  means  for  that  end  which  could  be  adopted  with  a 
good  conscience. 

In  my  idea,  Parliament  has  no  power  to  regulate  trade.  But 
these  duties  are  all  for  revenue,  not  for  regulation  of  trade. 

Many  gentlemen  in  this  room  know  how  to  bring  in  goods, 
sugars  and  others,  without  paying  duties. 

Will  any  gentleman  say  he  will  never  purchase  any  goods 
until  he  is  sure  that  they  were  not  smuggled? 

Mr.  Mifflin.  We  shall  agree,  I  suppose,  to  a  non-exportation 
of  lumber  to  the  West  Indies.  They  cannot  send  their  sugars 
to  England  nor  to  America,  therefore  they  can't  be  benefited. 

Mr.  Low.  Gentlemen  have  been  transported,  by  their  zeal, 
into  reflections  upon  an  order  of  men,  who  deserve  it  the  least  of 
any  men  in  the  community. 

We  ought  not  to  deny  the  just  rights  of  our  mother  country. 
We  have  too  much  reason,  in  this  Congress,  to  suspect  that 
independency  is  aimed  at. 

I  am  for  a  resolution  against  any  tea,  Dutch  as  well  as  Eng- 
lish. 

We  ought  to  consider  the  consequences,  possible  as  well  as 
probable,  of  every  resolution  we  take,  and  provide  ourselves 
with  a  retreat  or  a  resource. 

What  would  be  the  consequence  of  an  adjournment  of  the 
Congress  for  six  months  ?  or  a  recommendation  of  a  new  elec- 
tion of  another,  to  meet  at  the  end  of  six  months  ?  Is  not  it 
possible  they  may  make  it  criminal,  as  treason,  misprision  of 
treason,  or  felony,  or  a  prcemwiire,  both  in  the  assemblies  who 
choose  and  in  the  members  who  shall  accept  the  trust  ?  Would 
the  assemblies  or  members  be  intimidated  ?  Would  they  regard 
such  an  act  ? 

Will,  can  the  people  bear  a  total  interruption  of  the  West 
India  trade  ?  Can  they  live  without  rum,  sugar,  and  molasses  ? 
Will  not  this  impatience  and  vexation  defeat  the  measure? 
This  would  cut  up  the  revenue  by  the  roots,  if  wine,  fruit, 
molasses,  and  sugar  were  discarded  as  well  as  tea. 

But  a  prohibition  of  all  exports  to  the  West  Indies  will  anni- 
hilate the  fishery,  because  that  cannot  afford  to  lose  the  West 
India  market,  and  tins  would  throw  a  multitude  of  families  in 
our  fishing  towns  into  the  arms  of  famine. 


Mt.  38.]  DIARY.  395 

October  7.  Friday.  Dined  with  Mr.  Thomas  Smith,  with  a 
large  company,  the  Virginians  and  others.1 

8.  Saturday.  Dined  with  Mr.  George  Clymer,  Mr.  Dickinson, 
and  a  large  company  again. 

9.  Sunday.  Went  to  hear  Dr.  Allison,  an  aged  gentleman. 
It  was  Sacrament  day,  and  he  gave  us  a  sacramental  discourse. 
This  Dr.  Allison  is  a  man  of  abilities  and  worth ;  but  I  hear 
no  preachers  here  like  ours  in  Boston,  excepting  Mr.  Duche. 
Coombe  indeed  is  a  good  speaker,  but  not  an  original,  but  a 
copy  of  Duche.  The  multiplicity  of  business  and  ceremonies 
and  company  that  we  are  perpetually  engaged  in,  prevents  my 
writing  to  my  friends  in  Massachusetts  as  I  ought,  and  prevents 
my  recording  many  material  things  in  my  journal.  Philadelphia, 
with  all  its  trade  and  wealth  and  regularity,  is"  not  Boston.  The 
morals  of  our  people  are  much  better ;  their  manners  are  more 
polite  and  agreeable ;  they  are  purer  English ;  our  language  is 
better,  our  taste  is  better,  our  persons  are  handsomer ;  our  spirit 
is  greater,  our  laws  are  wiser,  our  religion  is  superior,  our  educa- 
tion is  better.  We  exceed  them  in  every  thing  but  in  a  market, 
and  in  charitable,  public  foundations.  Went,  in  the  afternoon, 
to  the  Romish  chapel,  and  heard  a  good  discourse  upon  the  duty 
of  parents  to  their  children,  founded  in  justice  and  charity.  The 
scenery  and  the  music  are  so  calculated  to  take  in  mankind,  that 
I  wonder  the  Reformation  ever  succeeded.  The  paintings,  the 
bells,  the  candles,  the  gold  and  silver ;  our  Saviour  on  the  Cross, 
over  the  altar,  at  full  length,  and  all  his  wounds  bleeding.  The 
chanting  is  exquisitely  soft  and  sweet. 

10.  Monday.  The  deliberations  of  the  Congress  are  spun 
out  to  an  immeasurable  length.  There  is  so  much  wit,  sense, 
learning,  acuteness,  subtlety,  eloquence,  &c.  among  fifty  gentle- 
men, each  of  whom  has  been  habituated  to  lead  and  guide  in 
his  own  Province,  that  an  immensity  of  time  is  spent  unneces- 
sarily. Johnson  of  Maryland  has  a  clear  and  a  cool  head,  an 
extensive  knowledge  of  trade  as  well  as  law.     He  is  a  deliber- 

1  "  There  is  a  great  spirit  in  the  Congress.  But  our  people  must  be  peaceable. 
Let  them  exercise  every  day  in  the  week,  if  they  will ;  the  more  the  better.  Let 
them  furnish  themselves  with  artillery,  arms,  and  ammunition.  Let  them  follow 
the  maxim,  which  you  say  they  have  adopted,  '  In  times  of  peace  prepare  for 
war.'  But  let  them  avoid  war,  if  possible  —  if  possible,  I  say."  /.  A.  to  his 
wife,  7  October. 


396  DIARY.  [1774. 

uting  man,  but  not  a  shining  orator ;  his  passions  and  imagina- 
tion don't  appear  enough  for  an  orator ;  his  reason  and  penetra- 
tion appear,  but  not  his  rhetoric.  Galloway,  Duane,  and  Johnson 
are  sensible  and  learned,  but  cold  speakers.  Lee,  Henry,  and 
Hooper,  are  the  orators ;  Paca  is  a  deliberator  too ;  Chase 
speaks  warmly;  Mifflin  is  a  sprightly  and  spirited  speaker; 
John  Rutledge  don't  exceed  in  learning  or  oratory,  though  he  is 
a  rapid  speaker ;  young  Edward  Rutledge  is  young  and  zealous, 
a  little  unsteady  and  injudicious,  but  very  unnatural  and  affected 
as  a  speaker ;  *  Dyer  and  Sherman  speak  often  and  long,  but 
very  heavily  and  clumsily. 

11.  Tuesday.  Dined  with  Mr.  McKean  in  Market  Street, 
with  Mr.  Reed,  Rodney,  Chase,  Johnson,  Paca,  Dr.  Morgan,  Mr. 
R.  Penn,  &c.  Spent  the  evening  with  Mr.  Henry  at  his  lodgings, 
consulting  about  a  petition  to  the  King.2  Henry  said  he  had 
on  public  education ;  at  fifteen  he  read  Virgil  and  Livy,  and 
has  not  looked  into  a  Latin  book  since.  His  father  left  him  at 
that  age,  and  he  has  been  struggling  through  life  ever  since.  He 
has  high  notions,  talks  about  exalted  minds,  &c.  He  has  a 
horrid  opinion  of  Galloway,  Jay,  and  the  Rutledges.  Their 
system,  he  says,  would  ruin  the  cause  of  America.  He  is  very 
impatient,  to  see  such  fellows,  and  not  be  at  liberty  to  describe 
them  in  their  true  colors. 

12.  Wednesday.  Dined  with  Captain  Richards,  with  Dr. 
Coombe. 

1  This  opinion  is  in  marked  opposition  to  that  ascribed  by  Mr.  Wirt  to  Mr. 
Henry,  which  is  the  more  singular  as,  a  few  paragraphs  below,  the  same  gentle- 
man betrays  any  thing  but  enthusiasm  for,  or  admiration  of  the  Rutledges.  The 
truth  must  be  told  of  Mr.  Wirt's  volume.  It  is  little  to  be  relied  on,  excepting 
for  the  information  directly  obtained  from  witnesses  of  facts.  How  narrowly  he 
escaped  lauding  Mr.  Henry  as  a  deep  classical  scholar,  is  shown  in  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son's letter  lately  published  in  Kennedy's  Biography,  vol.  i.  p.  409.  His  own 
frank  and  playful  admissions  of  his  unfitness  to  write  mere  facts  redeem  a  world 
of  error.  "  What  the  deuce  has  a  lawyer  to  do  with  truth  ?  "  See  his  letter 
in  the  same  work,  vol.  i.  page  388. 

2  On  the  first  day  of  the  month,  R.  H.  Lee,  J.  Adams,  T.  Johnson,  Patrick 
Henry,  and  Mr.  J.  Rutledge,  were  appointed  a  committee  to  prepare  an  address 
to  his  Majesty. 

The  history  of  the  action  of  this  committee  is  little  known.  The  fact  seems 
well  established  that  the  first  report  was  drawn  up  by  Mr.  Lee,  that  it  did 
not  satisfy  the  Assembly,  who  recommitted  it  on  the  21st  October,  at  the  same 
time  adding  Mr.  Dickinson,  who  had  taken  his  seat  on  the  1 7th,  to  the  commit- 
tee. They  reported,  three  days  later,  the  paper  which  has  ever  since  been 
ascribed  to  Mr.  Dickinson.  It  is  included  in  the  collection  of  his  writings,  made 
during  his  lifetime,  and  published  at  Wilmington,  in  Delaware. 


Mt.  38.]  DIARY.  397 

13.  Thursday.  Dined  with  Mr.  Dickinson,  with  Chase,  Paca, 
Low,  Mifflin,  Mr.  Penn,  and  General  Lee,  at  six  o'clock.  From 
ten  o'clock  until  half  after  four,  we  were  debating  about  the  par- 
liamentary power  of  regulating  trade.  Five  Colonies  were  for 
allowing  it,  five  against  it,  and  two  divided  among  themselves, 
that  is,  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island.  Mr.  Duane  has  had 
his  heart  set  upon  asserting  in  our  bill  of  rights  the  authority  of 
Parliament  to  regulate  the  trade  of  the  Colonies.  He  is  for 
grounding  it  on  compact,  acquiescence,  necessity,  protection,  not 
merely  on  our  consent. 

14.  Friday.  Went  in  the  morning  to  see  Dr.  Chovet  and  his 
skeletons  and  wax-works — most  admirable,  exquisite  representa- 
tions of  the  whole  animal  economy.  Four  complete  skeletons ; 
a  leg  with  all  the  nerves,  veins,  and  arteries-  injected  with  wax  ; 
two  complete  bodies  in  wax,  full  grown  ;  waxen  representations 
of  all  the  muscles,  tendons,  &c.  of  the  head,  brain,  heart,  lungs, 
liver,  stomach,  &c.  This  exhibition  is  much  more  exquisite  than 
that  of  Dr.  Shippen  at  the  hospital.  The  Doctor  reads  lectures 
for  two  half  joes  a  course,  which  takes  up  four  months.  These 
wax-works  are  all  of  the  Doctor's  own  hands.1  Dined  with  Dr. 
Morgan,  an  ingenious  physician  and  an  honest  patriot.  He 
showed  us  some  curious  paintings  upon  silk  which  he  brought 
from  Italy,  which  are  singular  in  this  country,  and  some  bones 
of  an  animal  of  enormous  size  found  upon  the  banks  of  the 
river  Ohio.  Mr.  Middleton,  the  two  Rutledges,  Mr.  Mifflin,  and 
Mr.  William  Barrell  dined  with  us.  Mrs.  Morgan  is  a  sprightly, 
pretty  lady.  In  the  evening  we  were  invited  to  an  interview,  at 
Carpenters'  Hall,  with  the  Quakers  and  Anabaptists.  Mr.  Back- 
us is  come  here  from  Middleborough  with  a  design  to  apply  to 
the  Congress  for  a  redress  of  grievances  of  the  anti-pedobaptists 
in  our  Province.  The  cases  from  Chelmsford,  the  case  of  Mr. 
White  of  Haverhill,  the  case  of  Ashfield  and  Warwick  were 
mentioned  by  Mr.  Backus.  Old  Israel  Pemberton  was  quite 
rude,  and  his  rudeness  was  resented ;  but  the  conference,  which 
held  till  eleven  o'clock,  I  hope  will  produce  good. 

1  In  the  appendix  B  to  Mr.  Duane's  "  publication  of  Passages  from  the  Remem- 
brancer of  Christopher  Marshall,"  is  a  somewhat  curious  account  of  Dr.  Chovet 
and  his  lectures. 

VOL.    II.  34 


398  DIARY.  [1774. 

[There  is  an  anecdote  which  ought  not  to  be  omitted,  because 
it  had  consequences  of  some  moment  at  the  time,  which  have 
continued  to  operate  for  many  years,  and,  indeed,  are  not  yet 
worn  out,  though  the  cause  is  forgotten,  or  rather  was  never 
generally  known.  Governor  Hopkins  and  Governor  Ward,  of 
Rhode  Island,  came  to  our  lodgings  and  said  to  us,  that  Presi- 
dent Manning,  of  Rhode  Island  College,  and  Mr.  Backus,  of 
Massachusetts,  were  in  town,  and  had  conversed  with  some 
gentlemen  in  Philadelphia  who  wished  to  communicate  to  us 
a  little  business,  and  wished  we  would  meet  them  at  six  in  the 
evening  at  Carpenters'  Hall.  Whether  they  explained  their 
affairs  more  particularly  to  any  of  my  colleagues,  I  know  not ; 
but  I  had  no  idea  of  the  design.  We  all  went  at  the  hour,  and 
to  my  great  surprise  found  the  hall  almost  full  of  people,  and  a 
great  number  of  Quakers  seated  at  the  long  table  with  their 
broad-brimmed  beavers  on  their  heads.  We  were  invited  to 
seats  among  them,  and  informed  that  they  had  received  com 
plaints,  from  some  Anabaptists  and  some  Friends  in  Massachu- 
setts, against  certain  laws  of  that  Province,  restrictive  of  the 
liberty  of  conscience,  and  some  instances  were  mentioned,  in  the 
General  Court,  and  in  the  courts  of  justice,  in  which  Friends  and 
Baptists  had  been  grievously  oppressed.  I  know  not  how  my 
colleagues  felt,  but  I  own  I  was  greatly  surprised  and  somewhat 
indignant,  being,  like  my  friend  Chase,  of  a  temper  naturally 
quick  and  warm,  at  seeing  our  State  and  her  delegates  thus 
summoned  before  a  self-created  tribunal,  which  was  neither  legal 
nor  constitutional. 

Israel  Pemberton,  a  Quaker  of  large  property  and  more 
intrigue,  began  to  speak,  and  said  that  Congress  were  here 
endeavoring  to  form  a  union  of  the  Colonies :  but  there  were 
difficulties  in  the  way,  and  none  of  more  importance  than  liberty 
of  conscience.  The  laws  of  New  England,  and  particularly  of 
Massachusetts,  were  inconsistent  with  it,  for  they  not  only  com- 
pelled men  to  pay  to  the  building  of  churches  and  support  of 
ministers,  but  to  go  to  some  known  religious  assembly  on  first 
days,  &c. ;  and  that  he  and  his  friends  were  desirous  of  engaging 
us  to  assure  them  that  our  State  would  repeal  all  those  laws, 
and  place  things  as  they  were  in  Pennsylvania. 

A  suspicion  instantly  arose  in  my  mind,  which  I  have  ever 


Mt.  38.]  DIARY.  399 

believed  to  have  been  well  founded,  that  this  artful  Jesuit,  for  I 
had  been  before  apprized  of  his  character,  was  endeavoring  to 
avail  himself  of  this  opportunity  to  break  up  the   Congress,  or 
at  least  to  withdraw  the  Quakers  and  the  governing  part  of 
Pennsylvania  from  us ;  for,  at  that  time,  by  means  of  a  most 
unequal  representation,  the   Quakers  had  a  majority  in  their 
House  of  Assembly,  and,  by  consequence,  the  whole  power  of 
the  State  in  their  hands.     I  arose,  and  spoke  in  answer  to  him. 
The  substance  of  what  I  said,  was,  that  we  had  no  authority  to 
bind  our  constituents  to  any  such  proposals ;  that  the  laws  of 
Massachusetts  were  the  most  mild  and  equitable  establishment 
of  religion  that  was  known  in  the  world,  if  indeed  they  could 
be  called  an  establishment ;  that  it  would  be  in  vain  for  us  to 
enter  into   any   conferences   on   such  a  subject,  for  we   knew 
beforehand  our  constituents  would  disavow  all  we  could  do  or 
say  for  the  satisfaction  of  those  who  invited  us  to  this  meeting. 
That  the  people  of  Massachusetts  were  as  religious  and  consci- 
entious as  the  people  of  Pennsylvania;  that  their  consciences 
dictated  to  them  that  it  was  their  duty  to  support  those  laws, 
and  therefore  the  very  liberty  of  conscience,  which  Mr.  Pemberton 
invoked,  would  demand  indulgence  for  the  tender  consciences 
of  the  people  of  Massachusetts,  and  allow  them  to  preserve  their 
laws ;  that  it  might  be  depended  on,  this  was  a  point  that  could 
not  be  carried ;  that  I  would  not  deceive  them  by  insinuating 
the  faintest  hope,  for  I  knew  they  might  as  well  turn  the  heavenly 
bodies  out  of  their  annual  and  diurnal  courses,  as  the  people  of 
Massachusetts  at  the  present  day  from  their  meeting-house  and 
Sunday  laws.     Pemberton  made  no  reply  but  this :    "  Oh !  sir, 
pray  don't  urge  liberty  of  conscience  in  favor  of  such  laws!" 
If  I  had  known  the  particular  complaints  which  were  to  be 
alleged,  and  if  Pemberton  had  not  broken  irregularly  into  the 
midst  of  things,  it  might  have   been  better,  perhaps,  to  have 
postponed  this  declaration.     However,  the  gentlemen  proceeded, 
and  stated  the  particular  cases  of  oppression,  which  were  alleged, 
in  our  general  and  executive  courts.    It  happened  that  Mr.  Cush- 
ing  and  Mr.  Samuel  Adams  had  been  present  in  the  General 
Court  when  the  petitions  had  been  under  deliberation,  and  they 
explained  the  whole  so  clearly  that  every  reasonable  man  must 
have  been  satisfied.     Mr.  Paine  and  I  had  been  concerned  at 
the  bar  in  every  action  in  the  executive  courts  which  was  com- 


400  DIARY.  [1774 

plained  of,  and  we  explained  them  all  to  the  entire  satisfaction 
of  impartial  men,  and  showed  that  there  had  been  no  oppression 
or  injustice  in  any  of  them.  The  Quakers  were  not  generally 
and  heartily  in  our  cause ;  they  were  jealous  of  independence ; 
they  were  then  suspicious,  and  soon  afterwards  became  assured, 
that  the  Massachusetts  delegates,  and  especially  John  Adams, 
were  advocates  for  that  obnoxious  measure,  and  they  conceived 
prejudices  which  were  soon  increased  and  artfully  inflamed,  and 
are  not  yet  worn  out.] 


October  15.  Saturday.  Dined  at  Mr.  West's,  with  the  Rut- 
ledges  and  Mr.  Middleton ;  an  elegant  house,  rich  furniture,  and 
a  splendid  dinner. 

16.  Sunday.  Staid  at  home  all  day ;  very  busy  in  the  neces- 
sary business  of  putting  the  proceedings  of  the  Congress  into 
order.1 

20.  Thursday.  Dined  with  the  whole  Congress,  at  the  City 
Tavern,  at  the  invitation  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
Province  of  Pennsylvania.  The  whole  House  dined  with  us, 
making  near  one  hundred  guests  in  the  whole ;  a  most  elegant 
entertainment.  A  sentiment  was  given :  "  May  the  sword  of 
the  parent  never  be  stained  with  the  blood  of  her  children." 
Two  or  three  broad-brims  over  against  me  at  table  ;  one  of 
them  said,  this  is  not  a  toast,  but  a  prayer ;  come,  let  us  join  in 
it.     And  they  took  their  glasses  accordingly. 

21.  Friday.  Dined  at  the  Library  Tavern,  with  Messrs.  Mar- 
koe  and  a  dozen  gentlemen  from  the  West  Indies  and  North 
Carolina.  A  fine  bowling-green  here  ;  fine  turtle,  and  admirable 
wine. 

22.  Saturday.  Dined  in  the  country  with  Mr.  Dickinson,  with 
all  the  delegates  from  New  England,  Mr.  Duane,  Mr.  Reed,  Mr. 
Livingston,  &c. 

23.  Sunday.  Heard  Mr.  Percy,  at  Mr.  Sprout's.  He  is  chap- 
lain to  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  comes  recommended  to  Mr. 
Cary,  of  Charlestown,  from  her,  as  a  faithful  servant  of  the  Lord ; 
no  genius,  no  orator. 

1  No  direction  to  perform  this  duty  appears  on  the  Journal.  Undoubtedly  it 
refers  to  the  declaration  of  rights,  as  explained  in  the  close  of  the  extract  from 
the  Autobiography,  in  page  377. 


Mr.  38.]  DIARY.  401 

In  the  afternoon  I  went  to  the  Baptist  Church,  and  heard  a 
trans- Alleghanian,  a  preacher  from  the  back  parts  of  Virginia, 
behind  the  Alleghany  mountains.  He  preached  an  hour  and  a 
half;  —  no  learning,  no  grace  of  action  or  utterance,  but  an  hon- 
est zeal.  He  told  us  several  good  stories.  One  was,  that  he 
was  once  preaching  in  Virginia,  and  said  that  those  ministers 
who  taught  the  people  that  salvation  was  to  be  obtained  by 
good  works  or  obedience,  were  leading  them  to  ruin.  Next  day 
he  was  apprehended  by  a  warrant  from  a  magistrate  for  reviling 
the  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England.  He  asked  for  a  prayer- 
book,  and  had  it,  turned  to  the  eighteenth  or  twentieth  article, 
where  the  same  sentiment  is  strongly  expressed ;  he  read  it  to 
the  magistrate ;  the  magistrate,  as  soon  as  he  heard  it,  dashed 
the  warrant  out  of  his  hand,  and  said,  Sir,  you  are  discharged. 
In  the  evening,  I  went  to  the  Methodist  meeting,  and  heard  Mr. 
Webb,  the  old  soldier,  who  first  came  to  America  in  the  character 
of  quarter-master  under  General  Braddock.  He  is  one  of  the 
most  fluent,  eloquent  men  I  ever  heard ;  he  reaches  the  imagi- 
nation and  touches  the  passions  very  well,  and  expresses  him- 
self with  great  propriety.  The  singing  here  is  very  sweet  and 
soft  indeed ;  the  first  music  I  have  heard  in  any  society,  except 
the  Moravians,  and  once  at  church  with  the  organ.  Supped 
and  spent  the  remainder  of  the  evening  at  Mr.  Jo  Reed's,  with 
Colonel  Lee,  Dr.  Shippen,  Mr.  Cary,  Dr.  Loring,  &c. 

24.  Monday.  In  Congress,  nibbling  and  quibbling  as  usual. 
There  is  no  greater  mortification  than  to  sit  with  half  a  dozen 
wits,  deliberating  upon  a  petition,  address,  or  memorial.  These 
great  wits,  these  subtle  critics,  these  refined  geniuses,  these 
learned  lawyers,  these  wise  statesmen,  are  so  fond  of  showing 
their  parts  and  powers,  as  to  make  their  consultations  very 
tedious.  Young  Ned  Rutledge  is  a  perfect  Bob-o-Lincoln,  —  a 
swallow,  a  sparrow,  a  peacock  ;  excessively  vain,  excessively 
weak,  and  excessively  variable  and  unsteady ;  jejune,  inane,  and 
puerile.  Mr.  Dickinson  is  very  modest,  delicate,  and  timid. 
Spent  the  evening  at  home.  Colonel  Dyer,  Judge  Sherman, 
and  Colonel  Floyd  came  in,  and  spent  the  evening  with  Mr. 
Adams  and  me.  Mr.  Mifflin  and  General  Lee  came  in.  Lee's 
head  is  running  upon  his  new  plan  of  a  battalion. 

25.  Tuesday.    Dined  with  Mr.  Clymer ;  General  Lee,  &c.  there. 

26.  Wednesday.    Dined  at  home.    This  day  the  Congress  fin- 

34*  z 


402  DIARY.  [1774. 

ished.     Spent  the  evening  together  at  the  City  Tavern ;  all  the 
Congress,  and  several  gentlemen  of  the  town. 

27.  Thursday.  Went  this  morning,  with  Mr.  Tudor,  to  see 
the  Carpenters'  Hall  and  the  library,  and  to  Mr.  Barrell's,  and 
Bradford's,  and  then  to  the  State  House,  to  see  the  Supreme 
Court  sitting.  Heard  Mr.  Wilcox  and  Mr.  Reed  argue  a  point 
of  law,  concerning  the  construction  of  a  will.  Three  judges, — 
Chew,  Willing,  and  Morton. 

28.  Friday.  Took  our  departure,  in  a  very  great  rain,  from 
the  happy,  the  peaceful,  the  elegant,  the  hospitable,  and  polite 
city  of  Philadelphia.  It  is  not  very  likely  that  I  shall  ever  see 
this  part  of  the  world  again,  but  I  shall  ever  retain  a  most 
grateful,  pleasing  sense  of  the  many  civilities  I  have  received  in 
it,  and  shall  think  myself  happy  to  have  an  opportunity  of 
returning  them.  Dined  at  Anderson's,  and  reached  Priestly's, 
of  Bristol,  at  night,  twenty  miles  from  Philadelphia,  where  we 
are  as  happy  as  we  can  wish. 

29.  Saturday.  Rode  to  Princeton,  where  we  dine,  at  the  sign 
of  Hudibras.  Vacation  at  Nassau  Hall.  Dr.  Witherspoon  out 
of  town.  Paine  recollected  the  story  of  Mr.  Keith's  joke  upon 
him  at  Howland's,  of  Plymouth,  in  the  time  of  the  Stamp  Act. 
Paine  said  he  would  go  to  making  brass  buckles.  Keith  said 
he  might  do  that  to  great  advantage,  for  his  stock  would  cost 
him  nothing.     Lodged  at  Farmer's,  in  Brunswick. 

30.  Sunday.  My  birthday  ;  I  am  thirty-nine  years  of  age. 
Rode  to  Elizabethtown,  in  New  Jersey,  where  we  are  to  dine ; 
rode  down  to  Elizabethtown  Point,  and  put  our  carriage  and  all 
our  horses  into  two  ferry-boats ;  sailed,  or  rather  rowed,  six  miles 
to  a  point  on  Staten  Island,  where  we  stopped  and  went  into  a 
tavern ;  got  to  Hull's,  in  New  York,  about  ten  o'clock  at  night. 

31.  Monday.  Mr.  McDougall,  Mr.  Scott,  Captain  Sears,  Mr. 
Piatt,  Mr.  Hughes,  came  to  see  us ;  all  but  the  last  dined  with  us. 
Walked  to  see  the  new  hospital ;  a  grand  building.  Went  to 
the  Coffee  House.  Mr.  Cary  and  Dr.  Loring  dined  with  us. 
The  Sons  of  Liberty  are  in  the  horrors  here ;  they  think  they 
have  lost  ground  since  we  passed  through  this  city.  Their  dele- 
gates have  agreed  with  the  Congress,  which  I  suppose  they 
imagine  has  given  additional  importance  to  their  antagonists.1 

1  This  judgment  was  not  without  foundation.  The  provincial  legislature 
refused  to  sanction  the  proceedings  of  the  Congress,  declined  to  send  any  dele- 


^Et.  39.]  DIARY.  403 

November  1.  Tuesday.  Left  Brother  Paine  at  New  York,  to 
go  by  the  packet  to  Newport;  rode  to  Cock's,  at  Kingsbridge, 
to  breakfast,  to  Haviland's,  at  Rye,  to  dinner,  and  to  Knap's,  at 
Horse  Neck,  in  Greenwich,  to  lodge. 

2.  Wednesday.  Rode  to  Bulkeley's,  at  Fairfield,  to  dinner, 
and  to  Captain  Benjamin's,  of  Stratford,  to  lodge. 

3.  Thursday.  We  design  to  Great  Swamp  to-day,  forty-two 
miles.  At  New  Haven,  Colonel  Dyer,  Deane,  and  Sherman, 
Mr.  Parsons,  the  new  Speaker,  Williams,  Mr.  Trumbull,  and 
many  other  gentlemen  came  to  see  us,  at  Bears's,  as  soon  as  we 
got  in.  Colonel  Dyer  presented  the  compliments  of  the  Gov- 
ernor and  Council  to  the  Massachusetts  delegates,  and  asked 
our  company  to  spend  the  evening.  I  begged  Colonel  Dyer  to 
present  my  duty  to  the  Governor  and  Council,  and  my  gratitude 
for  the  high  honor  they  did  us,  but  that  we  had  been  so  long 
from  home,  and  our  affairs  were  so  critical,  we  hoped  they  would 
excuse  us  if  we  passed  through  the  town  as  fast  as  possible. 
Mr.  Sherman  invited  us  to  dine,  but  Mr.  Babcock  claimed  a 
promise,  so  we  dined  with  him.  Two  or  three  carriages  accom- 
panied us  a  few  miles  out  of  town  in  the  afternoon.  We  had 
the  most  pressing  invitations  from  many  gentlemen  to  return 
through  New  London,  Windham,  &c.  &c.  &c.  but  excused  our- 
selves. The  people  had  sent  a  courier  to  New  Haven,  on  pur- 
pose to  wait  for  our  arrival  and  return  to  inform  the  people  we 
were  coming.  Twenty  miles  from  Middletown,  we  met  two 
gentlemen  from  thence,  who  came  on  purpose  to  meet  us  and 
invite  us  to  dine  to-morrow  at  Middletown.  We  excused  our- 
selves with  great  earnestness. 

4.  Friday.  Dined  at  Hartford,  at  Bull's,  where  we  had  the 
pleasure  of  seeing  Mr.  Adams's  minister,  Mr.  Howe,1  who  is  sup- 
posed to  be  courting  here.  Lodged  at  Dr.  Chafy's,  in  Windsor ; 
very  cordially  entertained. 

5.  Saturday.  Breakfasted  at  Austin's,  of  Suffield.  Went  to 
see  a  company  of  men  exercising  upon  the  hill,  under  the  com- 

pates  to  the  next,  and  adopted  a  half  way  policy  of  its  own,  intended  to  satisfy 
the  popular  feeling  without  irritating  the  government  at  home.  This  led  to  a 
reaction  in  the.  city,  where,  after  a  trial  of  physical  strength  between  the  parties, 
the  old  committee  of  fifty-one  was  dissolved  and  a  new  one  created,  consisting 
of  sixty  members,  through  whom  the  patriots  finally  succeeded  in  effecting  ail 
independent  organization  in  the  Colony. 

1  This  gentleman  died  at  this  place  in  the  following  year. 


404  DIARY.  [1774. 

mand  of  a  green-coated  man,  lately  a  regular;  a  company  of 
very  likely,  stout  men.  Dined  at  Parsons's,  of  Springfield. 
Captain  Pynchon  and  another  Pynchon  and  Mr.  Bliss,  came 
in  to  see  us,  and  at  last  Colonel  Worthington.  Worthington 
behaved  decently  and  politely.1  Said  he  was  in  hopes  we 
should  have  staid  the  Sabbath  in  town,  and  he  should  have  had 
the  pleasure  of  waiting  on  us,  &c.  Captain  Pynchon  was  of 
the  late  Provincial  Congress,  and  gave  us  some  account  of  their 
proceedings'.  Arrived,  about  seven  o'clock,  at  Scott's,  of  Palmer, 
alias  Kingston,  where  we  are  to  lodge.  Scott  and  his  wife  are 
at  this  instaiit  great  patriots — zealous  Americans.  Scott's  faith 
is  very  strong  that  they  will  repeal  all  the  acts  this  very  winter. 
Dr.  Dana  told  us  all  America  and  Great  Britain  and  Europe 
owed  us  thanks,  and  that  the  ministry  would  lay  hold  of  our 
consent  that  they  should  regulate  trade,  and  our  petition,  and 
grant  us  relief  this  winter.  But  neither  the  Doctor's  nor  Scott's 
faith  is  my  faith. 

6.  Sunday.  Went  all  day  to  hear  Mr.  Baldwin,  a  Presbyte- 
rian minister  at  Kingston.  We  put  up  at  Scott's.  Mr.  Baldwin 
came  in  the  evening  to  see  us.  Horat,  book  3,  ode  2  :  "  Pueros 
ab  ineunte  setate  assuefaciendos  esse  rei  militari  et  vitae  labo- 
riosse."  2  We  walked  to  meeting  above  two  miles  at  noon  ;  we 
walked  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  and  staid  at  one  Quintain's,  an  old 
Irishman  ;  and  a  friendly,  cordial  reception  we  had ;  the  old  man 
was  so  rejoiced  to  see  us  he  could  hardly  speak ;  more  glad  to 
see  us,  he  said,  than  he  should  to  see  Gage  and  all  his  train.  I 
saw  a  gun ;  the  young  man  said,  that  gun  marched  eight  miles 
towards  Boston  on  the  late  alarm  ;  almost  the  whole  parish 
marched  off,  and  the  people  seemed  really  disappointed  when 
the  news  was  contradicted. 

7.  Monday.  Dined  at  Rice's,  of  Brookfleld.  Major  Foster 
came  to  see  us,  and  gave  us  an  account  of  the  proceedings  of 
the  Provincial  Congress.     Lodged  at  Hunt's,  in  Spencer. 

8.  Tuesday.  Breakfasted  at  Colonel  Henshaw's,  of  Leicester ; 
dined  at  Woodburn's,  of  Worcester.  Furnival  made  the  two 
young  ladies  come  in  and  sing  us  the  new  Liberty  Song. 

Lodged  at  Colonel  Buckminster's,  of  Framingham. 

9.  Wednesday.     Breakfasted  at  Reeve's,  of  Sudbury. 

1  Colonel  Worthington  was  a  moderate  adherent  of  the  government. 

2  This  is  a  caption  given  to  that,  Ode  of  Horace  in  some  editions. 


JEt.  39.]  DIARY.  405 

[Upon  our  return  to  Massachusetts,  I  found  myself  elected  by 
the  town  of  Braintree  into  the  Provincial  Congress,  and  attended 
that  service  as  long  as  it  sat.1  About  this  time,  Draper's  paper  in 
Boston  swarmed  with  writers,  and  among  an  immense  quantity 
of  meaner  productions  appeared  a  writer  under  the  signature  of 
Massachusettensis,  suspected,  but  never  that  I  knew  ascertained, 
to  be  written  by  two  of  my  old  friends,  Jonathan  Sewall  and 
Daniel  Leonard.2  These  papers  were  well  written,  abounded 
with  wit,  discovered  good  information,  and  were  conducted 
with  a  subtlety  of  art  and  address  wonderfully  calculated  to 
keep  up  the  spirits  of  their  party,  to  depress  ours,  to  spread 
intimidation,  and  to  make  proselytes  among  those  whose  prin- 
ciples and  judgment  give  way  to  their  fears;  and  these  compose 
at  least  one  third  of  mankind.  Week  after  week  passed  away, 
and  these  papers  made  a  very  visible  impression  on  many  minds. 
No  answer  appeared,  and  indeed  some  who  were  capable,- were 
too  busy,  and  others  too  timorous.  I  began  at  length  to  think 
seriously  of  the  consequences,  and  began  to  write  under  the  sig- 
nature of  Novanglus,  and  continued  every  week  in  the  Boston 
Gazette,  till  the  19th  of  April,  1775.3  The  last  number  was 
prevented  from  impression  by  the  commencement  of  hostilities', 
and  Mr.  Gill  gave  it  to  Judge  William  Gushing,  who  now  has 
it  in  manuscript.  An  abridgment  of  the  printed  numbers  was 
made  by  some  one  in  England,  unknown  to  me,  and  published 
in  Almon's  Remembrancer,  for  the  year  1775,  and  afterwards 
reprinted  in  a  pamphlet,  in  1783,  under  the  title  of  "  History  of 
the  Dispute  with  America."  In  New  England,  they  had  the 
effect  of  an  antidote  to  the  poison  of  Massachusettensis  ;  and 
the  battle  of  Lexington,  on  the  19th  of  April,  changed  the  instru- 
ments of  warfare  from  the  pen  to  the  sword. 

A  few  days  after  this  event,  I  rode  to  Cambridge,  where  I 

1  Wednesday,  23  November,  1774.  "Resolved,  That  John  Adams,  Esq.  be 
desired  to  favor  this  Congress  with  his  presence  as  soon  as  may  be."  Extract 
from  the  Journals  of  the  Provincial  ( 'ongress. 

28  November.  "  Voted,  John  Adams,  Esq.  be  joined  to  the  members  of  the 
Provincial  Congress,  as  a  member  for  this  town."  Extract  from  the  Braintree 
Town  Records. 

2  Massachusettensis  is  now  understood  to  have  been  the  work  of  Judge  Leon- 
ard, although  Mr.  Adams,  until  a  very  late  period  of  his  life,  supposed  it  to 
have  come  from  the  other  gentleman  named. 

3  The  papers  will  be  found  in  another  portion  of  these  volumes. 


406  DIARY.  [1775. 

saw  General  Ward,  General  Heath,  General  Joseph  Warren, 
and  the  New  England  army.  There  was  great  confusion  and 
much  distress.  Artillery,  arms,  clothing  were  wanting,  and  a 
sufficient  supply  of  provisions  not  easily  obtained.  Neither  the 
officers  nor  men,  however,  wanted  spirits  or  resolution.  I  rode 
from  thence  to  Lexington,  and  along  the  scene  of  action  for 
many  miles,  and  inquired  of  the  inhabitants  the  circumstances. 
These  were  not  calculated  to  diminish  my  ardor  in  the  cause ; 
they,  on  the  contrary,  convinced  me  that  the  die  was  cast,  the 
Rubicon  passed,  and,  as  Lord  Mansfield  expressed  it  in  Par- 
liament, if  we  did  not  defend  ourselves,  they  would  kill  us. 
On  my  return  home,  I  was  seized  with  a  fever,  attended  with 
alarming  symptoms ;  but  the  time  was  come  to  repair  to  Phil- 
adelphia to  Congress,  which  was  to  meet  on  the  fifth  of  May. 
I  was  determined  to  go  as  far  as  I  could,  and  instead  of  ven- 
turing on  horseback,  as  I  had  intended,  I  got  into  a  sulky, 
attended  by  a  servant  on  horseback,  and  proceeded  on  the  jour- 
ney. This  year,  Mr.  Hancock  was  added  to  our  number.  I 
overtook  my  colleagues  before  they  reached  New  York.1  At 
Kingsbridge  we  were  met  by  a  great  number  of  gentlemen  in 
carriages  and  on  horseback,  and  all  the  way  their  numbers 
increased,  till  I  thought  the  whole  city  was  come  out  to  meet  us. 
The  same  ardor  was  continued  all  the  way  to  Philadelphia.3 

Congress  assembled  and  proceeded  to  business,  and  the  mem- 
bers appeared  to  me  to  be  of  one  mind,  and  that  mind  after  my 
own  heart.  I  dreaded  the  danger  of  disunion  and  divisions 
among  us,  and  much  more  among  the  people.  It  appeared  to 
me  that  all  petitions,  remonstrances,  and  negotiations,  for  the 
future,  would  be  fruitless,  and  only  occasion  a  loss  of  time,  and 
give  opportunity  to  the  enemy  to  sow  divisions  among  the 
States  and  the  people.  My  heart  bled  for  the  poor  people  of 
Boston,  imprisoned  within  the  walls  of  their  city  by  a  British 
army,  and  we  knew  not  to  what  plunders  or  massacres  or  cruel- 
ties they  might  be  exposed.  I  thought  the  first  step  ought  to 
be  to  recommend  to  the  people  of  every  State  in  the  Union, 

1  The  following  entry  is  found  by  itself  in  a  small  hook  of  accounts :  — ■ 
1775.     April  30.    Sunday.     Heard  Mr.   Strong  all  day.     At  night  a  man 

came  in  and  inlormed  us  of  the  death  of  Josiah  Quincy.     Proli  Dolor ! 

2  May  10.  "  This  day  arrived  the  Hon.  John  Hancock,  and  Thomas  dishing, 
Esquire,  Samuel  Adams,  John  Adams,  and  Robert  Treat  Paine,  Esquires,  dele- 
gates from  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay."     Pennsylvania  Gazette. 


,Et.  39.]  DIARY.  407 

to  seize  on  all  the  Crown  officers,  and  hold  them  with  civility, 
humanity,  and  generosity,  as  hostages  for  the  security  of  the 
people  of  Boston,  and  to  be  exchanged  for  them  as  soon  as 
the  British  army  would  release  them  ;  that  we  ought  to  recom- 
mend to  the  people  of  all  the  States  to  institute  governments 
for  themselves,  under  their  own  authority,  and  that  without  loss 
of  time;  that  we  ought  to  declare  the  Colonies  free,  sovereign, 
and  independent  States,  and  then  to  inform  Great  Britain  we 
were  willing  to  enter  into  negotiations  with  them  for  the  redress 
of  all  grievances,  and  a  restoration  of  harmony  between  the  two 
countries,  upon  permanent  principles.  AJ1  this  I  thought  might 
be  done  before  we  entered  into  any  connections,  alliances,  or 
negotiations  with  foreign  powers.  I  was  also  for  informing 
Great  Britain,  very  frankly,  that  hitherto  we  were  free ;  but,  if 
the  war  should  be  continued,  we  were  determined  to  seek  alli- 
ances with  France,  Spain,  and  any  other  power  of  Europe  that 
would  contract  with  us.  That  we  ought  immediately  to  adopt 
the  army  in  Cambridge  as  a  continental  army,  to  appoint  a 
General  and  all  other  officers,  take  upon  ourselves  the  pay,  sub- 
sistence, clothing,  armor,  and  munitions  of  the  troops.  This  is 
a  concise  sketch  of  the  plan  which  I  thought  the  only  reasonable 
one ;  and,  from  conversation  with  the  members  of  Congress,  I 
was  then  convinced,  and  have  been  ever  since  convinced,  that  it 
was  the  general  sense  at  least  of  a  considerable  majority  of  that 
body.  This  system  of  measures  I  publicly  and  privately  avowed 
without  reserve. 

The  gentlemen  in  Pennsylvania,  who  had  been  attached  to 
the  proprietary  interest,  and  owed  their  wealth  and  honors  to  it, 
and  the  great  body  of  the  Quakers,  had  hitherto  acquiesced  in 
the  measures  of  the  Colonies,  or  at  least  had  made  no  professed 
opposition  to  them  ;  many  of  both  descriptions  had  declared 
themselves  with  us,  and  had  been  as  explicit  and  as  ardent  as 
we  were.  But  now  these  people  began  to  see  that  independence 
was  approaching,  they  started  back.  In  some  of  my  public 
harangues,  in  which  I  had  freely  and  explicitly  laid  open  my 
thoughts,  on  looking  round  the  assembly  I  have  seen  horror, 
terror,  and  detestation,  strongly  marked  on  the  countenances  of 
some  of  the  members,  whose  names  I  could  readily  recollect ; 
but  as  some  of  them  have  been  good  citizens  since,  and  others 
went  over  afterwards  to  the  English,  I  think  it  unnecessary  to 


408  DIARY.  [17  75. 

record  them  here.  There  is  one  gentleman,  however,  whom  I 
must  mention  in  self-defence;  I  mean  John  Dickinson,  then  of 
Philadelphia,  now  of  Delaware.  This  gentleman  had  been 
appointed  a  member  of  Congress,  by  the  Legislature  of  Penn- 
sylvania, about  a  week  before  the  close  of  the  Congress  of  1774, 
and  now,  in  1775,  made  his  appearance  again  at  the  opening  of 
the  Congress  of  1775. 

In  some  of  the  earlier  deliberations  in  May,  after  I  had 
reasoned  at  some  length  on  my  own  plan,  Mr.  John  Rutledge, 
in  more  than  one  public  speech,  approved  of  my  sentiments,  and 
the  other  delegates  from  that  State,  Mr.  Lynch,  Mr.  Gadsden, 
and  Mr.  Edward  Rutledge,  appeared  to  me  to  be  of  the  same 
mind.  Mr.  Dickinson  himself  told  me,  afterwards,  that  when 
we  first  came  together  the  balance  lay  with  South  Carolina. 
Accordingly,  all  their  efforts  were  employed  to  convert  the  dele- 
gates from  that  State.  Mr.  Charles  Thomson,  who  was  then 
rather  inclined  to  our  side  of  the  question,  told  me  that  the  Quak- 
ers had  intimidated  Mr.  Dickinson's  mother  and  his  wife,  who 
were  continually  distressing  him  with  their  remonstrances.  His 
mother  said  to  him,  "  Johnny,  you  will  be  hanged ;  your  estate 
will  be  forfeited  and  confiscated ;  you  will  leave  your  excellent 
wife  a  widow,  and  your  charming  children  orphans,  beggars,  and 
infamous."  From  my  soul  I  pitied  Mr.  Dickinson.  I  made  his 
case  my  own.  If  my  mother  and  my  wife  had  expressed  such 
sentiments  to  me,  I  was  certain  that  if  they  did  not  wholly 
unman  me  and  make  me  an  apostate,  they  would  make  me  the 
most  miserable  man  alive.  I  was  very  happy  that  my  mother 
and  my  wife  and  my  brothers,  my  wife's  father  and  mother,  and 
grandfather  Colonel  John  Quincy  and  his  lady,  Mr.  Norton 
Quincy,  Dr.  Tufts,  Mr.  Cranch,  and  all  her  near  relations,  as 
well  as  mine,  had  uniformly  been  of  my  mind,  so  that  I  always 
enjoyed  perfect  peace  at  home. 

The  proprietary  gentlemen,  Israel  Pemberton  and  other  prin- 
cipal Quakers  now  united  with  Mr.  Dickinson,  addressed  them- 
selves with  great  art  and  assiduity  to  all  the  members  of  Con- 
gress whom  they  could  influence,  even  to  some  of  the  delegates 
of  Massachusetts ;  but  most  of  all  to  the  delegates  from  South 
Carolina.  Mr.  Lynch  had  been  an  old  acquaintance  of  the  Penn 
family,  particularly  of  the  Governor.  Mr.  Edward  Rutledge  had 
brought  his  lady  with  him,  a  daughter  of  our  former  President 


Ms.  39.]  DIARY.  409 

Middleton.  Mr.  Arthur  Mjddlcton,  her  brother,  was  now  a  del- 
egate in  place  of  his  father.  The  lady  and  the  gentlemen  were 
invited  to  all  parties,  and  were  visited  perpetually  by  the  party, 
and  we  soon  began  to  find  that  Mr.  Lynch,  Mr.  Arthur  Middle- 
ton,  and  even  the  two  Rutledges,  began  to  waver  and  ta  clamor 
about  independence.  Mr.  Gadsden  was  either,  from  despair  of. 
success,  never  attempted,  or,  if  he  was,  he  received  no  impression 
from  them.  I  became  the  dread  and  terror  and  abhorrence  of 
the  party.  But  all  this  I  held  in  great  contempt.  Arthur  Middle- 
ton  became  the  hero  of  Quaker  and  proprietary  politics  in  Con- 
gress. He  had  little  information,  and  less  argument ;  in  rudeness 
and  sarcasm  his  forte  lay,  and  he  played  off  his  artillery  without 
reserve.  I  made  it  a  rule  to  return  him  a  Roland  for  every 
Oliver,  so  that  he  never  got,  and  I  never  lost,  any  thing  from 
these  rencounters.  We  soon  parted,  never  to  see  each  other 
more, —  I  believe,  without  a  spark  of  malice  on  either  side;  for 
he  was  an  honest  and  generous  fellow,  with  all  his  zeal  in  this 
cause. 

The  party  made  me  as  unpopular  as  they  could,  among  all 
their  connections,  but  I  regarded  none  of  those  things.  I  knew 
and  lamented  that  many  of  these  gentlemen,  of  great  property, 
high  in  office,  and  of  good  accomplishments,  were  laying  the 
foundation,  not  of  any  injury  to  me,  but  of  their  own  ruin  ;  and  it 
was  not  in  my  power  to  prevent  it.  When  the  party  had  prepared 
the  members  of  Congress  for  their  purpose,  and  indeed  had  made 
no  small  impression  on  three  of  my  own  colleagues,  Mr.  Dick- 
inson made  or  procured  to  be  made  a  motion  for  a  second  peti- 
tion to  the  King,  to  be  sent  by  Mr.  Richard  Penn,  who  was  then 
bound  on  a  voyage  to  England.  The  motion  was  introduced 
and  supported  by  long  speeches.  I  was  opposed  to  it,  of  course, 
and  made  an  opposition  to  it  in  as  long  a  speech  as  I  commonly 
made,  not  having  ever  been  remarkable  for  very  long  harangues, 
in  answer  to  all  the  arguments  which  had  been  urged.  When  I 
sat  down,  Mr.  John  Sullivan  arose,  and  began  to  argue  on  the 
same  side  with  me,  in  a  strain  of  wit,  reasoning,  and  fluency, 
which,  although  he  was  always  fluent,  exceeded  every  thing  I 
had  ever  heard  from  him  before.  I  was  much  delighted,  and 
Mr.  Dickinson,  very  much  terrified  at  what  he  said,  began  to 
tremble  for  his  cause.  At  this  moment  I  was  called  out  to  the 
State  House  yard,  very  much  to  my  regret,  to  some  one  who 

VOL.    II.  35 


410  DIARY.  [1775. 

had  business  with  me.  I  took  my  hat,  and  went  out  of  the  door 
of  Congress  Hall.  Mr.  Dickinson  observed  me,  and  darted  out 
after  me.  He  broke  out  upon  me  in  a  most  abrupt  and  extraor- 
dinary manner;  in  as  violent  a  passion  as  he  was  capable  of 
feeling,  and  with  an  air,  countenance,  and  gestures,  as  rough 
and  haughty  as  if  I  had  been  a  school-boy  and  he  the  master. 
He  vociferated,  "  What  is  the  reason,  Mr.  Adams,  that  you  New- 
Englandmcn  oppose  our  measures  of  reconciliation  ?  There  now 
is  Sullivan,  in  a  long  harangue,  following  you  in  a  determined 
opposition  to  our  petition  to  the  King.  Look  ye !  If  you  don't 
concur  with  us  in  our  pacific  system,  I  and  a  number  of  us  will 
break  off  from  you  in  New  England,  and  we  will  carry  on  the 
opposition  by  ourselves  in  our  own  way." l  I  own  I  was  shocked 
with  this  magisterial  salutation.  I  knew  of  no  pretensions  Mr. 
Dickinson  had  to  dictate  to  me,  more  than  I  had  to  catechize 
him.  I  was,  however,  as  it  happened,  at  that  moment,  in  a  very 
happy  temper,  and  I  answered  him  very  coolly.  "  Mr.  Dickin- 
son, there  are  many  things  that  I  can  very  cheerfully  sacrifice  to 
harmony,  and  even  to  unanimity ;  bnt  I  am  not  to  be  threatened 
into  an  express  adoption  or  approbation  of  measures  which  my 
judgment  reprobates.  Congress  must  judge,  and  if  they  pro- 
nounce against  me,  I  must  submit,  as,  if  they  determine  against 
you,  you  ought  to  acquiesce."  These  were  the  last  words  which 
ever  passed  between  Mr.  Dickinson  and  me  in  private.  We 
continued  to  debate,  in  Congress,  upon  all  questions  publicly, 
with  all  our  usual  candor  and  good  humor.  But  the  friendship 
and  acquaintance  was  lost  forever  by  an  unfortunate  accident, 
which  must  now  be  explained. 

The  more  I  reflected  on  Mr.  Dickinson's  rude  lecture  in  the 
State  House  yard,  the  more  I  was  vexed  with  it ;  and  the  deter- 
mination of  Congress  in  favor  of  the  petition  did  not  allay  the 
irritation.  A  young  gentleman  from  Boston,  Mr.  Hichborn, 
whom  I  had  known  as  a  clerk  in  Mr.  Fitch's  office,  but  with 
whom  I  had  no  particular  connection  or  acquaintance,  had  been 
for  some  days  soliciting  me  to  give  him  letters  to  my  friends  in 
the  Massachusetts.     I  was  so  much  engaged  in  the  business  of 

1  Mr.  Dickinson's  fear  of  the  New-Englandmen  was  of  early  date,  and  his 
apprehensions  were  shared  by  almost  all  persons  in  the  Middle,  and  by  many 
in  the  Southern,  States.  Compare  two  letters  in  Quincy's  Life  of  Quincy,  pp. 
164-170. 


jet.  39.]  DIARY:  411 

Congress,  in  the  daytime,  and  in  consultations  with  the  mem- 
bers, on  evenings  and  mornings,  that  I  could  not  find  time  to 
write  a  line.  He  came  to  me  at  last,  and  said  he  was  immedi- 
ately to  set  off  on  his  journey  home,  and  begged  I  would  give 
him  some  letters.  I  told  him  I  had  not  been  able  to  write  any. 
He  prayed  I  would  write,  if  it  were  only  a  line,  to  my  family, 
for,  he  said,  as  he  had  served  his  clerkship  with  Mr.  Fitch,  he 
was  suspected  and  represented  as  a  Tory,  and  this  reputation 
would  be  his  ruin,  if  it  could  not  be  corrected,  for  nobody  would 
employ  him  at  the  bar.  If  I  would  only  give  him  the  slightest 
letters  to  any  of  my  friends,  it  would  give  him  the  appearance  of 
having  my  confidence,  and  would  assist  him  in  acquiring  what 
he  truly  deserved,  the  character  of  a  Whig.  To  get  rid  of  his 
importunity,  I  took  my  pen  and  wrote  a  very  few  lines  to  my 
wife,  and  about  an  equal  number  to  General  James  Warren. 
Irritated  with  the  impoliteness  of  Mr.  Dickinson,  and  more  mor- 
tified with  his  success  in  Congress,  I  wrote  something  like  what 
has  been  published,  but  not  exactly.  The  British  printers  made 
it  worse  than  it  was  in  the  original.1     Mr.  Hichborn  was  inter- 

1  These  letters  produced  a  great  effect  at  the  moment  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic.  They  were  thought  by  the  timid  and  hesitating  in  America  to  justify 
the  suspicions  that  had  been  entertained  of  the  designs  of  the  New-Englandmen 
to  make  the  breach  irreparable,  whilst  the  government  at  home  considered  them 
grossly  inconsistent  with  the  professions  of  the  second  petition  to  the  King, 
received  from  Congress  at  about  the  same  moment.  The  originals  are  now  in 
the  State  paper  office  in  London.  The  following  copies  were  found  among  Mr. 
Adams's  papers,  but  they  are  not  in  his  handwriting.  There  is  also  a  long  letter 
of  apology  from  Mr.  Hichborn,  for  suffering  them  to  be  taken  in  his  hands,  which 
saves  his  honesty  only  at  the  expense  of  his  character  for  presence  of  mind. 

TO   JAMES    WARREN. 

Philadelphia,  24  July,  1775.  , 

Dear  Sir  :  —  I  am  determined  to  write  freely  to  you  this  time.  A  certain 
great  fortune  and  piddling  genius,  whose  fame  has  been  trumpeted  so  loudly, 
"Ms  given  a  silly  cast  to  our  whole  doings.  We  are  between  hawk  and  buzzard. 
We  ought  to  have  had  in  our  hands,  a  month  ago,  the  whole  legislative,  execu- 
tive, and  judicial  of  the  whole  continent,  and  have  completely  modelled  a  con- 
stitution ;  to  have  raised  a  naval  power,  and  opened  all  our  ports  wide  ;  to  have 
arrested  every  friend  of  government  on  the  continent  and  held  them  as  hostages 
for  the  poor  victims  in  Boston,  and  then  opened  the  door  as  wide  as  possible  for 
peace  and  reconciliation.  After  this,  they  might  have  petitioned,  negotiated, 
addressed,  &c.  if  they  would.  Is  all  this  extravagant?  Is  it  wild?  Is  it  not 
the  soundest  policy  ?  One  piece  of  news,  seven  thousand  pounds  of  powder 
arrived  last  night.  We  shall  send  yon  some  of  it  as  soon  as  we  can,  but  you 
must  be  patient  and  frugal.  We  are  lost  in  the  extcnsiveness  of  our  field  of 
business.  We  have  a  continental  treasury  to  establish,  a  paymaster  to  choose, 
and  a  committee  of  correspondence,  or  safety,  or  accounts,  or  something,  I  know 
not  what,  that  has  confounded  us  all  this  day. 


412  DIARY.  [17  75. 

cepted  in  crossing  Hudson's  River,  by  the  boats  from  a  British 
maii-of-war,  and  my  letters,  instead  of  being  destroyed,  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy*  and  were  immediately  printed  with  a 
little  garbling.  They  thought  them  a  great  prize.  The  ideas 
of  independence,  to  be  sure,  were  glaring  enough,  and  they 
thought  they  should  produce  craarrels  among  the  members  of 
Congress  and  a  division  of  the  Colonies.  Me  they  expected 
utterly  to  ruin,  because,  as  they  represented,  I  had  explicitly 
avowed  my  designs  of  independence.  I  cared  nothing  for  this. 
I  had  made  no  secret,  in  or  out  of  Congress,  of  my  opinion  that 
independence  was  become  indispensable,  and  I  was  perfectly 
sure  that  in  a  little  time  the  whole  continent  would  be  of  my 
mind.  I  rather  rejoiced  in  this  as  a  fortunate  circumstance,  that 
the  idea  was  held  up  to  the  whole  world,  and  that  the  people 
could  not  avoid  contemplating  it  and  reasoning  about  it. 
Accordingly,  from  this  time  at  least,  if  not  earlier,  and  not  from 
the  publication  of  "  Common  Sense,"  did  the  people  in  all  parts 
of  the  continent  turn  their  attention  to  this  subject.  It  was,  I 
know,  considered  in  the  same  light  by  others.     I  met  Colonel 

Shall  I  hail  you  Speaker  of  the  House,  or  counsellor,  or  what  ?  What  kind 
of  an  election  had  you  ?  What  sort  of  magistrates  do  3011  intend  to  make  ? 
Will  your  new  legislative  or  executive  feel  bold  or  irresolute  ?  Will  your  judi- 
cial hang  and  whip  and  fine  and  imprison  without  scruple  V  I  want  to  see  our 
distressed  country  once  more,  yet  I  dread  the  sight  of  devastation.  You  observe 
in  your  letter  the  oddity  of  a  great  man.  He  is  a  queer  creature,  but  you  must 
love  his  dogs  if  you  love  him,  and  forgive  a  thousand  whims  for  the  sake  of  the 
soldier  and  the  scholar. 

TO    MRS.   ADAMS. 

My  Dear:  —  It  is  now  almost  three  months  since  I  left  you,  in  every  part 
of  which,  my  anxiety  about  you  and  the  children,  as  well  as  our  country,  has 
been  extreme.  The  business  I  have  had  upon  my  mind  has  been  as  great  and 
important  as  can  be  entrusted  to  man,  and  the  difficulty  and  intricacy  of  it  pro- 
digious. AVhen  fifty  or  sixty  men  have  a  constitution  to  form  for  a  great  empire, 
at  the  same  time  that  they  have  a  country  of  fifteen  hundred  miles  extent  to 
fortify,  millions  to  arm  and  train,  a  naval  power  to  begin,  an  extensive  commerce 
to  regulate,  numerous  tribes  of  Indians  to  negotiate  with,  a  standing  army  of 
twenty-seven  thousand  men  to  raise,  pay,  victual,  and  officer,  I  really  shall  pity 
those  fifty  or  sixty  men.  I  must  see  you  ere  long.  Rice  has  written  me  a  very 
good  letter,  so  has  Thaxter,  for  which  I  thank  them  both.     Love  to  the  children. 

.T.   A. 

P.  S.  I  wish  I  had  given  you  a  complete  history,  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  of  the  journey,  of  the  behavior  of  my  compatriots.  No  mortal  tale  can 
equal  it.  I  will  tell  you  in  future,  but  you  shall  keep  it  secret.  The  fidgets, 
the  whims,  the  eaprice,  the  vanity,  the  superstition,  the  irritability  of  some  of  us 

is  enough  to . 

Yours. 


JEt.  39.]  DIARY.  413 

Reed,  soon  afterwards,  who  was  then  General  Washington's 
secretary,  who  mentioned  those  letters  to  me,  and  said  that  Pro- 
vidence seemed  to  have  thrown  those  letters  before  the  public 
for  our  good ;  for  independence  was  certainly  inevitable,  and  it 
was  happy  that  the  whole  country  had  been  compelled  to  turn 
their  thoughts  upon  it,  that  it  might  not  come  upon  them  pres- 
ently by  surprise.1 

There  were  a  few  expressions  which  hurt  me,  when  I  found 
the  enemy  either  misunderstood  them  or  wilfully  misrepresented 
them.  The  expressions  were,  «  Will  your  judiciary  whip  and 
hang  without  scruple  ?  "  This  they  construed  to  mean  to  excite 
cruelty  against  the  Tories,  and  get  some  of  them  punished  with 
severity.  Nothing  was  further  from  my  thoughts.  I  had  no 
reference  to  Tories  in  this.  But  as  the  exercise  of  judicial 
power,  without  authority  from  the  Crown,  would  be  probably 
the  most  offensive  act  of  government  to  Great  Britain,  and  the 
least  willingly  pardoned,  my  question  meant  no  more  than,  — 
"  Will  your  judges  have  fortitude  enough  to  inflict  the  severe 
punishments,  when  necessary,  as  death  upon  murderers  and 
other  capital  criminals,  and  flagellation  upon  such  as  deserve 
it?"  Nothing  could  be  more  false  and  injurious  to  me,  than 
the  imputation  of  any  sanguinary  zeal  against  the  Tories ;  for  I 
can  truly  declare,  that,  through  the  whole  Revolution,  and  from 
that  time  to  this,  I  never  committed  one  act  of  severity  against 
the  Tories.  On  the  contrary,  I  was  a  constant  advocate  for  all 
the  mercy  and  indulgence  consistent  with  our  safety.  Some 
acts  of  treachery,  as  well  as  hostility,  were  combined  together  in 
so  atrocious  a  manner  that  pardon  could  not  be  indulged,  but, 
as  it  happened,  in  none  of  these  had  I  any  particular  concern. 

In  a  very  short  time  after  the  publication  of  these  letters,  I 
received  one  from  General  Charles  Lee,  then  in  the  army  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Boston,  in  which,  after  expressing  the  most 
obliging  sentiments  of  my  character,  he  said  some  gentlemen 
had  hinted  to  him  that  I  might  possibly  apprehend  that  he 
would  take  offence  at  them ;  but  he  assured  me  he  was  highly 
pleased  with  what  was  said  of  him  in  them.  The  acknowledg- 
ment from  me,  that  he  was  a  soldier  and  a  scholar,  he  esteemed 
as  an  honor  done  to  him ;  and  as  to  his  attachment  to  his  dogs, 

1  The  same  sentiment  is  expressed  in  Mr.  Reed's  letter  to  Thomas  Bradford, 
dated  21  August,  and  published  in  the  Life  written  by  his  grandson,  vol.  i.  p.  118. 

3u 


414  DIARY.  [1775. 

when  he  should  discover  in  men  as  much  fidelity,  honesty,  and 
gratitude,  as  he  daily  experienced  in  his  dogs,  he  promised  to 
love  men  as  well  as  dogs.  Accordingly  the  cordiality  between 
him  and  me  continued  till  his  death.1 

1  The  writer  does  not  seem  to  have  relied  upon  any  thing  but  his  own  recol- 
lection in  this  sketch.  As  General  Lee's  letter  remains,  and  is  highly  charac- 
teristic, it  is  here  given  in  full.  Considering  the  course  which  Mr.  Adams  took 
in  opposing  his  nomination  as  the  second  Major-General,  it  is  creditable  to  him, 
although  he  was  really  under  obligations  to  him  for  his  final  appointment  as  the 
third.     See  Mr.  Adams's  Letter  to  J.  Quincy  —  Quincy's  Memoir  of  Quincy,  p.  482. 

Camp,  5  October,  1775. 

My  Dear  Sir  :  —  As  you  may  possibly  harbor  some  suspicions  that  a  certain 
passage  in  your  intercepted  letters  (may)  have  made  some  disagreeable  impress- 
ions on  my  mind,  I  think  it  necessary  to  assure  you  that  it  is  quite  the  reverse. 
Until  the  bulk  of  mankind  is  much  altered,  I  consider  the  reputation  of  being 
whimsical  and  eccentric  rather  as  a  panegyric  than  sarcasm,  and  my  love  of  dogs 
passes  with  me  as  a  still  higher  compliment.  I  have,  thank  Heaven,  a  heart 
susceptible  of  friendship  and  affection.  I  must  have  some  object  to  embrace. 
Consequently,  when  once  I  can  be  convinced  that  men  are  as  worthy  objects  as 
dogs,  I  shall  transfer  my  benevolence,  and  become  as  staunch  a  philanthropist 
as  the  canting  Addison  affected  to  be.  But  you  must  not  conclude  from  hence 
that  I  give  in  to  general  misanthropy.  On  the  contrary,  when  I  meet  with  a 
biped  endowed  with  generosity,  valor,  good  sense,  patriotism,  and  zeal  for  the 
rights  of  humanity,  I  contract  a  friendship  and  passion  for  him  amounting  to 
bigotry  or  dotage ;  and  let  me  assure  you  without  compliments  that  you  yourself 
appear  to  me  possessed  of  these  qualities.  I  give  you  my  word  and  honor  that 
I  am  serious ;  and  I  should  be  unhappy  to  the  greatest  degree  if  I  thought  you 
would  doubt  of  my  sincerity.  Your  opinion,  therefore,  of  my  attainments  as  a 
soldier  and  scholar  is  extremely  flattering.  Long  may  you  continue  in  this,  to 
me,  gratissimus  error.     But  something  too  much  of  this. 

Before  this  reaches  you,  the  astonishing  and  terrifying  accusation,  or  rather 
detection,  of  Dr.  Church,  will  be  reported  to  the  Congress.  I  call  it  astonish- 
ing, for,  admitting  his  intentions  not  to  be  criminal,  so  gross  a  piece  of  stupidity 
in  so  sensible  a  man  is  quite  a  portent ;  and,  supposing  him  guilty,  it  is  terrifying 
to  the  last  degree,  as  such  a  revolt  must  naturally  infect  with  jealousy  all  politi- 
cal alliance.  It  will  spread  an  universal  diffidence  and  suspicion,  than  which 
nothing  can  be  more  pernicious  to  men  embarked  in  a  cause  like  ours,  the 
corner  stone  of  which  is  laid  not  only  on  honor,  virtue,  and  disinterestedness, 
but  on  the  persuasion  that  the  whole  are  actuated  by  the  same  divine  principles. 
I  devoutly  wish  that  such  may  not  be  the  effects. 

We  long  here  to  receive  some  news  from  the  Congress.  Now  is  the  time  to 
show  your  firmness.  K  the  least  timidity  is  displayed,  we  and  all  posterity  are 
ruined ;  on  the  contrary,  at  this  crisis,  courage  and  steadiness  must  infuse  the 
blessings  of  liberty  not  only  to  Great  Britain  but  perhaps  to  all  mankind.  Do 
not  go  hobbling  on,  like  the  Prince  of  Lilliput,  with  one  high-heeled  shoe,  one 
low  one,  for  you  will  undoubtedly  fall  upon  your  noses  every  step  you  take.  It 
is  my  humble  opinion  that  you  ought  to  begin  by  confiscating  (or  at  least  laying 
under  heavy  contributions)  the  estates  of  all  the  notorious  enemies  to  American 
liberty  through  the  continent.  This  would  lighten  the  burthen  which  must 
otherwise  fall  heavy  on  the  shoulders  of  the  community.  That  afterwards  you 
should  invite  all  the  maritime  towns  of  the  world  into  your  ports.  If  they  are 
so  dull  as  not  to  accept  the  invitation,  wean  yourselves  from  all  ideas  of  foreign 
commerce,  and  become  entirely  a  nation  of  ploughmen  and  soldiers.     A  little 


JEt.  39.]  DIARY.  415 

This  measure  of  imbecility,  the  second  petition  to  the  King, 
embarrassed  every  exertion  of  Congress ;  it  occasioned  motions 
and  debates  without  end  for  appointing  committees  to  draw  up 
a  declaration  of  the  causes,  motives,  and  objects  of  taking  arms, 
with  a  view  to  obtain  decisive  declarations  against  independ- 
ence, &c.  In  the  mean  time  the  New  England  army  investing 
Boston,  the  New  England  legislatures,  congresses,  and  conven- 
tions, and  the  whole  body  of  the  people,  were  left  without  muni- 
tions of  war,  without  arms,  clothing,  pay,  or  even  countenance 
and  encouragement.  Every  post  brought  me  letters  from  my 
friends,  Dr.  Winthrop,  Dr.  Cooper,  General  James  Warren,  and 
sometimes  from  General  Ward  and  his  aids,  and  General  Heath 
and  many  others,  urging  in  pathetic  terms  the  impossibility  of 
keeping  their  men  together  without  the  assistance  of  Congress. 
I  was  daily  urging  all  these  things,  but  we  were  embarrassed 
with  more  than  one  difficulty,  not  only  with  the  party  in  favor 
of  the  petition  to  the  King,  and  the  party  who  were  jealous  of 
independence,  but  a  third  party,  which  was  a  Southern  party 
against  a  Northern,  and  a  jealousy  against  a  New  England 
army  under  the  command  of  a  New  England  General.  Whether 
this  jealousy  was  sincere,  or  whether  it  was  mere  pride  and  a 
haughty  ambition  of  furnishing  a  southern  General  to  command 
the  northern  army,  (I  cannot  say) ;  but  the  intention  was  very 
visible  to  me  that  Colonel  Washington  was  their  object,  and  so 
many  of  our  staunchest  men  were  in  the  plan,  that  we  could 
carry  nothing  without  conceding  to  it.  Another  embarrassment, 
which  was  never  publicly  known,  and  which  was  carefully  con- 
cealed by  those  who  knew  it,  the  Massachusetts  and  other  New 
England  delegates  were  divided.  Mr.  Hancock  and  Mr.  dish- 
ing hung  back;  Mr.  Paine  did  not  come  forward,  and  even  Mr. 
Samuel  Adams  was  irresolute.     Mr.  Hancock  himself  had  an 


habit,  and  I  am  persuaded  you  will  bless  yourselves  for  the  resolution.  But  I  am 
running  into  an  essay ;  shall,  therefore,  to  prevent  pedantry  and  impertinence, 
stop  short  with  once  more  assuring  you  that  I  am, 

Most  truly  and  affectionately  yours, 

C.  Lee. 

My  respects  to  your  namesake,  and  let  me  hear  from  you.  Spada  sends  his 
love  to  you,  and  declares,  in  very  intelligible  language,  that  he  has  fared  much 
better  since  your  allusion  to  him,  for  he  is  caressed  now  by  all  ranks,  sexes,  and 


416  DIARY.  [1775. 

ambition  to  be  appointed  commander-in-chief.1  Whether  he 
thought  an  election  a  compliment  due  to  him,  and  intended 
to  have  the  honor  of  declining  it,  or  whether  he  would  have 
accepted,  I  know  not.  To  the  compliment  he  had  some  pre- 
tensions, for,  at  that  time,  his  exertions,  sacrifices,  and  general 
merits  in  the  cause  of  his  country  had  been  incomparably  greater 
than  those  of  Colonel  Washington.  But  the  delicacy  of  his 
health,  and  his  entire  want  of  experience  in  actual  service,  though 
an  excellent  militia  officer,  were  decisive  objections  to  him  in 
my  mind.  In  canvassing  this  subject,  out  of  doors,  I  found  too 
that  even  among  the  delegates  of  Virginia  there  were  difficulties. 
The  apostolical  reasonings  among  themselves,  which  should  be 
greatest,  were  not  less  energetic  among  the  saints  of  the  ancient 
dominion  than  they  were  among  us  of  New  England.  In  several 
conversations,  I  found  more  than  one  very  cool  about  the  appoint- 
ment of  Washington,  and  particularly  Mr.  Pendleton  was  very 
clear  and  full  against  it.  Full  of  anxieties  concerning  these  con- 
fusions, and  apprehending  daily  that  we  should  hear  very  dis- 
tressing news  from  Boston,  I  walked  with  Mr.  Samuel  Adams 
in  the  State  House  yard,  for  a  little  exercise  and  fresh  air,  before 
the  hour  of  Congress,  and  there  represented  to  him  the  various 
dangers  that  surrounded  us.  He  agreed  to  them  all,  but  said, 
"  What  shall  we  do  ?  "  I  answered  him,  that  he  knew  I  had 
taken  great  pains  to  get  our  colleagues  to  agree  upon  some  plan, 
that  we  might  be  unanimous ;  but  he  knew  that  they  would 
pledge  themselves  to  nothing;  but  I  was  determined  to  take  a 
step  which  should  compel  them  and  all  the  other  members  of 
Congress  to  declare  themselves  for  or  against  something.  "  I 
am  determined  this  morning  to  make  a  direct  motion  that  Con- 
gress should  adopt  the  army  before  Boston,  and  appoint  Colonel 
Washington  commander  of  it."  Mr.  Adams  seemed  to  think 
very  seriously  of  it,  but  said  nothing. 

Accordingly,  when    Congress  had  assembled,   I  rose  in   my 
place,  and  in  as  short  a  speech  as  the  subject  would  admit, 

1  This  will  scarcely  surprise  those  who  know  that  Mr.  Hancock's  prevailing 
foible  was  a  fondness  for  official  distinction.  But  the  writer  never  was  among 
those  disposed  on  this  account  to  depreciate  the  merit  of  this  gentleman's  services 
in  the  Revolution.  In  the  general  correspondence  will  be  found  a  letter  addressed 
to  Judge  William  Tudor,  particularly  on  this  subject.  The  Biography  of  Han- 
cock, in  Sanderson's  Collection,  is  a  curious  specimen  of  unfavorable  judgment 
in  the  guise  of  eulogy. 


yET.  39.]  DIARY.  417 

represented  the  state  of  the  Colonies,  the  uncertainty  in  the 
minds  of  the  people,  their  great  expectation  and  anxiety,  the 
distresses  of  the  army,  the  danger  of  its  dissolution,  the  difficulty 
of  collecting  another,  and  the  probability  that  the  British  army 
would  take  advantage  of  our  delays,  march  out  of  Boston,  and 
spread  desolation  as  far  as  they  could  go.  I  concluded  with  a 
motion,  in  form,  that  Congress  would  adopt  the  army  at  Cam- 
bridge, and  appoint  a  General;  that  though  this  was  not  the 
proper  time  to  nominate  a  General,  yet,  as  I  had  reason  to  believe 
this  was  a  point  of  the  greatest  difficulty,  I  had  no  hesitation 
to  declare  that  I  had  but  one  gentleman  in  my  mind  for  that 
important  command,  and  that  was  a  gentleman  from  Virginia 
who  was  among  us  and  very  well  known  to  all  of  us,  a  gentle- 
man whose  skill  and  experience  as  an  officer,  whose  independent 
fortune,  great  talents,  and  excellent  universal  character,  would 
command  the  approbation  of  all  America,  and  unite  the  cordial 
exertions  of  all  the  Colonies  better  than  any  other  person  in  the 
Union.  Mr.  Washington,  who  happened  to  sit  near  the  door,  as 
soon  as  he  heard  me  allude  to  him,  from  his  usual  modesty, 
darted  into  the  library-room.  Mr.  Hancock,  —  who  was  our 
President,  which  gave  me  an  opportunity  to  observe  his  counte- 
nance while  I  was  speaking  on  the  state  of  the  Colonies,  the 
army  at  Cambridge,  and  the  enemy,  —  heard  me  with  visible 
pleasure ;  but  when  I  came  to  describe  Washington  for  the  com- 
mander, I  never  remarked  a  more  sudden  and  striking  change 
of  countenance.  Mortification  and  resentment  were  expressed 
as  forcibly  as  his  face  could  exhibit  them.  Mr.  Samuel  Adams 
seconded  the  motion,  and  that  did  not  soften  the  President's 
physiognomy  at  all.1  The  subject  came  under  debate,  and  sev- 
eral gentlemen  declared  themselves  against  the  appointment  of 
Mr.  Washington,  not  on  account  of  any  personal  objection 
against  him,  but  because  the  army  were  all  from  New  England, 
had  a  General  of  their  own,  appeared  to  be  satisfied  with  him, 
and  had  proved  themselves  able  to  imprison  the  British  army  in 
Boston,  which  was  all  they  expected  or  desired  at  that  time. 


1  The  emotion  was  smothered  enough  by  the  second  day  to  enable  him  in 
writing  to  Mr.  Gerry,  in  Massachusetts,  to  call  Washington  "  a  fine  man."  But 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  neither  Hancock  nor  Ward  was  ever  afterwards 
cordial  towards  him.  Mr.  Adams's  own  letters  of  the  same  date  will  be  found 
elsewhere.     Austin's  Life  of  Gerry,  vol.  i.  p.  82. 

a2 


418  DIARY.  [1775. 

Mr.  Pendleton,  of  Virginia,  Mr.  Sherman,  of  Connecticut,  were 
very  explicit  in  declaring  this  opinion ;  Mr.  Cushing  and  several 
others  more  faintly  expressed  their  opposition,  and  their  fears  of 
discontents  in  the  army  and  in  New  England.  Mr.  Paine 
expressed  a  great  opinion  of  General  Ward  and  a  strong  friend- 
ship for  him,  having  been  his  classmate  at  college,  or  at  least  his 
contemporary  ;  but  gave  no  opinion  upon  the  question.  The 
subject  was  postponed  to  a  future  day.  In  the  mean  time,  pains 
were  taken  out  of  doors  to  obtain  a  unanimity,  and  the  voices 
were  generally  so  clearly  in  favor  of  Washington,  that  the  dis- 
sentient members  were  persuaded  to  withdraw  their  opposition, 
and  Mr.  Washington  was  nominated,  I  believe  by  Mr.  Thomas 
Johnson  of  Maryland,  unanimously  elected,  and  the  army 
adopted. 

The  next  question  was,  who  should  be  the  second  officer. 
General  Lee  was  nominated,  and  most  strenuously  urged  by 
many,  particularly  Mr.  Mifflin,  who  said  that  General  Lee  would 
serve  cheerfully  under  Washington,  but,  considering  his  rank, 
character,  and  experience,  could  not  be  expected  to  serve  under 
any  other.  That  Lee  must  be,  aut  secundus,  aut  nullus.  To  this 
I  as  strenuously  objected,  that  it  would  be  a  great  deal  to  expect 
of  General  Ward  that  he  should  serve  under  any  man,  but  that 
under  a  stranger  he  ought  not  to  serve ;  that  though  I  had  as 
high  an  opinion  of  General  Lee's  learning,  general  information, 
and  especially  of  his  science  and  experience  in  war,  I  could  not 
advise  General  Ward  to  humiliate  himself  and  his  country  so 
far  as  to  serve  under  him.  General  Ward  was  elected  the 
second,  and  Lee  the  third.1  Gates  and  Mifflin,  I  believe,  had 
some  appointments,  and  General  Washington  took  with  him 
Mr.  Reed,  of  Philadelphia,  a  lawyer  of  some  eminence,  for  his 
private  Secretary ;  and  the  gentlemen  all  set  off  for  the  camp. 
They  had  not  proceeded  twenty  miles  from  Philadelphia,  before 
they  met  a  courier  with  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Bunker's  Hill, 
the  death  of  General  Warren,  the  slaughter  among  the  British 
officers  and  men,  as  well  as  among  ours,  and  the  burning  of 
Charlestown. 

1  Mr.  Adams  was  one  of  the  committee  of  three  (Mr.  Henry  and  Mr.  Lynch) 
appointed  to  wait  upon  General  Lee,  to  inform  him  of  his  appointment,  and 
request  his  answer,  whether  he  would  accept  the  command.  They  reported 
immediately  his  words  of  acceptance,     Journals  of  Congress,  19  June,  1775. 


JEr.  39.]  DIARY.  419 

I  have  always  imputed  the  loss  of  Charlestown,  and  of  the 
brave  officers  and  men  who  fell  there,  and  the  loss  of  a  hero  of 
more  worth  than  all  the  town,  I  mean  General  Warren,  to  Mr. 
Dickinson's  petition  to  the  King ;  and  the  loss  of  Quebec  and 
Montgomery  to  his  subsequent,  unceasing,  though  finally  una- 
vailing efforts  against  independence.  These  impeded  and  para- 
lyzed all  our  enterprises.  Had  our  army  been  acknowledged  in 
season,  which  acknowledgment  ought  to  have  been  our  first 
step,  and  the  measures  taken  to  comfort  and  encourage  it,  which 
ought  to  have  been  taken  by  Congress,  we  should  not  have  lost 
Charlestown ;  and  if  every  measure  for  the  service  in  Canada, 
from  the  first  projection  of  it  to  the  final  loss  of  the  Province, 
had  not  been  opposed  and  obstinately  disputed  by  the  same 
party,  so  that  we  could  finally  carry  no  measure  but  by  a  bare 
majority  —  -1  And  every  measure  was  delayed,  till  it  became 
ineffectual. 

In  the  fall  of  the  year,  Congress  was  much  fatigued  with  the 
incessant  labors,  debates,  intrigues,  and  heats  of  the  summer,  and 
agreed  on  a  short  adjournment.  The  delegates  from  Massachu- 
setts returned  home,  and  as,  the  two  houses  of  the  legislature  had 
chosen  us  all  into  the  Council,  we  went  to  Watertown  and  took 
our  seats  for  such  times  as  we  could  spare  before  our  return  to 
Congress.  I  had  been  chosen  before,  two  years  successively, 
that  is,  in  1773  and  1774,  and  had  been  negatived  by  the  Gov- 
ernor, the  first  time  by  Hutchinson,  and  the  second  by  Gage. 
My  friend,  Dr.  Cooper,  attempted  to  console  me  under  the  first 
negative,  which  he  called  a  check ;  but  I  told  him  I  considered 
it  not  as  a  check,  but  as  a  boost,  a  word  of  John  Bunyan  which 
the  Doctor  understood.  These  negatives  were,  indeed,  no  morti- 
fication to  me,  for,  knowing  that  neither  honor  nor  profit  was  to 
be  obtained,  nor  good  to  be  done  in  that  body  in  those  times,  I 
had  not  a  wish  to  sit  there.  When  a  person  came  running  to 
my  office  to  tell  me  of  the  first  of  them,  I  cried  out,  laughing, 
"  Now  I  believe,  in  my  soul,  I  am  a  clever  fellow,  since  I  have 
the  attestation  of  the  three  branches  of  the  Legislature."  This 
vulgar,  familiar  little  sally,  was  caught  as  if  it  had  been  a  prize, 
and  immediately  scattered  all  over  the  Province. 

I  went  to  head-quarters,  and  had  much   conversation  with 

1  There  seems  to  be  an  accidental  omission  to  carry  out  the  sense  with  some 
such  words  as  these,  "  we  should  not  have  lost  Canada." 


420  DIARY.  [17  75. 

Generals  Washington,  Ward,  Lee,  Putnam,  Gates,  Mifflin,  and 
others,  and  went  with  General  Lee  to  visit  the  outposts  and  the 
sentinels  nearest  the  enemy  at  Charlestown.  Here  Lee  found 
his  dogs  inconvenient,  for  they  were  so  attached  to  him  that 
they  insisted  on  keeping  close  about  him,  and  he  expected  he 
should  be  known  by  them  to  the  British  officers  in  the  fort, 
and  he  expected  every  moment  a  discharge  of  balls,  grape,  or 
langrage  about  our  ears.  After  visiting  my  friends  and  the 
General  Court,  the  army  and  the  country,  I  returned  to  Phila- 
delphia, but  not  till  I  had  followed  my  youngest  brother  to  the 
grave.  He  had  commanded  a  company  of  militia  all  summer, 
at  Cambridge,  and  there  taken  a  fatal  dysentery,  then  epidemic 
in  the  camp,  of  which  he  died,  leaving  a  young  widow  and 
three  young  children,  who  are  all  still  living.  My  brother  died 
greatly  lamented  by  all  who  knew  him,  and  by  none  more  than 
by  me,  who  knew  the  excellence  of  his  heart,  and  the  purity  of 
his  principles  and  conduct.  He  died,  as  Mr.  Taft,  his  minister, 
informed  me,  exulting,  as  his  father  had  done,  in  the  exalted 
hopes  of  a  Christian. 

An  event  of  the  most  trifling  nature  in  appearance,  and  fit 
only  to  excite  laughter  in  other  times,  struck  me  into  a  profound 
reverie,  if  not  a  fit  of  melancholy.  I  met  a  man  who  had  some- 
times been  my  client,  and  sometimes  I  had  been  against  him. 
He,  though  a  common  horse-jockey,  was  sometimes  in  the  right, 
and  I  had  commonly  been  successful  in  his  favor  in  our  courts 
of  law.  He  was  always  in  the  law,  and  had  been  sued  in  many 
actions  at  almost  every  court.  As  soon  as  he  saw  me,  he  came 
up  to  me,  and  his  first  salutation  to  me  was,  "  Oh !  Mr.  Adams, 
what  great  things  have  you  and  your  colleagues  done  for  us ! 
We  can  never  be  grateful  enough  to  you.  There  are  no  courts 
of  justice  now  in  this  Province,  and  I  hope  there  never  will  be 
another."  Is  this  the  object  for  which  I  have  been  contending? 
said  I  to  myself,  for  I  rode  along  without  any  answer  to  this 
wretch.  Are  these  the  sentiments  of  such  people,  and  how 
many  of  them  are  there  in  the  country  ?  Half  the  nation,  for 
what  I  know ;  for  half  the  nation  are  debtors,  if  not  more,  and 
these  have  been,  in  all  countries,  the  sentiments  of  debtors.  If 
the  power  of  the  country  should  get  into  such  hands,  and  there 
is  great  danger  that  it  will,  to  what  purpose  have  we  sacrificed 
our  time,  health,  and  every  thing  else  ?     Surely  we  must  guard 


JEt.  39. J  DIARY.  421 

against  this  spirit  and  these  principles,  or  we  shall  repent  of  all 
our  conduct.  However,  the  good  sense  and  integrity  of  the 
majority  of  the  great  body  of  the  people  came  into  my  thoughts, 
for  my  relief,  and  the  last  resource  was  after  all  in  a  good  Pro- 
vidence.] 

Single  Entry  in  Account  Book. 

September  3.  At  Woodstock.1  Heard  Mr.  Learned,  from 
Isaiah  xxxii.  16 :  "  The  work  of  righteousness  is  peace,  and  the 
effect  of  righteousness  quietness  and  assurance  forever." 


15.  Friday.2  Archibald  Bullock  and  John  Houston,  Esquires, 
and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Zubly,  appear  as  delegates  from  Georgia.  Dr. 
Zubly  is  a  native  of  Switzerland,  and  a  clergyman  of  the  inde- 
pendent persuasion,  settled  in  a  parish  in  Georgia.  He  speaks,  as 
it  is  reported,  several  languages,  English,  Dutch,  French,  Latin, 
&c. ;  is  reported  to  be  a  learned  man.     He  is  a  man  of  a  warm 

1  On  his  way  to  the  Congress,  at  Philadelphia,  after  the  recess.  The  fashion 
of  travelling  is  now  so  completely  changed,  that  it  may  be  of  some  interest  to 
the  curious  to  know  the  course  that  was  taken  by  Mr.  Adams  at  this  time.  He 
was  on  horseback,  and  accompanied  by  a  man-servant  also  mounted.  The 
account  book,  from  which  the  above  entry  is  taken,  gives  the  following  list  of 
his  stops :  — 

28  August. 
At  Davis's  at  Roxbury.  At  Stratfield. 

At  Watertown.  At  Penfield's  of  Fairfield. 

At  Baldwin's.  At  Betts's  of  Norwalk. 

At  Buckrni nster's  at  Framingham.  At  Fitch's  of  Stamford. 

At  Bowman's  at  Oxford.  At  Knap's  of  Horseneck. 

At  Sherman's  in  Grafton.  At  Bull's  of  White  Plains. 

4  September.  At  Dobb's  Ferry. 

At  Hide's  in  Woodstock  from  Saturday     At  Hackensack. 

to  Monday.  At  Pierson's  of  Newark. 

At  Clark's  at  Pomfret.  At  Graham's,  Elizabethtown. 

At  Cary's  at  Windham.  At  Dawson's,  Woodbridge. 

At  Gray's  at  Lebanon.  At  Brunswick. 

At  Taynter's  in  Colchester.  At  Jones's  at  Ten  Mile  Inn. 

At  Smith's  of  Haddam.  At  Princeton. 

At  Camp's  in  Durham.  At  Trenton. 

At  Bears's  of  New  Haven.  At  Priestley's  at  Bristol. 

At  Bryant's  of  Milford.  At  Wilson's. 

At  Stratford  Ferry.  At  Shammony  Ferry. 

2  For  the  sake  of  preserving  the  continuity  of  the  narrative  in  the  Autobi- 
ography, embracing  the  remainder  of  Mr.  Adams's  congressional  life,  it  is  placed 
by  itself  at  the  end  of  that  portion  of  the  Diary  and  Debates  covering  the  same 
period. 

vol,.  II.  30 


422  DIARY.  [1775. 

and  zealous  spirit ;  it  is  said  that  he  possesses  considerable  pro- 
perty. Houston  is  a  young  gentleman,  by  profession  a  lawyer, 
educated  under  a  gentleman  of  eminence  in  South  Carolina. 
He  seems  to  be  sensible  and  spirited,  but  rather  inexperienced. 
Bullock  is  clothed  in  American  manufacture.  Thomas  Nelson, 
Esq.,  George  Wythe,  Esq.,  and  Francis  Lightfoot  Lee,  Esq., 
appeared  as  delegates  from  Virginia.  Nelson  is  a  fat  man,  like 
the  late  Colonel  Lee  of  Marblehead.  He  is  a  speaker,  and  alert 
and  lively  for  his  weight.  Wythe  is  a  lawyer,  it  is  said,  of  the 
first  eminence.  Lee  is  a  brother  of  Dr.  Arthur,  the  late  sheriff 
of  London,  and  of  our  old  friend  Richard  Henry,  sensible  and 
patriotic,  as  the  rest  of  the  family. 

Deane  says  that  two  persons  of  the  name  of  De  Witt,  of  Dutch 
extraction,  one  in  Norwich,  the  other  in  Windham,  have  made 
saltpetre  with  success,  and  propose  to  make  a  great  deal.  That 
there  is  a  mine  of  lead,  at  Middletown,  which  will  afford  a  great 
quantity ;  that  works  are  preparing  to  smelt  and  refine  it,  which 
will  go  in  a  fortnight.  There  is  a  mine  at  Northampton,  which 
Mr.  W.  Bowdoin  spent  much  money  in  working,  with  much 
effect,  though  little  profit. 

Langdon  and  Bartlett  came  in  this  evening  from  Portsmouth. 
Four  hundred  men  are  building  a  fort  on  Pierce's  Island  to 
defend  the  town  against  ships  of  war.  Upon  recollecting  the 
debates  of  this  day  in  Congress,  there  appears  to  me  a  remarka- 
ble want  of  judgment  in  some  of  our  members.  Chase  is  violent 
and  boisterous,  asking  his  pardon ;  he  is  tedious  upon  frivolous 
points.  So  is  E.  Rutledge.  Much  precious  time  is  indis- 
creetly expended ;  points  of  little  consequence  are  started  and 
debated  with  warmth.  Rutledge  is  a  very  uncouth  and  ungrace- 
ful speaker ;  he  shrugs  his  shoulders,  distorts  his  body,  nods  and 
wriggles  with  his  head,  and  looks  about  with  his  eyes  from  side 
to  side,  and  speaks  through  his  nose,  as  the  Yankees  sing.  His 
brother  John  dodges  his  head  too,  rather  disagreeably,  and  both 
of  them  spout  out  their  language  in  a  rough  and  rapid  torrent, 
but  without  much  force  or  effect,1     Dyer  is  long-winded   and 

J  This  account  of  Edward  Rutledge  is  not  flattering.  But  it  derives  some 
confirmation  from  the  report  of  the  rule  which  he  is  said  to  have  adopted  in 
speaking.  In  Sanderson's  Collection  of  Lives  of  the  Signers,  is  the  following 
account : — 

"  Mr.  Rutledge  often  remarked,  that,  in  the  early  period  of  his  career,  he  had 
been  more  than  once  in  the  awkward  predicament  of  being  oppressed  with  his 


jEt.  39.]  DIARY.  423 

round-about,  obscure  and  cloudy,  very  talkative  and  very  tedious, 
yet  an  honest,  worthy  man,  means  and  judges  well.  Sherman's 
air  is  the  reverse  of  grace ;  there  cannot  be  a  more  striking  con- 
trast to  beautiful  action,  than  the  motions  of  his  hands ;  gener- 
ally he  stands  upright,  with  his  hands  before  him,  the  fingers  of 
his  left  hand  clenched  into  a  fist,  and  the  wrist  of  it  grasped 
with  his  right.  But  he  has  a  clear  head  and  sound  judgment ; 
but  when  he  moves  a  hand  in  any  thing  like  action,  Hogarth's 
genius  could  not  have  invented  a  motion  more  opposite  to  grace ; 
—  it  is  stiffness  and  awkwardness  itself,  rigid  as  starched  linen 
or  buckram ;  awkward  as  a  junior  bachelor  or  a  sophomore. 

Mr.  Dickinson's  air,  gait,  and  action  are  not  much  more  ele- 
gant. 

16.  Saturday.  Walking  to  the  State  House,  this  morning,  I 
met  Mr.  Dickinson,  on  foot,  in  Chesnut  Street.  We  met,  and 
passed  near  enough  to  touch  elbows.  He  passed  without  moving 
his  hat  or  head  or  hand.  I  bowed,  and  pulled  off  my  hat.  He 
passed  haughtily  by.  The  cause  of  his  offence  is  the  letter,  no 
doubt,  which  Gage  has  printed  in  Draper's  paper.1  I  shall,  for 
the  future,  pass  him  in  the  same  manner ;  but  I  was  determined 
to  make  my  bow,  that  I  might  know  his  temper.  We  are  not 
to  be  upon  speaking  terms  nor  bowing  terms  for  the  time  to 
come.  This  evening  had  conversation  with  Mr.  Bullock,  of 
Georgia.  I  asked  him  whether  Georgia  had  a  charter  ?  What 
was  the  extent  of  the  Province  ?  What  was  their  constitution  ? 
How  justice  was  administered  ?  Who  was  chancellor  ?  who 
ordinary?  and  who  judges?  He  says  they  have  county  courts 
for  the  trial  of  civil  causes  under  eight  pounds ;  and  a  Chief 
Justice  appointed  from  home,  and  three  other  judges  appointed 
by  the  Governor,  for  the  decision  of  all  other  causes,  civil  and 
criminal,  at  Savannah ;  that  the  Governor  alone  is  both  chancellor 
and  ordinary.     Parson  Gordon,  of  Roxbury,2  spent  the  evening 

own  incoherency,  but,  —  reflecting  that  few  of  a  large  audience  could  immedi- 
ately perceive  what  was  sense  or  the  reverse,  that  those  who  were  capable  of 
thus  discriminating  were  probably  the  most  generous  and  indulgent  to  youthful 
orators,  and  that  it  was  necessary  at  all  events  to  succeed  in  his  profession,  —  he 
made  it  a  positive  rule  never  to  sit  down  or  to  hesitate  or  halt,  but  to  talk  on,  and 
brave  it  out  with  the  best  countenance  he  could  assume." 

1  The  intercepted  letter  in  which  allusion  is  made  to  him,  as  "a  certain  great 
fortune  and  piddling  genius."     See  page  411,  note. 

2  The  author  of  the  History,  which  with  some  marked  defects  contains  a  great 
deal  that  is  of  value,  and  that  can  with  difficulty  be  found  in  any  other  quarter. 


424  DIARY.  [1775. 

here.  I  fear  his  indiscreet  prate  will  do  harm  in  this  city. 
He  is  an  eternal  talker,  and  somewhat  vain,  and  not  accurate 
nor  judicious ;  very  zealous  in  the  cause,  and  a  well-meaning 
man,  but  incautious,  and  not  sufficiently  tender  of  the  character 
of  our  Province,  upon  which  at  this  time  much  depends ;  fond 
of  being  thought  a  man  of  influence  at  head-quarters,  and  with 
our  Council  and  House,  and  with  the  general  officers  of  the 
army,  and  also  with  gentlemen  in  this  city  and  other  Colonies. 
He  is  a  good  man,  but  wants  a  guide. 

17.  Sunday.  Mr.  Smith,  Mr.  Imlay,  and  Mr.  Hanson,  break- 
fasted with  us.  Smith  is  an  Englishman.  Imlay  and  Hanson 
New  Yorkers.  Heard  Sprout  on  Titus  iii.  5 :  "  Not  by  works 
of  righteousness  which  we  have  done,  but  according  to  his 
mercy  he  saved  us,  through  the  washing  of  regeneration  and 
the  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  There  is  a  great  deal  of 
simplicity  and  innocence  in  this  worthy  man,  but  very  little 
elegance  or  ingenuity.  In  prayer,  he  hangs  his  head  in  an 
angle  of  forty-five  over  his  right  shoulder ;  in  sermon,  which  is 
delivered  without  notes,  he  throws  himself  into  a  variety  of 
indecent  postures,  bends  his  body,  points  his  fingers,  and  throws 
about  his  arms  without  any  rule  or  meaning  at  all.  He  is  totally 
destitute  of  the  genius  and  eloquence  of  Duffield ;  has  no  imagi- 
nation, no  passions,  no  wit,  no  taste,  and  very  little  learning,  but 
a  great  deal  of  goodness  of  heart. 

18.  Monday.  This  morning,  John  McPherson,  Esq.  came  to 
my  lodgings,  and  requested  to  speak  with  me  in  private.  He  is 
the  owner  of  a  very  handsome  country  seat,  about  five  miles  out 
of  this  city ;  is  the  father  of  Mr.  McPherson,  an  aid-de-camp  to 
General  Schuyler.  He  has  been  a  captain  of  a  privateer,  and 
made  a  fortune  in  that  way  the  last  war ;  is  reputed  to  be  well 
skilled  in  naval  affairs.  He  proposes  great  things ;  is  sanguine, 
confident,  positive,  that  he  can  take  or  burn  every  man-of-war  in 
America.1  It  is  a  secret,  he  says,  but  he  will  communicate  it  to 
any  one  member  of  Congress,  upon  condition  that  it  be  not 
divulged  during  his  life  at  all,  nor  after  his  death,  but  for  the 

1  In  the  letters  of  General  Washington,  printed  in  the  Life  of  Joseph  Reed, 
by  far  the  most  natural  and  characteristic  productions  of  his  that  have  come 
down  to  this  generation,  is  a  sly  hit  at  this  gentleman's  fancy,  which  carried  him 
all  the  way  to  Cambridge,  in  the  November  following,  to  submit  his  project  to 
the  approbation  of  the  commander-in-chief.     Vol.  i.  p.  126. 


.Er.  39.]  DIARY.  425 

service  of  this  country.  He  says  it  is  as  certain  as  that  he  shall 
die,  that  he  can  burn  any  ship.  In  the  afternoon,  Mr.  S.  A.  and 
I  made  a  visit,  at  Mrs.  Bedford's,  to  the  Maryland  gentlemen. 
We  found  Paca  and  Chase,  and  a  polite  reception  from  them. 
Chase  is  ever  social  and  talkative ;  he  seems  in  better  humor 
than  he  was  before  the  adjournment.  His  Colony  have  acted 
with  spirit  in  support  of  the  cause ;  they  have  formed  themselves 
into  a  system  and  enjoined  an  association,  if  that  is  not  an 
absurdity. 

19.  Tuesday.  This  morning,  Mr.  Henry  Hill,  with  his  brother, 
Nat  Barrett,  came  to  visit  us.  Paine  introduced  him  to  Mrs. 
Yard  as  one  of  the  poor  of  Boston.  He  is  here  with  his  wife 
on  a  visit  to  her  brother.  Paine  cries,  "  You,  H.  Hill,  what  did 
you  come  here  for  ?  Who  did  you  bring  with  you  ?  —  ha !  ha ! 
ha!" 

20.  Wednesday.  Took  a  walk,  in  company  with  Governor 
Ward,  Mr.  Gadsden  and  his  son,  and  Mr.  S.  Adams,  to  a  little 
box  in  the  country  belonging  to  old  Mr.  Marshall,1  the  father  of 
three  sons  who  live  in  the  city ;  a  fine,  facetious  old  gentleman, 
an  excellent  Whig.  There  we  drank  coffee ;  a  fine  garden ;  a 
little  box.  of  one  room ;  very  cheerful  and  good-humored. 

21.  Thursday.  The  famous  partisan,  Major  Rogers,  came  to 
our  lodgings  to  make  us  a  visit.  He  has  been  in  prison ;  dis- 
charged by  some  insolvent  or  bankrupt  act.  He  thinks  we  shall 
have  hot  work,  next  Spring.  He  told  me  an  old  half-pay  officer, 
such  as  himself,  would  sell  well  next  Spring ;  and  when  he  went 
away,  he  said  to  S.  A.  and  me,  "  If  you  want  me,  next  Spring, 
for  any  service,  you  know  where  I  am,  send  for  me ;  I  am  to  be 
sold."2  He  says,  "the  Scotchmen  at  home  say,  'd  —  n  that 
Adams  and  Cushing ;  we  must  have  their  heads,'  &c.  Bernard 
used  to  damn  that  Adams ;  — '  Every  dip  of  his  pen  stung  like 

1  This  is  Christopher  Marshall,  in  whose  Diary  is  the  following  entry,  under 
same  date. 

"  Past  three  went  to  the  place,  where  Samuel  Adams,  Governor  Ward,  John 
Adams,  and  Christopher  Gadsden  and  son  came,  drank  coffee,  and  spent  the 
afternoon  in  free  conversation." 

2  A  true  Captain  Dalgetty.  See  page  167,  note.  Major  Rogers  was  arrested 
on  the  next  day  by  order  of  the  Pennsylvania  Committee  of  Safety,  and  sub- 
mitted to  the  disposal  of  Congress,  which  ordered  his  release  on  his  giving  parole 
that  he  would  not  serve  against  America  during  the  war.  He  proceeded  to 
New  York,  and  took  a  commission  as  Colonel  in  the  British  service.  Force's 
American  Archives,  fourth  series;  p.  865  -  866. 

36* 


426  DIARY.  [1775. 

a  horned  snake.'  Paxton  made  his  will  in  favor  of  Lord  Town- 
send,  and  by  that  manoeuvre  got  himself  made  a  commissioner. 
There  was  a  great  deal  of  beauty  in  that  stroke  of  policy.  We 
must  laugh  at  such  sublime  strokes  of  politics,"  &c.  &c.  &c.  In 
the  evening,  Mr.  Jonathan  Dickinson  Sergeant  of  Princeton, 
made  a  visit  to  the  Secretary  and  me.  He  says  he  is  no  idolater 
of  his  namesake ;  that  he  was  disappointed  when  he  first  saw 
him.  Fame  had  given  him  an  exalted  idea;  but  he  came  to 
New  Jersey  upon  a  particular  cause,  and  made  such  a  flimsy, 
effeminate  piece  of  work  of  it,  that  he  sunk  at  once  in  his  opin- 
ion. Sergeant  is  sorry  to  find  such  a  falling  off  in  this  city ;  — 
not  a  third  of  the  battalion  men  muster,  who  mustered  at  first. 
D.  he  says,  sinks  here,  in  the  public  opinion ;  that  many  gentle- 
men chime  in  with  a  spirited  publication  in  the  paper  of  Wednes- 
day which  blames  the  conduct  of  several  gentlemen  of  fortune, 
D.,  Cad.,  R.,  and  J.  Allen,  &c. 

22.  Friday.     Mr.  Gordon  spent  the  evening  here. 

23.  Saturday.  Mr.  Gordon  came  and  told  us  news,  opened 
his  budget.  Ethan  Allen  with  five  hundred  Green  Mountain 
boys  was  intrenched  half  way  between  St.  Johns  and  Montreal, 
and  had  cut  off  all  communication  with  Carlton,  and  was  kindly 
treated  by  the  French.  A  council  of  war  had  been  held,  and  it 
was  their  opinion  that  it  was  practicable  to  take  Boston  and 
Charlestown ;  but  as  it  would  cost  many  lives,  and  expose  the 
inhabitants  of  Boston  to  destruction,  it  was  thought  best  to  post- 
pone it  for  the  present.  Major  Rogers  came  here  too  this  morn- 
ing ;  said  he  had  a  hand  and  a  heart,  though  he  did  not  choose 
by  offering  himself,  to  expose  himself  to  destruction.  I  walked 
a  long  time,  this  morning,  backward  and  forward  in  the  State 
House  yard  with  Paca,  McKean,  and  Johnson.  McKean  has 
no  idea  of  any  right  or  authority  in  Parliament.  Paca  contends 
for  an  authority  and  right  to  regulate  trade,  &c.  Dyer,  and 
Sergeant  of  Princeton,  spent  the  evening  here.  S.  says,  that 
the  Irish  interest  in  this  city  has  been  the  support  of  liberty. 
Mease,  &c.  are  leaders  in  it.  The  Irish  and  the  Presbyterian 
interest  coalesce. 

24.  Sunday.  Dyer  is  very  sanguine  that  the  two  De  Witts, 
one  of  Windham,  the  other  of  Norwich,  will  make  saltpetre  in 
large  quantities.  He  produces  a  sample,  which  is  very  good. 
Harrison  is  confident  that  Virginia  alone  will  do  great  things 


Mt.  30.]  DIARY.  427 

from  tobacco  houses ;  but  my  faith  is  not  strong  as  yet.  Lord 
North  is  at  his  old  work  again,  sending  over  his  anodynes  to 
America ;  deceiving  one  credulous  American  after  another  into 
a  belief  that  he  means  conciliation,  when  in  truth  he  means 
nothing  but  revenge.  He  rocks  the  cradle  and  sings  lullaby, 
and  the  innocent  children  go  to  sleep,  while  he  prepares  the 
birch  to  whip  the  poor  babes.  One  letter  after  another  comes, 
that  the  people  are  uneasy,  and  the  ministry  are  sick  of  their 
systems,  but  nothing  can  be  more  fallacious.  Next  Spring  we 
shall  be  jockied  by  negotiation,  or  have  hot  work  in  war ;  besides, 
I  expect  a  reinforcement  to  Gage  and  to  Carlton  this  fall  or  win- 
ter. Heard  Mr.  Smith,  of  Pecquea,  about  forty  miles  towards 
Lancaster,  a  Scotch  clergyman  of  great  piety,  as  Colonel  Rober- 
deau  says.  The  text  was,  Luke  xiv.  18 :  "  And  they  all,  with 
one  consent,  began  to  make  excuse."  This  was  at  Duffield's 
meeting.  In  the  afternoon,  heard  our  Mr.  Gordon,  in  Arch 
Street :  "  The  Lord  is  nigh  unto  all  that  call  upon  him."  Called 
upon  Stephen  Collins,  who  has  just  returned.  Stephen  has  a 
thousand  things  to  say  to  us,  he  says ;  a  thousand  observations 
to  make.  One  thing  he  told  me  for  my  wife,  who  will  be  peep- 
ing here  some  time  or  other,  and  come  across  it.  He  says,  when 
he  called  at  my  house,  an  English  gentleman  was  with  him ;  a 
man  of  penetration,  though  of  few  words ;  and  this  silent,  pene- 
trating gentleman  was  pleased  with  Mrs.  Adams,  and  thought 
her  the  most  accomplished  lady  he  had  seen  since  he  came  out 
of  England.  Down,  vanity,  for  you  don't  know  who  this  Eng- 
lishman is. 

Dr.  Rush  came  in.  He  is  an  elegant,  ingenious  body,  a  spright- 
ly, pretty  fellow.  He  is  a  republican  ;  he  has  been  much  in  Lon- 
don ;  acquainted  with  Sawbridge,  Macaulay,  Burgh,  and  others 
of  that  stamp.  Dilly  sends  him  books  and  pamphlets,  and  Saw- 
bridge  and  Macaulay  correspond  with  him.  He  complains  of 
D. ;  says  the  Committee  of  Safety  are  not  the  representatives  of 
the  people,  and  therefore  not  their  legislators;  yet  they  have 
been  making  laws,  a  whole  code,  for  a  navy.  This  committee 
was  chosen  by  the  House,  but  half  of  them  are  not  members, 
and  therefore  not  the  choice  of  the  people.  All  this  is  just.  He- 
mentions  many  particular  instances  in  which  Dickinson  has 
blundered ;  he  thinks  him  warped  by  the  Quaker  interest  and 
the  church  interest  too ;  thinks  his  reputation  past  the  meridian, 


428  DIARY.  [1775. 

and  that  avarice  is  growing  upon  him.  Says  that  Henry  and 
Mifflin  both  complained  to  him  very  much  about  him.  But 
Rush,  I  think,  is  too  much  of  a  talker  to  be  a  deep  thinker ;  ele- 
gant, not  great.  In  the  evening,  Mr.  Bullock  and  Mr.  Houston, 
two  gentlemen  from  Georgia,  came  into  our  room,  and  smoked 
and  chatted  the  whole  evening.  Houston  and  Adams  disputed 
the  whole  time  in  good  humor.  They  are  both  dabs  at  dispu- 
tation, I  think.  Houston,  a  lawyer  by  trade,  is  one  of  course,  and 
Adams  is  not  a  whit  less  addicted  to  it  than  the  lawyers.  The 
question  was,  whether  all  America  was  not  in  a  state  of  war, 
and  whether  we  ought  to  confine  ourselves  to  act  upon  the 
defensive  only  ?  He  was  for  acting  offensively,  next  spring  or 
this  fall,  if  the  petition  was  rejected  or  neglected.  If  it  was 
not  answered,  and  favorably  answered,  he  would  be  for  acting 
against  Britain  and  Britons,  as,  in  open  war,  against  French 
and  Frenchmen ;  fit  privateers,  and  take  their  ships  anywhere. 
These  gentlemen  give  a  melancholy  account  of  the  State  of 
Georgia  and  South  Carolina.  They  say  that  if  one  thousand 
regular  troops  should  land  in  Georgia,  and  their  commander  be 
provided  with  arms  and  clothes  enough,  and  proclaim  freedom 
to  all  the  negroes  who  would  join  his  camp,  twenty  thousand 
negroes  would  join  it  from  the  two  Provinces  in  a  fortnight. 
The  negroes  have  a  wonderful  art  of  communicating  intelligence 
among  themselves ;  it  will  run  several  hundreds  of  miles  in  a 
week  or  fortnight.  They  say,  their  only  security  is  this ;  that  all 
the  king's  friends,  and  tools  of  government,  have  large  planta- 
tions, and  property  in  negroes ;  so  that  the  slaves  of  the  Tories 
would  be  lost,  as  well  as  those  of  the  Whigs. 

I  had  nearly  forgot  a  conversation,  with  Dr.  Coombe,  con- 
cerning assassination,  Henry  IV.,  Buckingham,  Sully,  &c.  &c. 
&c.     Coombe  has  read  Sully's  Memoirs  with  great  attention. 

25.  Monday.  Rode  out  of  town,  and  dined  with  Mr.  Mc- 
Pherson.  He  has  the  most  elegant  seat  in  Pennsylvania,  a 
clever  Scotch  wife,  and  two  pretty  daughters.  His  seat  is  on 
the  banks  of  the  Schuylkill.  He  has  been  nine  times  wounded 
in  battle ;  an  old  sea  commander ;  made  a  fortune  by  privateer- 
ing ;  an  arm  twice  shot  off,  shot  through  the  leg,  &c.  He  renews 
his  proposals  of  taking  or  burning  ships.  Spent  the  evening 
with  Lynch  at  the  City  Tavern.  He  thinks  the  row  gallies  and 
vaisseaux  defrise  inadequate  to  the  expense. 


Mt.  39.]  DIARY.  499 

27.  Wednesday.  Mr.  Bullock  and  Mr.  Houston,  the  gentle- 
men from  Georgia,  invited  S.  A.  and  me  to  spend  the  evening 
with  them  in  their  chamber,  which  we  did  very  agreeably  and 
sociably.  Mr.  Langdon,  of  New  Hampshire  was  with  us.  Mr. 
Bullock,  after  dinner,  invited  me  to  take  a  ride  with  him  in  his 
phaeton,  which  I  did.  He  is  a  solid,  clever  man.  He  was  Presi- 
dent of  their  Convention. 

28.  Thursday.  The  Congress  and  the  Assembly  of  this  Pro- 
vince were  invited  to  make  an  excursion,  upon  Delaware  River, 
in  the  new  row  gallies  built  by  the  Committee  of  Safety  of  this 
Colony.  About  ten  in  the  morning  we  all  embarked.  The 
names  of  the  gallies  are  the  Washington,  the  Effingham,  the 
Franklin,  the  Dickinson,  the  Otter,  the  Bull  Dog,  and  one  more 
whose  name  I  have  forgot.  We  passed  down  the  river,  by 
Gloucester,  where  the  vaisseaux  defrise  are.  These  are  frames  of 
timber,  to  be  filled  with  stones,  and  sunk  in  three  rows  in  the 
channel.  I  went  in  the  Bull  Dog,  Captain  Alexander,  com- 
mander, Mr.  Hillegas,  Mr.  Owen  Biddle,  and  Mr.  Rittenhouse, 
and  Captain  Faulkner  were  with  me.  Hillegas  is  one  of  our 
continental  treasurers  ;  is  a  great  musician ;  talks  perpetually 
of  the  forte  and  piano,  of  Handel,  &c.  and  songs  and  tunes. 
He  plays  upon  the  fiddle.  Rittenhouse  is  a  mechanic ;  a  math- 
ematician, a  philosopher,  and  an  astronomer.  Biddle  is  said  to 
be  a  great  mathematician.  Both  are  members  of  the  American 
Philosophical  Society.  I  mentioned  Mr.  Cranch  to  them  for  a 
member.  Our  intention  was  to  have  gone  down  to  the  fort,  but 
the  winds  and  tide  being  unfavorable,  we  returned  by  the  city, 
and  went  up  the  river  to  Point-no-Point ;  a  pretty  place.  On  our 
return,  Dr.  Rush,  Dr.  Zubly,  and  Counsellor  Ross,  brother  of 
George  Ross,  joined  us.  Ross  is  a  lawyer  of  great  eloquence, 
and  heretofore  of  extensive  practice ;  a  great  Tory,  they  say,  but 
now  begins  to  be  converted.  He  said  the  Americans  were 
making  the  noblest  and  firmest  resistance  to  tyranny  that  ever 
was  made  by  any  people.  The  acts  were  founded  in  wrong, 
injustice,  and  oppression ;  the  great  town  of  Boston  had  been 
remarkably  punished  without  being  heard.  Rittenhouse  is  a 
tall,  slender  man,  plain,  soft,  modest,  no  remarkable  depth  or 
thoughtfulness  in  his  face,  yet  cool,  attentive,  and  clear. 

October  25.  Wednesday.  Mr.  Duane  told  me,  at  the  funeral 
of  our  late  virtuous  and  able  President,  that  he,  Mi-.  Duane,  had 


430  DIARY.  [1775. 

accustomed  himself  to  read  the  Year  Books.  Mr.  De  Lancey, 
who  was  Chief  Justice  of  New  York,  he  said,  advised  him  to  it, 
as  the  best  method  of  imbibing  the  spirit  of  the  law.  De  Lan- 
cey told  him  that  he  had  translated  a  pile  of  cases  from  the  Year 
Books,  although  he  was  a  very  lazy  man.  Duane  says,  jthat_ 
Jefferson  is  the  greatest  rubber  off  of  dust  that  he  has  met  with ; 
that  he  has  learned  French,  Italian,  Spanish,  and  wants  to  learn 
German.  Duane  says  he  has  no  curiosity  at  all,  not  the  least 
inclination,  to  see  a  city  or  a  building,  &c. ;  that  his  memory 
fails,  is  very  averse  to  be  burthened  ;  that  in  his  youth  he  could 
remember  any  thing ;  nothing  but  what  he  could  learn ;  but  it  is 
very  different  now. 

Last  evening,  Mr.  Hewes,  of  North  Carolina,  introduced  to 
my  namesake  and  me  a  Mr.  Hogg,  from  that  Colony,  one  of  the 
proprietors  of  Transylvania,  a  late  purchase  from  the  Cherokees 
upon  the  Ohio.  He  is  an  associate  with  Henderson,  who  was 
lately  one  of  the  associate  judges  of  North  Carolina,  who  is 
President  of  the  Convention  in  Transylvania.  These  proprie- 
tors have  no  grant  from  the  Crown,  nor  from  any  Colony ;  are 
within  the  limits  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  by  their  chart- 
ers, which  bound  those  Colonies  in  the  South  Sea.  They  are 
charged  with  republican  notions  and  Utopian  schemes.1 

29.  Sunday.  Paine  brought  in  a  large  sample  of  saltpetre, 
made  in  this  city  by  Mr.  Ripsama.  It  is  very  good,  large,  and 
burns  off,  when  laid  upon  a  coal,  like  moist  powder.  I  tried  it. 
Heard  Mr.  Carmichael,  at  Mr.  Duffield's,  on  "  Trust  in  the  Lord 
and  do  good,  so  shall  you  dwell  in  the  land,  and  verily  thou  shalt 
be  fed." 

December  9.  Saturday.  Having  yesterday  asked  and  obtained 
leave  of  Congress  to  go  home  this  morning,  I  mounted,  with  my 
own  servant  only,  about  twelve  o'clock,  and  reached  the  Red 
Lion  about  two,  where  I  dine.  The  roads  very  miry  and  dirty ; 
the  weather  pleasant  and  not  cold. 

10.  Sunday.  Rode  from  Bristol  to  Trenton,  breakfasted,  rode 
to  Princeton,  and  dined  with  a  Captain  Flahaven,  in  Lord  Stir- 
ling's regiment,  who  has  been  express  to  Congress  from  his  lord- 
ship.    Flahaven's  father  lives  in  this  Province.     He  has  lived  in 

1  An  interesting  report  of  this  conference  was  made  by  Mr.  Hogg,  which  is 
found  in  full  in  Force's  American  Archives,  fourth  series,  vol.  iv.  p.  543. 


Mt.  40.]  DIARY.  431 

Maryland.  Says  that  the  Virginia  Convention,  granting  the 
Scotch  petition  to  be  neutral,  has  done  all  the  mischief,  and  been 
the  support  of  Lord  Dunmore.  He  says  the  Scotch  are,  in  some 
parts  of  Virginia,  powerful ;  that,  in  Alexandria,  he  has  heard 
them  cursing  the  Congress,  and  vilifying  not  only  their  public 
proceedings,  but  their  private  characters.  He  has  heard  them 
decrying  the  characters  of  the  Maryland  delegates,  particularly 
Chase,  and  the  Virginia  delegates,  particularly  Lee,  Henry,  and 
Washington.  Last  evening,  when  I  dismounted  at  Bristol,  the 
taverner  showed  me  into  a  room  where  was  a  young  gentleman 
very  elegantly  dressed,  with  whom  I  spent  the  evening ;  his 
name  I  could  not  learn.  He  told  me  he  had  been  an  officer  in 
the  army,  but  had  sold  out.  I  had  much  conversation  with  him, 
and  some  of  it  very  free.  He  told  me  we  had  two  valuable 
prizes  among  the  prisoners  taken  at  Chambly  and  St.  Johns ; 
a  Mr.  Barrington,  nephew  of  Lord  Barrington,  and  a  Captain 
Williams,  who,  he  says,  is  the  greatest  officer  in  the  service.  He 
gives  a  most  exalted  character  of  Williams  as  a  mathematician, 
philosopher,  engineer,  and  in  all  other  accomplishments  of  an 
officer.  In  the  evening,  Mr.  Baldwin  came  to  see  me.  We 
waited  on  Dr.  Witherspoon,  the  President  of  the  college,  where 
we  saw  Mr.  Smith  and  two  other  of  the  light-horse,  from  Phila- 
delphia, going  to  the  camp  with  a  wagon. 


1776.  January  24.  Wednesday.  Began  my  journey  to  Phil- 
adelphia. Dined  at  C.  Mifflin's,  at  Cambridge,  with  G.  Wash- 
ington and  Gates  and  their  ladies,  and  half  a  dozen  sachems 
and  warriors  of  the  French  Caghnawaga  tribe,  with  their  wives 
and  children.  Williams  is  one  who  was  captured  in  his  infancy 
and  adopted.  There  is  a  mixture  of  white  blood,  French  or 
English,  in  most  of  them.  Louis,  their  principal,  speaks  Eng- 
lish and  French,  as  well  as  Indian.  It  was  a  savage  feast,  car- 
nivorous animals  devouring  their  prey ;  yet  they  were  wondrous 
polite.  The  General  introduced  me  to  them  as  one  of  the  grand 
council  fire  at  Philadelphia,  upon  which  they  made  me  many 
bows  and  a  cordial  reception. 

25.  Thursday.  About  ten,  Mr.  Gerry  called  me,  and  we  rode 
to  Framingham,  where  we  dined.  Colonel  Buckminster,  after 
dinner,  showed  us  the   train  of  artillery  brought  down  from 


432  DIARY.  [1776. 

Ticonderoga  by  Colonel  Knox.  It  consists  of  iron,  nine  eigh- 
teen pounders,  ten  twelve,  six  six,  four  nine  pounders ;  three 
thirteen  inch  mortars,  two  ten  inch  mortars ;  one  eight  inch 
and  one  six  and  a  half  howitzer ;  and  one  eight  inch  and  a 
half,  and  one  eight.  Brass  cannon :  eight  three  pounders,  one 
four  pounder,  two  six  pounders,  one  eighteen,  and  one  twenty- 
four  pounder ;  one  eight  inch  and  a  half  mortar,  one  seven  inch 
and  a  half  dts.  and  five  cohorns. 

After  dinner,  rode  to  Maynard's,  and  supped  there  very  agree- 
ably. 

26.  Friday.  Stopped  at  Stearns's,  in  Worcester,  and  dined 
with  Mr.  Lincoln  at  Mr.  Jonathan  Williams's.  In  Putnam's 
office,  where  I  formerly  trimmed  the  midnight  lamp,  Mr.  Wil- 
liams keeps  Law's  works,  and  Jacob  Behmen's,  with  whose  mys- 
tical reveries  he  is  much  captivated. 

28.  Sunday.  Mr.  Upham  informs  that  this  town  of  Brookfield 
abounds  with  a  stone,  out  of  which  alum,  copperas,  and  sulphur 
are  made.  Out  of  one  bushel  of  this  stone,  he  made  five  pounds 
of  copperas ;  —  he  put  the  stone  into  a  tub,  poured  water  on  it, 
let  it  stand  two  or  three  days,  then  drew  it  off,  and  boiled  the 
liquor  away ;  let  it  stand  and  it  shot  into  a  kind  of  crystals ; 
adding  chamber-lye  and  alkaline  salts  to  the  copperas,  and  that 
makes  alum.  "  We  made  some  sulphur  by  sublimation ;  we  put 
four  quarts  of  stone  into  an  iron  kettle,  laid  a  wooden  cover  over 
the  kettle,  leaving  a  hole  in  the  middle,  then  we  put  an  earthern 
pot  over  the  top  of  the  kettle,  and  cemented  it  with  clay,  then 
made  a  fire  under  the  kettle,  and  the  sulphur  sublimated;  we 
got  about  a  spoonful.  We  have  found  a  bed  of  yellow  ochre  in 
this  town.  I  got  twelve  hundred  weight.  We  make  Spanish 
brown  by  burning  the  yellow  ochre." 

29.  Monday.  Rode  to  Springfield.  Dined  at  Scott's.  Heard 
that  the  cannon  at  Kingsbridge,  in  New  York,  were  spiked  up ; 
that  dry  goods,  English  goods,  were  sent  round  to  New  York 
from  Boston,  and  from  New  York  sold  all  over  New  England, 
and  sent  down  to  camp;  that  Tryon  has  issued  writs  for  the 
choice  of  a  new  Assembly,  and  that  the  writs  were  likely  to  be 
obeyed,  and  the  Tories  were  likely  to  carry  a  majority  of  mem- 
bers. 


Mr.  41.]  DIARY.  433 

October  13.1  Sunday.  Set  out  from  Philadelphia  towards 
Boston.  Oated  at  the  Red  Lion ;  dined  at  Bristol ;  crossed 
Trenton  Ferry  long  before  sunset;  drank  coffee  at  the  ferry- 
house  on  the  east  side  of  the  Delaware,  where  I  put  up,  partly  to 
avoid  riding  in  the  evening  air,  and  partly  because  thirty  miles 
is  enough  for  the  first  day,  as  my  tendons  are  delicate,  not  having 
been  once  on  horseback  since  the  eighth  day  of  last  February. 

1777.  February  6.  Thursday.  Lodged  last  night,  for  the 
first  time,  in  my  new  quarters,  at  Mrs.  Ross's,  in  Market  Street, 
Baltimore,  a  few  doors  below  the  Fountain  Inn. 

The  gentlemen  from  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland  complain 
of  the  growing  practice  of  distilling  wheat  into  whiskey.  They 
say  it  will  become  a  question,  whether  the  people  shall  eat  bread 
or  drink  whiskey.  The  Congress  sits  in  the  last  house  at  the 
west  end  of  Market  Street,  on  the  south  side  of  the  street ;  a 
long  chamber,  with  two  fire-places,  two  large  closets,  and  two 
doors.    The  house  belongs  to  a  Quaker,  who  built  it  for  a  tavern. 

7.  Friday.  Dined  about  half  a  mile  out  of  town,  at  Mr.  Lux's, 
with  Dr.  Witherspoon,  Mr.  S.  Adams,  Mr.  Lovel,  Mr.  Hall,  Dr. 
Thornton,  a  Mr.  Harrison,  Dr.  ,  and  Mr.  George  Lux, 
and  two  ladies,  Mrs.  Lux  and  her  sister.  This  seat  is  named 
Chatworth,  and  an  elegant  one  it  is ;  has  a  large  yard,  enclosed 
with  stone  in  lime,  and  before  the  yard  two  fine  rows  of  large 
cherry  trees,  which  lead  out  to  the  public  road ;  there  is  a  fine 
prospect  about  it.  Mr.  Lux  and  his  son  are  sensible  gentlemen. 
I  had  much  conversation,  with  George,  about  the  new  form  of 
government  adopted  in  Maryland.  George  is  the  young  gentle- 
man by  whom  I  sent  letters  to  my  friends,  from  Philadelphia, 
when  the  army  was  at  Cambridge,  particularly  to  Colonel  War- 
ren, whom,  and  whose  lady,  Lux  so  much  admired.  The  whole 
family  profess  great  zeal  in  the  American  cause.  Mr.  Lux  lives 
like  a  Prince. 

8.  Saturday.  Dined  at  the  President's,  with  Mr.  Lux,  Messrs. 
Samuel  and  Robert  Purviance,  Captain  Nicholson,  of  the  Mary- 
land frigate,   Colonel  Harrison,  Wilson,   Mr.  Hall,  upon  New 

1  "  I  suppose  your  ladyship  has  been  in  the  twitters,  for  some  time,  because 
you  have  not  received  a  letter  by  every  post,  as  you  used  to  do.  But  I  am 
coming  to  make  my  apology  in  person.  I  yesterday  asked  and  obtained  leave 
of  absence."     /.  A.  to  his  Wife,  11  October. 

VOL.   II.  37  b2 


434  DIARY.  [1777. 

England  salt  fish.  The  weather  was  rainy,  and  the  streets  the 
muddiest  I  ever  saw.  This  is  the  dirtiest  place  in  the  world. 
Our  Salem  and  Portsmouth  are  neat  in  comparison.  The  inhab- 
itants, however,  are  excusable,  because  they  had  determined  to 
pave  the  streets,  before  this  war  came  on,  since  which  they  have 
laid  the  project  aside,  as  they  are  accessible  to  men-of-war.  This 
place  is  not  incorporated ;  it  is  neither  a  city,  town,  nor  borough, 
so  that  they  can  do  nothing  with  authority. 

9.  Sunday.  Heard  Mr.  Allison.  In  the  evening,  walked  to 
Fell's  Point,  the  place  where  the  ships  lie  ;  a  kind  of  peninsula, 
which  runs  out  into  the  basin,  which  lies  before  Baltimore  town. 
This  basin,  thirty  years  ago,  was  deep  enough  for  large  tobacco 
ships,  but  since  then  has  filled  up  ten  feet ;  between  the  town 
and  the  point,  we  pass  a  bridge,  over  a  little  brook,  which  is  the 
only  stream  which  runs  into  the  basin,  and  the  only  flux  of  water, 
which  is  to  clear  away  the  dirt  which  flows  into  the  basin  from 
the  foul  streets  of  the  town,  and  the  neighboring  hills  and  fields. 
There  is  a  breast-work  thrown  up  upon  the  Point  with  a  number 
of  embrasures,  for  cannon,  facing  the  entrance  into  the  harbor. 
The  Virginia  frigate,  Captain  Nicholson,  lies  off  in  the  stream. 
There  is  a  number  of  houses  upon  this  Point ;  you  have  a  fine 
view  of  the  town  of  Baltimore  from  this  Point.  On  my  return, 
I  stopped  and  drank  tea  at  Captain  Smith's,  a  gentleman  of  the 
new  Assembly. 

16.  Sunday.  Last  evening,  I  supped  with  my  friends,  Dr. 
Rush  and  Mr.  Sergeant,  at  Mrs.  Page's,  over  the  bridge.  The 
two  Colonel  Lees,  Dr.  Witherspoon,  Mr.  Adams,  Mr.  Gerry,  Dr. 
Brownson,  made  the  company.  They  have  a  fashion,  in  this 
town,  of  reversing  the  picture  of  King  George  III.  in  such  fami- 
lies as  have  it.  One  of  these  topsy-turvy  kings  was  hung  up  in 
the  room  where  we  supped,  and  under  it  were  written  these  lines, 
by  Mr.  Throop,  as  we  are  told. 

Behold  the  man,  who  had  it  in  his  power 

To  make  a  kingdom  tremble  and  adore, 

Intoxicate  with  folly.     See  his  head 

Placed  where  the  meanest  of  his  subjects  tread. 

Like  Lncifer,  the  giddy  tyrant  fell ; 

He  lifts  his  heel  to  Heaven,  but  points  his  head  to  Hell. 

17.  Monday.     Yesterday,  heard  Dr.  Witherspoon,  upon  re- 


.Ex.  41.]  DIARY.  435 

deeming  time ;  an  excellent  sermon.  I  find  that  I  understand 
the  Doctor  better  since  I  have  heard  him  so  much  in  conver- 
sation, and  in  the  Senate ;  but  I  perceive  that  his  attention  to 
civil  affairs  has  slackened  his  memory ;  it  cost  him  more  pains 
than  heretofore  to  recollect  his  discourse.  Mr.  Hancock  told 
C.  W.,  yesterday,  that  he  had  determined  to  go  to  Boston  in 
April.  Mrs.  Hancock  was  not  willing  to  go  till  May,  but  Mr. 
Hancock  was  determined  upon  April.  Perhaps  the  choice  of  a 
Governor  may  come  on  in  May.  What  aspiring  little  creatures 
we  are!  How  subtle,  sagacious,  and  judicious  this  passion  is! 
How  clearly  it  sees  its  object,  how  constantly  it  pursues  it,  and 
what  wise  plans  it  devises  for  obtaining  it ! 

21.  Friday.  Dined,  yesterday,  at  Mr.  Samuel  Purviance's. 
Mr.  Robert,  his  brother  and  lady,  the  President  and  lady,  the 
two  Colonel  Lees  and  their  ladies,  Mr.  Page  and  his  lady, 
Colonel  Whipple,  Mrs.  K.  Quincy,  a  young  gentleman  and  a 
young  lady,  made  the  company ;  a  great  feast.  The  Virginia 
ladies  had  ornaments  about  their  wrists  which  I  don't  remember 
to  have  seen  before.  These  ornaments  were  like  miniature  pic- 
tures, bound  round  the  arms  with  some  chains.  This  morning, 
received  a  long  card  from  Mr.  H.  expressing  great  resentment 
about  fixing  the  magazine  at  Brookfield,  against  the  bookbinder 
and  the  General.  The  complaisance  to  me,  and  the  jealousy 
for  the  Massachusetts,  in  this  message,  indicate  to  me  the  same 
passion  and  the  same  design  with  the  journey  to  Boston  in  April. 

23.  Sunday.  Took  a  walk,  with  Mr.  Gerry,  down  to  a  place 
called  Ferry  Branch  ;  a  point  of  land  which  is  formed  by  a 
branch  of  the  Patapsco  on  one  side,  and  the  basin,  before  the 
town  of  Baltimore,  on  the  other.  At  the  point  is  a  ferry  over 
to  the  road  which  goes  to  Annapolis ;  this  is  a  very  pretty  walk. 
At  the  point  you  have  a  full  view  of  the  elegant,  splendid  seat 
of  Mr.  Carroll,  barrister.  It  is  a  large  and  elegant  house  ;  it 
stands  fronting  looking  down  the  river  into  the  harbor;  it  is  one 
mile  from  the  water.  There  is  a  most  beautiful  walk  from  the 
house  down  to  the  water ;  there  is  a  descent  not  far  from  the 
house ;  —  you  have  a  fine  garden,  then  you  descend  a  few  steps 
and  have  another  fine  garden ;  you  go  down  a  few  more  and 
have  another.  It  is  now  the  dead  of  winter ;  no  verdure  or 
bloom  to  be  seen ;  but  in  the  spring,  summer,  and  fall,  this  scene 
must  be  very  pretty.     Returned  and  dined  with   Mr.  William 


436  DIARY.  [17  7  7. 

Smith,  a  new  member  of  Congress.  Dr.  Lyon,  Mr.  Merriman, 
Mr.  Gerry,  a  son  of  Mr.  Smith,  and  two  other  gentlemen,  made 
the  company.  The  conversation  turned,  among  other  things, 
upon  removing  the  obstructions  and  opening  the  navigation  of 
Susquehannah  River.  The  company  thought  it  might  easily 
be  done,  and  would  open  an  amazing  scene  of  business.  Phil- 
adelphia will  oppose  it,  but  it  will  be  the  interest  of  a  majority 
of  Pennsylvania  to  effect  it. 

This  Mr.  Smith  is  a  grave,  solid  gentleman,  a  Presbyterian  by 
profession ;  a  very  different  man  from  the  most  of  those  we  have 
heretofore  had  from  Maryland. 

The  manners  of  Maryland  are  somewhat  peculiar.  They  have 
but  few  merchants.  They  are  chiefly  planters  and  farmers ;  the 
planters  are  those  who  raise  tobacco,  and  the  farmers  such  as 
raise  wheat,  &c.  The  lands  are  cultivated,  and  all  sorts  of 
trades  are  exercised  by  negroes,  or  by  transported  convicts, 
which  has  occasioned  the  planters  and  farmers  to  assume  the 
title  of  gentlemen ;  and  they  hold  their  negroes  and  convicts, 
that  is,  all  laboring  people  and  tradesmen,  in  such  contempt, 
that  they  think  themselves  a  distinct  order  of  beings.  Hence 
they  never  will  suffer  their  sons  to  labor  or  learn  any  trade  but 
they  bring  them  up  in  idleness,  or,  what  is  worse,  in  horse-racing, 
cock-fighting,  and  card-playing. 

28.  Friday.  Last  evening,  had  a  good  deal  of  free  conversa- 
tion with  Mr.  R.  Purviance.  He  seems  to  me  to  have  a  per- 
fect understanding  of  the  affairs  of  this  State.  Men  and  things 
are  very  well  known  to  him. 

The  object  of  the  men  of  property  here,  the  planters,  &c,  is 
universally  wealth.  Every  way  in  the  world  is  sought  to  get 
and  save  money.  Landjobbers,  speculators  in  land;  little  gen- 
erosity to  the  public,  little  public  spirit. 


September  15.  Monday.  Friday,  the  12th,  I  removed  from 
Captain  Duncan's,  in  Walnut  Street,  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Sprout's 
in  Third  Street,  a  few  doors  from  his  meeting-house.  Mr.  Mar- 
chant,  from  Rhode  Island,  boards  here  with  me.  Mr.  Sprout  is 
sick  of  a  fever.  Mrs.  Sprout  and  the  four  young  ladies,  her 
daughters,  are  in  great  distress,  on  account  of  his  sickness  and 
the  approach  of  Mr.  Howe's  army ;  but  they  bear  their  affliction 


JEt.  41.]  DIARY.  137 

with  Christian  patience  and  philosophic  fortitude.  The  young 
ladies  are  Miss  Hannah,  Olive,  Sally,  and  Nancy.  The  only 
son  is  an  officer  in  the  army;  he  was  the  first  clerk  in  the 
American  war-office. 

We  live  in  critical  moments !  Mr.  Howe's  army  is  at  Mid- 
dleton  and  Concord.  Mr.  Washington's,  upon  the  western 
banks  of  Schuylkill,  a  few  miles  from  him.  I  saw,  this  morn- 
ing, an  excellent  chart  of  the  Schuylkill,  Chester  River,  the 
Brandywine,  and  this  whole  country,  among  the  Pennsylvania 
files.  This  city  is  the  stake  for  which  the  game  is  played.  I 
think  there  is  a  chance  for  .saving  it,  although  the  probability  is 
against  us.  Mr.  Howe,  I  conjecture,  is  waiting  for  his  ships  to 
come  into  the  Delaware.  Will  Washington  attack  him  ?  I 
hope  so ;  and  God  grant  him  success. 

16.  Tuesday.  No  newspaper  this  morning.  Mr.  Dunlap  has 
moved  or  packed  up  his  types.  A  note  from  General  Dickinson, 
that  the  enemy  in  New  Jersey  are  four  thousand  strong.  Howe 
is  about  fifteen  miles  from  us,  the  other  way.  The  city  seems  to 
be  asleep,  or  dead,  and  the  whole  State  scarce  alive.  Maryland 
and  Delaware  the  same.  The  prospect  is  chilling  on  every  side  ; 
gloomy,  dark,  melancholy,  and  dispiriting.  When  and  where 
will  the  light  spring  up  ?  Shall  we  have  good  news  from 
Europe  ?  Shall  we  hear  of  a  blow  struck  by  Gates  ?  Is  there 
a  possibility  that  Washington  should  beat  Howe  ?  Is  there 
a  prospect  that  McDougall  and  Dickinson  should  destroy  the 
detachment  in  the  Jerseys  ?  From  whence  is  our  deliverance  to 
come  ?  or  is  it  not  to  come  ?  Is  Philadelphia  to  be  lost  ?  If 
lost,  is  the  cause  lost?  No  ;  the  cause  is  not  lost,  but  it  may  be 
hurt.  I  seldom  regard  reports,  but  it  is  said  that  Howe  has 
marked  his  course  from  Elk  with  depredation.  His  troops  have 
plundered  hen-roosts,  dairy-rooms,  the  furniture  of  houses,  and 
all  the  cattle  in  the  country.  The  inhabitants,  most  of  whom 
are  Quakers,  are  angry  and  disappointed,  because  they  were 
promised  the  security  of  their  property.  It  is  reported,  too,  that 
Mi\  Howe  lost  great  numbers  in  the  battle  of  the  Brandywine. 

18.  Thursday.  The  violent  north-east  storm,  which  began  the 
day  before  yesterday,  continues.  We  are  yet  in  Philadelphia, 
thitt  mass  of  cowardice  and  Toryism.  Yesterday,  was  buried 
Monsieur  Du  Coudray,  a  French  officer  of  artillery,  who  was 
lately  made  an  Inspector- General  of  artillery  and  military  man- 

37* 


438  DIARY.  [1777. 

ufactures,  with  the  rank  of  Major- General.  He  was  drowned  in 
the  Schuylkill,  in  a  strange  manner.  He  rode  into  the  ferry- 
boat, and  rode  out  at  the  other  end  into  the  river,  and  was 
drowned.  His  horse  took  fright.  He  was  reputed  the  most 
learned  and  promising  officer  in  France.  He  was  carried  into 
the  Romish  Chapel,  and  buried  in  the  yard  of  that  church. 
This  dispensation  will  save  us  much  altercation.1 

19.  Friday.  At  three,  this  morning,  was  waked  by  Mr.  Lovel, 
and  told  that  the  members  of  Congress  were  gone,  some  of  them, 
a  little  after  midnight ;  that  there  was  a  letter  from  Mr.  Hamil- 
ton, aid-de-camp  to  the  General,  informing  that  the  enemy  were 
in  possession  of  the  ford  and  the  boats,  and  had  it  in  their 
power  to  be  in  Philadelphia  before  morning,  and  that,  if  Con- 
gress was  not  removed,  they  had  not  a  moment  to  lose.  Mr. 
Marchant  and  myself  arose,  sent  for  our  horses,  and,  after  col- 
lecting our  things,  rode  off  after  the  others.  Breakfasted  at 
Bristol,  where  were  many  members  determined  to  go  the  New- 
town road  to  Reading.  We  rode  to  Trenton,  where  we  dined. 
Colonel  Harrison,  Dr.  Witherspoon,  all  the  delegates  from  New 
York  and  New  England,  except  Gerry  and  Lovel.  Drank  tea 
at  Mr.  Spencer's ;  lodged  at  Mr.  S.  Tucker's,  at  his  kind  invita- 
tion. 

20.  Saturday.  Breakfasted  at  Mrs.  J.  B.  Smith's.  The  old 
gentleman,  his  son  Thomas,  the  loan  officer,  were  here,  and  Mrs. 
Smith's  little  son  and  two  daughters.  An  elegant  breakfast  we 
had,  of  fine  Hyson,  loaf  sugar,  and  coffee,  &c.  Dined  at  Wil- 
liams's, the  sign  of  the  Green  Tree ;  drank  tea  with  Mr.  Thom- 
son and  his  lady  at  Mrs.  Jackson's ;  walked  with  Mr.  Duane  to 
General  Dickinson's  house,  and  took  a  look  at  his  farm  and 
gardens,  and  his  greenhouse,  which  is  a  scene  of  desolation ;  the 
floor  of  the  greenhouse  is  dug  up,  by  the  Hessians,  in  search  for 
money ;  the  orange,  lemon,  and  lime  trees,  are  all  dead,  with  the 
leaves  on ;  there  is  a  spacious  ball-room,  above  stairs,  a  drawing- 
room,  and  a  whispering-room ;  in  another  apartment,  a  huge 
crash  of  glass  bottles,  which  the  Hessians  had  broke,  I  suppose. 
These  are  thy  triumphs,  mighty  Britain !  Mr.  Law,  Mr.  Han- 
cock, Mr.  Thomson,  Mr. ,  were  here.     Spent  the  evening  at 

1  The  difficulties,  growing  out  of  Mr.  Deane's  engagement  with  this  officer,  in 
France,  were  such  that  Congress  refused  to  ratify  it.  See  Sparks'*  Washing- 
ton, vol.  iv.  p.  490. 


Mt.  41.]  DIARY.  439 

Williams's,  and  slept  again  at  Tucker's.  Mrs.  Tucker  has  about 
sixteen  hundred  pounds  sterling,  in  some  of  the  funds  in  Eng- 
land, which  she  is  in  fear  of  losing.  She  is,  accordingly,  pas- 
sionately wishing  for  peace,  and  that  the  battle  was  fought  once 
for  all ;  says  that  private  property  will  be  plundered  where  there 
is  an  army,  whether  of  friends  or  enemies ;  that  if  the  two  oppo- 
site armies  were  to  come  here,  alternately,  ten  times,  she  would 
stand  by  her  property  until  she  should  be  killed ;  if  she  must  be 
a  beggar,  it  should  be  where  she  was  known,  &c.  This  kind  of 
conversation  shows  plainly  enough  how  well  she  is  pleased  with 
the  state  of  things. 

21.  Sunday.  It  was  a  false  alarm  which  occasioned  our  flight 
from  Philadelphia.  Not  a  soldier  of  Howe's  has  crossed  the 
Schuylkill.  Washington  has  again  crossed  it,  which  I  think  is 
a  very  injudicious  manoeuvre.  I  think  his  army  would  have 
been  best  disposed  on  the  west  side  of  the  Schuylkill.  If  he  had 
sent  one  brigade  of  his  regular  troops  to  have  headed  the  militia, 
it  would  have  been  enough.  With  such  a  disposition,  he  might 
have  cut  to  pieces  Howe's  army,  in  attempting  to  cross  any  of 
the  fords.  Howe  will  not  attempt  it.  He  will  wait  for  his  fleet 
in  Delaware  River ;  he  will  keep  open  his  line  of  communication 
with  Brunswick,  and  at  last,  by  some  deception  or  other,  will 
slip  unhurt  into  the  city. 

Burgoyne  has  crossed  Hudson's  River,  by  which  General 
Gates  thinks  he  is  determined  at  all  hazards  to  push  for  Albany, 
which  General  Gates  says  he  will  do  all  in  his  power  to  prevent 
him  from  reaching.  But  I  confess  I  am  anxious  for  the  event, 
for  I  fear  he  will  deceive  Gates,  who  seems  to  be  acting  the 
same  timorous,  defensive  part,  which  has  involved  us  in  so  many 
disasters.  O,  Heaven !  grant  us  one  great  soul !  One  leading 
mind  would  extricate  the  best  cause  from  that  ruin  which  seems 
to  await  it  for  the  want  of  it.  We  have  as  good  a  cause  as  ever 
was  fought  for ;  we  have  great  resources ;  the  people  are  well 
tempered ;  one  active,  masterly  capacity,  would  bring  order  out 
of  this  confusion,  and  save  this  country. 

22.  Monday.  Breakfasted  at  Ringold's,  in  Quaker  Town ; 
dined  at  Shannon's,  in  Easton,  at  the  Forks  ;  slept  at  John- 
son's, in  Bethlehem. 

23.  Tuesday.  Mr.  Okeley,  Mr.  Hassey,  and  Mr.  Edwine, 
came  to  see  me.     Mr.  Edwine  showed  us  the  Children's  Meet- 


440  DIARY.  [17". 

ing,  at  half  after  eight  o'clock ;  music,  consisting  of  an  organ, 
and  singing  in  the  German  language.  Mr.  Edwine  gave  a  dis- 
course in  German,  and  then  the  same  in  English.  Mrs.  Langley 
showed  us  the  Society  of  Single  Women;  then  Mr.  Edwine 
showed  us  the  waterworks  and  the  manufactures;  —  there  are 
six  sets  of  works  in  one  building;  a  hemp-mill,  an  oil-mill,  a 
mill  to  grind  bark  for  the  tanners ;  then  the  fullers-mill,  both  of 
cloth  and  leather,  the  dyer's  house,  and  the  shearer's  house. 
They  raise  a  great  deal  of  madder.  We  walked  among  the 
rows  of  cherry  trees,  with  spacious  orchards  of  apple  trees  on 
each  side  of  the  cherry  walk.  The  Society  of  Single  Men  have 
turned  out  for  the  sick. 

24.  Wednesday.  Fine  morning.  We  all  went  to  meeting, 
last  evening,  where  Mr.  Edwine  gave  the  people  a  short  discourse 
in  German,  and  the  congregation  sung,  and  the  organ  played. 
There  were  about  two  hundred  women  and  as  many  men ;  the 
women  sat  together  in  one  body,  and  the  men  in  another :  the 
women  dressed  all  alike ;  the  women's  heads  resembled  a  garden 

V  of  white  cabbage  heads. 

25.  Thursday.  Rode  from  Bethlehem  through  Allentown, 
yesterday,  to  a  German  tavern,  about  eighteen  miles  from  Read- 
ing ;  rode  this  morning  to  Reading,  where  we  breakfasted,  and 
heard  for  certain  that  Mr.  Howe's  army  had  crossed  the  Schuyl- 
kill. Colonel  Hartley  gave  me  an  account  of  the  late  battle 
between  the  enemy  and  General  Wayne.  Hartley  thinks  that 
the  place  was  improper  for  battle,  and  that  there  ought  to  have 
been  a  retreat. 

November  11.  Tuesday.  Set  off  from  Yorktown;  reached 
Lancaster.  12.  From  Lancaster  to  Reading;  slept  at  General 
Mifflin's.  13.  Reached  Strickser's.  14.  Dined  at  Bethlehem ; 
slept  at  Easton,  at  Colonel  Hooper's ;  supped  at  Colonel  Dean's. 
Met  Messrs.  Ellery  and  Dana,  and  Colonel  Brown,  on  the  15th, 
a  few  miles  on  this  side  of  Reading.  We  have  had  five  days 
of  very  severe  weather ;  raw,  cold,  frosty,  snowy ;  this  cold  comes 
from  afar.  The  lakes,  Champlain  and  George,  have  been  bois- 
terous, if  not  frozen. 

Will  the  enemy  evacuate  Ticonderoga  ?  Are  they  supplied 
with  provisions  for  the  winter  ?  Can  they  bring  them  from  Can- 
ada, by  water  or  ice  ?  Can  they  get  them  in  the  neighboring 
country  ?     Can  we  take  Mount  Independence  in  the  winter  ? 


JEt.  42.]  DIARY.  441 

15.  Saturday.  At  Willis's,  at  the  Log  Jail  in  New  Jersey, 
twenty-eight  miles  from  Easton. 

17.  Monday.  Rode  yesterday  from  Log  Jail,  Willis's ;  break- 
fasted at  Hoffman's,  at  Sussex  Court  House,  and  supped  and 
lodged  at  David  McCambly's,  thirty-four  miles  from  Willis's. 
The  taverners,  all  along,  are  complaining  of  the  guard  of  light- 
horse  which  attended  Mr.  H.  They  did  not  pay,  and  the  tav- 
erners were  obliged  to  go  after  them  to  demand  their  dues.  The 
expense,  which  is  supposed  to  be  the  country's,  is  unpopular. 
The  Tories  laugh  at  the  tavern  keepers,  who  have  often  turned 
them  out  of  their  houses  for  abusing  Mr.  H.  They  now  scoff 
at  them  for  being  imposed  upon  by  their  king,  as  they  call  him. 
Vanity  is  always  mean ;  vanity  is  never  rich  enough  to  be  gen- 
erous. Dined  at  Brewster's,  in  Orange  county,  State  of  New 
York.  Brewster's  grandfather,  as  he  tells  me,  was  a  clergyman, 
and  one  of  the  first  adventurers  to  Plymouth ;  he  died,  at  ninety- 
five  years  of  age,  a  minister  on  Long  Island ;  left  a  son  who 
lived  to  be  above  eighty,  and  died  leaving  my  landlord,  a  son 
who  is  now,  I  believe,  between  sixty  and  seventy.  The  manners 
of  this  family  are  exactly  like  those  of  the  New  England  people  ; 
a  decent  grace  before  and  after  meat ;  fine  pork  and  beef,  and 
cabbage  and  turnip. 

18.  Tuesday.  Lodged  at  Brooks's,  five  miles  from  the  North 
River.  Rode  to  the  Continental  Ferry,  crossed  over,  and  dined 
at  Fishkill,  at  the  Dr's.  Mess,  near  the  Hospital,  with  Dr.  Samuel 
Adams,  Dr.  Eustis,  Mr.  Wells,  &c.  It  was  a  feast ;  —  salt  pork 
and  cabbage,  roast  beef  and  potatoes,  and  a  noble  suet  pudding, 
grog,  and  a  glass  of  Port. 

Our  best  road  home  is  through  Litchfield  and  Springfield. 
Morehouse's  is  a  good  tavern,  about  twenty-four  miles,  three  or 
four  miles  on  this  side  of  Bull's  Iron  Works ;  fifty  miles  to  Litch- 
field ;  Captain  Storm's,  eight  miles ;  Colonel  Vandeborough's, 
five  miles ;  Colonel  Morehouse's,  nine  miles ;  Bull's  Iron  Works, 
four  miles  ;  no  tavern ;  Cogswell's  Iron  Works,  ten  miles ;  a 
tavern ;  Litchfield,  eight  miles ;  cross  Mount  Tom  to  get  to 
Litchfield. 

19.  Wednesday.  Dined  at  Storm's.  Lodged  last  night  and 
breakfasted  this  morning  at  Loudoun's,  at  Fishkill.  Here  we 
are,  at  Colonel  Morehouse's,  a  member  of  Assembly  for  Dutch- 
ess county. 


442  DIARY.  [1777. 

20.  Thursday.  To  Harrington,  Phillips's,  five  miles ;  to  Yale's, 
in  Farmington,  five  miles ;  to  Humphrey's,  in  Simsbury,  seven 
miles ;  to  Owen's,  in  Simsbury,  seven  miles ;  to  Sheldon's,  in 
Suffield,  ten  miles;  Kent's,  in  Suffield,  five  miles;  to  Spring- 
field, ten  miles. 

21.  Friday.  To  Hays's,  Salmon  Brook,  five  miles ;  to  South- 
wick,  Loomis's,  six  miles ;  to  Fowler's,  three  miles ;  to  West- 
field,  Clap's,  four  miles ;  to  Captain  Clap's,  four  miles  this  side 
N.  H. ;  to  North  Hampton,  Lyman's  or  Clark's. 


NOTES  OF  DEBATES 


IN   THE 


CONTINENTAL    CONGRESS, 


IN   1775  and   177C. 


All  the  notes  made  by  Mr.  Adams,  during  these  years,  have  been  put  together 
and  set  apart  in  the  following  pages,  with" the  addition  of  such  explanations,  by 
the  Editor,  as  seem  necessary  to  make  them  readily  understood.  Whilst  the 
interest  attaching  to  some  of  the  minor  questions  discussed  has  passed  away,  it  is 
believed  that  what  has  been  preserved,  upon  such  subjects  as  the  state  of  trade, 
the  authority  to  institute  governments,  and  the  formation  of  the  Articles  of  Con- 
federation, fragmentary  as  it  is,  will  not  be  without  its  value  to  those  who  desire 
to  understand  the  true  history  of  the  Revolution. 


DEBATES. 


The  following  resolution  appears  upon  the  Journal  of  Congress,  for  the  23d 
of  September,  1775:  — 

"  Resolved,  That  a  committee  be  appointed  to  purchase  a  quantity  of  woollen 
goods,  for  the  use  of  the  army,  to  the  amount  of  five  thousand  pounds  sterling. 

"  That  the  said  goods,  when  bought,  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Quarter- 
Masters- General  of  the  Continental  armies,  and  that  the  same  be,  by  them, 
sold  out  to  the  private  soldiers  of  said  armies,  at  prime  cost  and  charges,  includ- 
ing a  commission  of  five  per  centum,  to  the  said  Quarter-Masters-General,  for 
their  trouble. 

"  That  the  committee  consist  of  five. 

"  The  ballot  being  taken,  and  examined,  the  following  members  were  chosen. 
Mr.  Lewis,  Mr.  Alsop,  Mr.  Willing,  Mr.  Deane,  Mr.  Langdon." 

Thomas  Mifflin  had  just  been  appointed,  by  General  Washington,  Quarter- 
Master-General  of  the  army  at  Cambridge.  The  debate,  which  follows,  took 
place  upon  an  application  of  his,  but  to  whom  does  not  clearly  appear,  and  it 
terminated  in  the  foregoing  resolution. 


1775.  September  23.  Saturday.  Samuel  Adams  moved,  upon 
Mifflin's  letter,  that  a  sum  be  advanced  from  the  treasury  for 
Mifflin  and  Barrell. 

Mr.  E.  Rutledge  wished  the  money  might  be  advanced  upon 
the  credit  of  the  Quarter-Master- General ;  wished  that  an  inquiry 
might  be  made,  whether  goods  had  been  advanced.  If  so,  it  was 
against  the  association.  Lynch  wished  the  letter  read.  S.  Adams 
read  it.  Jay  seconded  the  motion  of  E.  Rutledge  that  a  com- 
mittee be  appointed  to  inquire  if  goods  are  raised  against  the 
association.  Gadsden  wished  the  motion  put  off.  We  had 
other  matters  of  more  importance.  Willing  thought  that  goods 
might  be  purchased  upon  four  months'  credit.  We  should  not 
intermix  our  accounts. 

Paine.  We  have  not  agreed  to  clothe  the  soldiers,  and  the 
Quarter-Master- General  has  no  right  to  keep  a  slop-shop,  any 

VOL.    II.  38 


446  DEBATES.  [1775. 

more  than  anybody  else.  It  is  a  private  matter ;  very  indigested 
applications  are  made  here  for  money. 

Deane.  The  army  must  be  clothed,  or  perish.  No  preaching 
against  a  snow-storm.  We  ought  to  look  out  that  they  be  kept 
warm,  and  that  the  means  of  doing  it  be  secured. 

Lynch.  We  must  see  that  the  army  be  provided  with  clothing. 
I  intended  to  have  moved,  this  very  day,  that  a  committee  be 
appointed  to  purchase  woollen  goods  in  this  city  and  New  York 
for  the  use  of  the  army.  E.  Rutledge.  I  have  no  objection  to 
the  committee.  I  meant  only  that  the  poor  soldiers  should  be 
supplied  with  goods  and  clothing  as  cheap  as  possible. 

Lewis.  Brown,  of  Boston,  bought  goods  at  New  York,  and 
sent  them  up  the  North  River,  to  be  conveyed  by  land  to  Cam- 
bridge. 

Dyer  wanted  to  know  whether  the  soldiers  would  be  obliged 
to  take  these  goods.     Goods  cheaper  in  New  York  than  here. 

Sherman.  The  sutlers,  last  war,  sold  to  the  soldiers,  who 
were  not  obliged  to  take  any  thing.  Many  will  be  supplied  by 
families  with  their  own  manufacture.  The  Quarter-Master- 
General  did  not  apply  to  Congress,  but  to  his  own  private  cor- 
respondents. 

Deane.  The  soldiers  were  imposed  on  by  sutlers  last  war ; 
the  soldiers  had  no  pay  to  receive. 

Lynch.  A  soldier  without  clothing  is  not  fit  for  service ;  but 
he  ought  to  be  clothed,  as  well  as  armed,  and  we  ought  to  pro- 
vide, as  well  as  it  can  be  done,  that  he  may  be  clothed. 

Nelson  moved  that  five  thousand  pounds  sterling  be  advanced 
to  the  Quarter- Master- General,  to  be  laid  out  in  clothing  for 
the  army.  Lang-don  hoped  a  committee  would  be  appointed. 
Sherman  liked  Nelson's  motion,  with  an  addition  that  every 
soldier  should  be  at  liberty  to  supply  himself  in  any  other  way. 

Read  understood  that  Massachusetts  Committee  of  Supplies 
had  a  large  store  that  was  very  full.  Sherman,  for  a  committee 
to  inquire  what  goods  would  be  wanted  for  the  army,  and  at 
what  prices  they  may  be  had,  and  report.  Gadsden  liked  that 
best.  Johnson  moved  that  the  sum  might  be  limited  to  five 
thousand  pounds  sterling.  We  don't  know  what  has  been  sup- 
plied by  Massachusetts,  what  from  Rhode  Island,  what  from 
New  York,  and  what  from  Connecticut.  S.  Adams  liked  Nel- 
son's motion.      Ward  objected  to  it,  and  preferred  the  motion  for 


1775.]  DEBATES.  447 

a  committee.  Nelson.  The  Quarter- Master  is  ordered,  by  the 
General,  to  supply  the  soldiers,  &c. 

Paine.  It  is  the  duty  of  this  Congress  to  see  that  the  army 
be  supplied  with  clothing  at  a  reasonable  rate.  I  am  for  a  com- 
mittee. Quarter-Master  has  his  hands  full.  Zubly.  Would  it 
not  be  best  to  publish  proposals  in  the  papers  for  any  man  who 
was  willing  to  supply  the  army  with  clothing  to  make  his  offers  ? 

Harrison.  The  money  ought  to  be  advanced  in  all  events ; 
content  with  a  committee. 

R.  R.  Livingston.  .  .  .  Willing  proposed  that  we  should 
desire  the  committee  of  this  city  to  inquire  after  these  goods, 
and  this  will  lead  them  to  an  inquiry  that  will  be  beneficial  to 
America. 

Chase.  The  city  of  Philadelphia  has  broken  the  association, 
by  raising  the  price  of  goods  fifty  per  cent.  It  would  not  be 
proper  to  purchase  goods  here.  The  breach  of  the  association 
here  is  general  in  the  price  of  goods,  as  it  is  in  New  York  with 
respect  to  tea.  If  we  lay  out  five  thousand  pounds  here,  we 
shall  give  a  sanction  to  the  breaches  of  the  association ;  the 
breach  is  too  general  to  be  punished.  Willing.  If  the  associa- 
tion is  broken  in  this  city,  don't  let  us  put  the  burden  of  exam- 
ining into  it  upon  a  few,  but  the  whole  committee.  New  York 
have  broken  it  entirely ;  ninety-nine  in  a  hundred  drink  tea.  I 
am  not  for  screening  the  people  of  Philadelphia. 

Sherman.  I  am  not  an  importer,  but  have  bought  of  New 
York  merchants,  for  twenty  years,  at  a  certain  advance  on  the 
sterling  cost. 

R.  R.  Livingston  thought  we  ought  to  buy  the  goods  where  they 
were  dearest,  because  if  we  bought  them  at  New  York,  where 
they  were  cheapest,  New  York  would  soon  be  obliged  to  pur- 
chase in  Philadelphia,  where  they  are  dearest,  and  then  the  loss 
would  fall  upon  New  York ;  whereas,  in  the  other  way,  the  loss 
would  be  general.  Jay.  We  had  best  desire  the  committee  of 
this  city  to  purchase  the  quantity  of  goods,  at  the  price  stated 
by  the  association,  and  see  if  they  were  to  be  had  here  at  that 
price. 

This  debate  terminated  in  a  manner  that  I  did  not  foresee. 
A  committee  was  appointed  to  purchase  five  thousand  pounds 
sterling's  worth  of  goods,  to  be  sent  to  the  Quarter- Master- Gen- 
eral, and  by  him  to  be  sold  to  the  soldiers  at  first  cost  and 


448  DEBATES.  [1775. 

charges.  Quarter- Master  to  be  allowed  five  per  cent,  for  his 
trouble. 

Mr.  Lynch  and  Colonel  Harrison  and  Colonel  Nelson  indulged 
their  complaisance  and  private  friendship  for  Mifflin  and  Wash- 
ington, so  far  as  to  carry  this. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  move  any  thing,  but  you  instantly 
see  private  friendships  and  enmities,  and  provincial  views  and 
prejudices,  intermingle  in  the  consultation.1  These  are  degrees 
of  corruption.  They  are  deviations  from  the  public  interest  and 
from  rectitude.  By  this  vote,  however,  perhaps  the  poor  soldiers 
may  be  benefited,  which  was  all  I  wished,  the  interest  of  Mr. 
Mifflin  being  nothing  to  me. 


25.  Monday.  An  uneasiness  among  some  of  the  members, 
concerning  a  contract  with  Willing  and  Morris  for  powder,  by 
which  the  House,  without  any  risk  at  all,  will  make  a  clear 
profit  of  twelve  thousand  pounds  at  least.2  Dyer  and  Deane 
spoke  in  public ;  Lewis,  to  me,  in  private  about  it.  All  think 
it  exorbitant. 

S.  Adams  desired  that  the  Resolve  of  Congress,  upon  which 
the  contract  was  founded,  might  be  read ;  he  did  not  recollect  it. 

De  Hart.  One  of  the  contractors,  Willing,  declared  to  this 
Congress,  that  he  looked  upon  the  contract  to  be,  that  the  first 
cost  should  be  insured  to  them,  not  the  fourteen  pounds  a  barrel 
for  the  powder. 

R.  R.  Livingston.  I  never  will  vote  to  ratify  the  contract  in 
the  sense  that  Morris  understands  it. 

Willing:  I  am,  as  a  member  of  the  House,  a  party  to  that 
contract,  but  was  not  privy  to  the  bargain.  I  never  saw  the 
contract,  until   I  saw  it  in   Dr.   Franklin's   hand.      I  think  it 

1  The  same  complaint  is  made  by  General  Washington,  in  a  letter  addressed 
to  Richard  Henry  Lee,  about  this  time.     Sparks's  Washington,  vol.  iii.  p.  68. 

2  Extract  from  the  Secret  Journals  of  Congress,  18  September,  1775  :  — 

"  Resolved,  That  a  secret  committee  be  appointed  to  contract  for  the  importa- 
tion and  delivery  of  a  quantity  of  gunpowder,  not  exceeding  five  hundred  tons. 

"  That  the  said  committee  consist  of  nine,  any  five  of  whom  to  be  a  quorum. 

"19  September.     The  members  chosen  for  the  secret  committee  :  — 

"Mr.  Willing,  Mr.  Franklin,  Mr.  P.  Livingston,  Mr.  Alsop,  Mr.  Deane,  Mr. 
Dickinson,  Mr.  Langdon,  Mr.  McKean,  and  Mr.  Ward." 

Extract  from  the  Journals,  25  September:  — 

"  The  delegates,  from  Pennsylvania,  produced  an  account  of  the  powder 
imported,  and  how  it  has  been  disposed  of." 


1775.]  DEBATES.  449 

insures  only  the  first  cost ;  my  partner  thinks  it  insures  the 
whole.  He  says  that  Mr.  Rutledge  said,  at  the  time,  that  Con- 
gress should  have  nothing  to  do  with  sea  risk.  The  committee 
of  this  city  offered  nineteen  pounds.  I  would  wish  to  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  contract,  but  to  leave  it  to  my  partner, 
who  is  a  man  of  reason  and  generosity,  to  explain  the  contract 
with  the  gentlemen  who  made  it  with  him. 

J.  Rutledge.  Congress  was  to  run  no  risk,  only  against  men- 
of-war  and  custom-house  officers.  I  was  surprised,  this  morning, 
to  hear  that  Mr.  Morris  understood  it  otherwise.  If  he  won't 
execute  a  bond,  such  as  we  shall  draw,  I  shall  not  be  at  a  loss 
what  to  do. 

Johnson.  A  hundred  tons  of  powder  was  wanted.  Ross.  In 
case  of  its  arrival,  Congress  was  to  pay  fourteen  pounds ;  if  men- 
of-war  or  custom-house  officers  should  get  it,  Congress  was  to 
pay  first  cost  only,  as  I  understood  it.  Zubly.  We  are  highly 
favored ;  fourteen  pounds  we  are  to  give,  if  we  get  the  powder, 
and  fourteen  pounds,  if  we  don't  get  it,  I  understand,  persons 
enough  will  contract  to  supply  powder  at  fifteen  pounds  and 
run  all  risks. 

Willing.  Sorry  any  gentleman  should  be  severe,  Mr.  Mor- 
ris's character  is  such  that  he  cannot  deserve  it. 

Lynch.  If  Morris  will  execute  the  bond,  well ;  if  not,  the 
committee  will  report. 

Deane.  It  is  very  well  that  this  matter  has  been  moved,  and 
that  so  much  has  been  said  upon  it. 

Dyer.  There  are  not  ten  men,  in  the  Colony  I  came  from, 
who  are  worth  so  much  money  as  will  be  made,  clear,  by  this 
contract.  Ross.  What  has  this  matter  to  (do  with)  the  present 
debate,  whether  Connecticut  men  are  worth  much  or  no  ;  it 
proves  there  are  no  men  there  whose  capital  or  credit  is  equal 
to  such  contracts  ;  that  is  all.  Harrison.  The  contract  is  made, 
and  the  money  paid.     How  can  we  get  it  back  ? 

Johnson.  Let  us  consider  the  prudence  of  this  contract.  If  it 
had  not  been  made,  Morris  would  have  got  nineteen  pounds, 
and  not  have  set  forward  a  second  adventure.  Gadsden  under- 
stands the  contract  as  Morris  does,  and  yet  thinks  it  a  prudent 
one,  because  Morris  would  have  got  nineteen  pounds. 

J.  Adams.    &c.  &c.  &c. 


38*  c2 


450  DEBATES.  [1775. 

Gushing.  I  move  that  we  take  into  consideration  a  method 
of  keeping  up  an  army  in  the  winter. 

Gadsden  seconds  the  motion,  and  desires  that  a  motion  made 
in  writing  some  days  ago,  and  postponed,  may  be  read  as  it  was, 
as  also  passages  of  G.  Washington's  letter. 

S.  Adams.  The  General  has  promised  another  letter,  in  which 
we  shall  have  his  sentiments.  We  shall  have  it  to-morrow,  per- 
haps. Lynch.  If  we  have,  we  shall  only  lose  the  writing  of  a 
letter. 

J.  Adams  moved  that  the  Generals'  advice  should  be  asked 
concerning  barracks,  &c.  and  that  a  committee  be  appointed  to 
draught  a  letter.     Lynch  seconded  the  motion. 

A  committee  was  appointed.  Lynch,  J.  Adams,  and  Colonel 
Lee,  the  men. 

Sherman  moved  that  a  committee  be  appointed,  of  one  mem- 
ber from  each  Colony,  to  receive  and  examine  all  accounts.1  S. 
Adams  seconded  the  motion. 

Harrison  asked,  "  Is  this  the  way  of  giving  thanks  ?  " 

S.  Adams  was  decent  to  the  Committee  for  Riflemen's 
Accounts ;  meant  no  reflections  upon  them ;  was  sorry  that 
the  worthy  gentleman  from  Virginia  conceived  that  any  was 
intended ;  he  was  sure  there  was  no  foundation  for  it. 

Paine  thought  that  justice  and  honor  required  that  we  should 
carefully  examine  all  accounts  and  see  to  the  expenditure  of  all 
public  moneys ;  that  the  minister  would  find  out  our  weakness, 
and  would  foment  divisions  among  our  people ;  he  was  sorry 
that  gentlemen  could  not  hear  methods  proposed  to  settle  and 
pay  accounts,  in  a  maimer  that  would  give  satisfaction  to  the 
people,  without  seeming  to  resent  them.  Harrison.  Now  the 
gentlemen  have  explained  themselves,  he  had  no  objection ;  but 
when  it  was  proposed  to  appoint  a  new  committee,  in  the  place 
of  the  former  one,  it  implied  a  reflection.      Willing:     These 

1  See  Journals :  "  Resolved,  That  a  Committee  of  Accounts  or  Claims  be  now 
appointed,  to  consist  of  one  member  from  each  of  the  United  Colonies,  to  whom 
all  accounts  against  the  continent  are  to  be  referred,  who  are  to  examine  and 
report  upon  the  same  in  order  for  payment,  seven  of  them  to  be  a  quorum." 

The  various  topics  here  discussed  do  not  appear  in  the  Journals  arranged  in 
the  same  order  that  is  kept  in  these  notes. 


1775.]  DEBATES.  451 

accounts  are  for  tents,  arms,  clothing,  &c.  as  well  as  expenses 
of  the  riflemen,  &c. 

Nelson  moved  that  twenty  thousand  dollars  be  voted  into  the 
hands  of  the  other  committee  to  settle  the  accounts.  S.  Adams 
seconded  the  motion,  but  still  hoped  that  some  time  or  other  a 
committee  would  be  appointed,  of  one  member  from  each  Col- 
ony, to  examine  all  accounts,  because  he  thought  it  reasonable.1 


September  27.  Wednesday.  Willing;  in  favor  of  Mr.  Purvi- 
ance's  petition.2     Harrison  against  it. 

Willing-  thinks  the  non-exportation  sufficiently  hard  upon  the 
farmer,  the  merchant,  and  the  tradesman,  but  will  not  arraign 
the  propriety  of  the  measure. 

Nelson.  If  we  give  these  indulgences,  I  know  not  where  they 
will  end.  Sees  not  why  the  merchant  should  be  indulged  more 
than  the  farmer.  Harrison.  It  is  the  merchant  in  England  that 
is  to  suffer.  Lynch.  They  meant  gain,  and  they  ought  to  bear 
the  loss. 

Sherman.  Another  reason,  the  cargo  is  provisions,  and  will 
probably  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

R.  R.  Livingston.  There  is  no  resolve  of  Congress  against 
exporting  to  foreign  ports.  We  shall  not  give  license  to  deceit 
by  clearing  out  for  England. 

Lynch  moves  that  the  committee  of  this  city  be  desired  to 
inquire  whether  Dean's  vessel,  taken  at  Block  Island,  and  another 
at  Cape  Cod,  were  not  sent  on  purpose  to  supply  the  enemy. 

Read.  The  committee  of  this  city  have  inquired  of  the  owners 
of  one  vessel.  The  owners  produced  their  letter  books,  and 
were  ready  to  swear ;  the  conduct  of  the  captain  is  yet  suspi- 
cious.    Thinks  the  other  inquiry  very  proper. 

1  The  new  committee  consisted  of  the  following  members :  — 

Mr.  Langdon,  Mr.  Cushing,  Mr.  Ward,  Mr.  Deane,  Mr.  Lewis,  Mr,  Smith, 
Mr.  Willing,  Mr.  Rodney,  Mr.  Johnson,  Mr.  Nelson,  Mr  Gadsden,  and  Dr. 
Zubly. 

2  Extract  from  the  Journals  of  Congress,  27  September:  — 

"  A  memorial  of  Samuel  and  Robert  Purviance  was  presented  and  read,  set- 
ting forth  that  they  had  chartered  a  vessel  to  carry  a  load  of  wheat ;  that  the 
said  vessel,  in  going  from  Philadelphia  to  Chestertown,  in  Maryland,  was  lost  in 
the  late  storm,  by  which  they  were  prevented  from  exporting,  before  the  10th 
of  September,  the  cargo  which  they  had  actually  purchased ;  and,  therefore, 
praying  for  liberty  to  export  the  cargo  to  a  foreign  port. 

"  Ordered,  to  lie  on  the  table." 


452  DEBATES.  [1775. 

Lee  thinks  Lynch's  motion  proper;  thinks  the  conduct  detest- 
able parricide,  to  supply  those  who  have  arms  in  their  hands  to 
deprive  us  of  the  best  rights  of  human  nature.  The  honest  sea- 
men ought  to  be  examined,  and  they  may  give  evidence  against 
the  guilty. 

Hancock.  Dean  belongs  to  Boston ;  he  came  from  West 
Indies,  and  was  seized  here  and  released ;  loaded  with  flour  and 
went  out. 

Extract  from  the  Journals  of  Congress. 

Wednesday,  4  October,  1775. 
"  Agreeable  to  the  order  of  the  day,  the  Congress  resolved  itself  into  a  com- 
mittee of  the  whole,  to  take  into  consideration  the  state  of  the  trade  of  the 
thirteen  United  Colonies." 

1775.  October  4.  Johnson.  I  should  be  for  the  resolutions 
about  imports  and  exports  standing  till  further  order.  I  should 
be  against  giving  up  the  carriage.  The  grower,  the  farmer,  gets 
the  same,  let  who  will  be  the  exporter,  but  the  community  does 
not.  The  shipwright,  rope-maker,  hemp-grower,  all  shipbuilders, 
the  profits  of  the  merchant,  are  all  lost,  if  foreigners  are  our  sole 
carriers,  as  well  as  seamen,  &c.  I  am  for  the  report  standing ; l 
the  association  standing. 

J.  Rutledge.  The  question  is,  whether  we  shall  shut  our  ports 
entirely,  or  adhere  to  the  association.  The  resolutions  we  come 
to  ought  to  be  final. 

Lee.  North  Carolina  is  absent ;  they  are  expected  every  hour ; 
we  had  better  suspend  a  final  determination.  I  fear  our  deter- 
mination to  stop  trade  will  not  be  effectual. 

Willing:  North  Carolina  promised  to  put  themselves  in  the 
same  situation  with  other  Colonies.  New  York  have  done  the 
same.  Our  gold  is  locked  up  at  present ;  we  ought  to  be  deci- 
sive ;  interest  is  near  and  dear  to  men.  The  Committee  of 
Secrecy  find  difficulties ;  merchants  dare  not  trade. 

Deane.  Sumptuary  laws,  or  a  non-importation,  were  neces- 
sary, if  we  had  not  been  oppressed ;  a  non-export  was  attended 
with  difficulty ;   my  Colony  could  do  as  well  as  others.     We 

1  On  Saturday,  the  30th  September,  the  committee  appointed  to  consider  the 
trade  of  America  brought  in  their  report.     See  Journals. 

The  original  agreement  of  non-exportation  had  fixed  the  tenth  of  September, 
1775,  as  the  period  from  which  it  was  to  begin.  The  resolutions,  finally  passed, 
will  be  found  in  the  Journals  of  the  1st  of  November. 


1775.]  DEBATES.  453 

should  have  acquiesced  in  an  immediate  non-export,  or  a  partial 
one.  Many  voted  for  it  as  an  object  in  terrorem.  Merchants, 
mechanics,  farmers,  all  call  for  an  establishment. 

Whether  we  are  to  trade  with  all  nations,  except  Britain,  Ire- 
.  and,  and  West  Indies,  or  with  one  or  two  particular  nations, 
we  cannot  get  ammunition  without  allowing  some  exports ;  for 
the  merchant  has  neither  money  nor  bills,  and  our  bills  will  not 
pass  abroad. 

R.  R.  Livingston.  We  should  go  into  a  full  discussion  of 
the  subject;  every  gentleman  ought  to  express  his  sentiments. 
The  first  question  is,  how  far  we  shall  adhere  to  our  association  ; 
what  advantages  we  gain,  what  disadvantages  we  suffer  by  it. 
An  immediate  stoppage  last  year  would  have  had  a  great  effect, 
but  at  that  time  the  country  could  not  bear  it.  We  are  now  out 
of  debt  nearly ;  the  high  price  of  grain,  in  Boston,  will  be  an 
advantage  to  the  farmer.  The  price  of  labor  is  nearly  equal  in 
Europe  ;  the  trade  will  be  continued,  and  Great  Britain  will 
learn  to  look  upon  America  as  insignificant.  If  we  export  to 
Britain,  and  don't  import,  they  must  pay  us  in  money ;  of  great 
importance  that  we  should  import.  We  employ  our  ships  and 
seamen ;  we  have  nothing  to  fear  but  disunion  among  ourselves. 
WThat  will  disunite  us  more  than  the  decay  of  all  business  ?  The 
people  will  feel,  and  will  say,  that  Congress  tax  them  and  oppress 
them  worse  than  Parliament. 

Ammunition  cannot  be  had,  unless  we  open  our  ports.  I  am 
for  doing  away  our  non-exportation  agreement  entirely.  I  see 
many  advantages  in  leaving  open  the  ports,  none  in  shutting 
them  up.  I  should  think  the  best  way  would  be  to  open  all  our 
ports.  Let  us  declare  all  those  bonds  illegal  and  void.  What 
is  to  become  of  our  merchants,  farmers,  seamen,  tradesmen  ? 
What  an  accession  of  strength  should  we  throw  into  the  hands 
of  our  enemies,  if  we  drive  all  our  seamen  to  them ! 

Lee.  Is  it  proper  the  non-exportation  agreement  should  con- 
tinue ?  For  the  interest  of  Americans  to  open  our  ports  to  foreign 
nations,  that  they  should  become  our  carriers,  and  protect  their 
own  vessels. 

Johnson  never  had  an  idea  that  we  should  shut  our  export 
agreement  closer  than  it  is  at  present.  If  we  leave  it  as  it  is, 
We  shall  get  powder  by  way  of  New  York,  the  lower  counties, 
and  North  Carolina.     In  winter,  our  merchants  will  venture  out 


454  DEBATES.  [1775. 

to  foreign  nations.  If  Parliament  should  order  our  ships  to  be 
seized,  we  may  begin  a  force  in  part  to  protect  our  own  vessels, 
and  invite  foreigners  to  come  here  and  protect  their  own  trade. 

J.  Rutledge.  We  ought  to  postpone  it,  rather  than  not  come 
to  a  decisive  resolution. 

Lee.  We  shall  be  prevented  from  exporting,  if  British  power 
can  do  it.  We  ought  to  stop  our  own  exports,  and  invite  foreign 
nations  to  come  and  export  our  goods  for  us.  I  am  for  opening 
our  exportations,  to  foreigners,  further  than  we  have. 

Willing.  The  gentleman's  favorite  plan  is  to  induce  foreigners 
to  come  here.  Shall  we  act  like  the  dog  in  the  manger,  not  suffer 
New  York  and  the  lower  counties  and  North  Carolina  to  export, 
because  we  can't  ?  We  may  get  salt  and  ammunition  by  those 
ports.  Can't  be  for  inviting  foreigners  to  become  our  carriers ; 
carriage  is  an  amazing  revenue.  Holland  and  England  have 
derived  their  maritime  power  from  their  carriage.  The  circula- 
tion of  our  paper  will  stop,  and  lose  its  credit,  without  trade. 
Seven  millions  of  dollars  have  been  struck  by  the  continent  and 
by  the  separate  Colonies.  Lee.  The  end  of  administration  will 
be  answered  by  the  gentleman's  plan ;  jealousies  and  dissensions 
will  arise,  and  disunion  and  division.  We  shall  become  a  rope 
of  sand.  Zubly.  The  question  should  be,  whether  the  export 
should  be  kept  or  not. 

Chase.  I  am  for  adhering  to  the  association,  and  think  that 
we  ought  not  to  determine  these  questions  this  day.  Differ  from 
R.  Livingston  that  our  exports  are  to  be  relaxed,  except  as  to 
tobacco  and  lumber.  This  will  produce  a  disunion  of  the  Colo- 
nies. The  advantage  of  cultivating  tobacco  is  very  great ;  the 
planters  would  complain ;  their  negro  females  would  be  useless 
without  raising  tobacco ;  the  country  must  grow  rich  that  exports 
more  than  they  import.  There  ought  not  to  be  a  partial  export 
to  Great  Britain.  We  affect  the  revenue  and  the  remittance  by 
stopping  our  exports ;  we  have  given  a  deadly  blow  to  Britain 
and  Ireland  by  our  non-export ;  their  people  must  murmur,  must 
starve.  The  nation  must  have  become  bankrupt  before  this  day 
if  we  had  ceased  exports  at  first.  I  look  upon  Britain,  Ireland, 
and  West  Indies,  as  our  enemies,  and  would  not  trade  with  them 
while  at  war.  We  can't  support  the  war  and  our  taxes  without 
trade.  Emissions  of  paper  cannot  continue.  I  dread  an  emis- 
sion for  another  campaign.     We  can't  stand  it  without  trade. 


1775.]  DEBATES.  455 

I  can't  agree  that  New  York,  the  lower  counties,  and  North 
Carolina,  should  carry  on  trade ;  upon  giving  a  bond,  and 
making  oath,  they  may  export.  I  am  against  these  Colonies 
trading  according  to  the  restraining  act.  It  will  produce  divi- 
sion. A  few  weeks  will  put  us  all  on  a  footing ;  New  York,  &c. 
are  now  all  in  rebellion,  as  the  ministry  call  it,  as  much  as  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay. 

We  must  trade  with  foreign  nations,  at  the  risk  indeed,  but 
we  may  export  our  tobacco  to  France,  Spain,  or  any  other 
foreign  nation.  If  we  treat  with  foreign  nations,  we  should 
send  to  them  as  well  as  they  to  us.  What  nation  or  countries 
shall  we  trade  with  ?  Shall  we  go  to  their  ports  and  pay  duties, 
and  let  them  come  here  and  pay  none  ?  To  say  you  will  trade 
with  all  the  world  deserves  consideration. 

I  have  not  absolutely  discarded  every  glimpse  of  a  hope  of  a 
reconciliation ;  our  prospect  is  gloomy.  I  can't  agree  that  we 
shall  not  export  our  own  produce.  We  must  treat  with  foreign 
nations  upon  trade.  They  must  protect  and  support  us  with 
their  fleets.  When  you  once  offer  your  trade  to  foreign  nations, 
away  with  all  hopes  of  reconciliation. 

E.  Rutledge  differs  with  all  who  think  the  non-exportation 
should  be  broke,  or  that  any  trade  at  all  should  be  carried  on. 
When  a  commodity  is  out  of  port,  the  master  may  carry  it 
where  he  pleases.  My  Colony  will  receive  your  determination 
upon  a  general  non-exportation ;  the  people  will  not  be  restless. 
Proposes  a  general  non-exportation  until  next  Congress.  Our 
people  will  go  into  manufactures,  which  is  a  source  of  riches  to 
a  country.  We  can  take  our  men  from  agriculture  and  employ 
them  in  manufactures.  Agriculture  and  manufactures  cannot 
be  lost ;  trade  is  precarious. 

R.  R.  Livingston  not  convinced  by  any  argument ;  thinks  the 
exception  of  tobacco  and  lumber  would  not  produce  disunion. 
The  Colonies  affected  can  see  the  principles,  and  their  virtue  is 
such  that  they  would  not  be  disunited.  The  Americans  are 
their  own  carriers  now,  chiefly ;  a  few  British  ships  will  be  out 
of  employ.  I  am  against  exporting  lumber.  I  grant  that  if  we 
trade  with  other  nations,  some  of  our  vessels  will  be  seized,  and 
some  taken.  Carolina  is  cultivated  by  rich  planters ;  not  so  in 
the  northern  Colonies ;  the  planters  can  bear  a  loss,  and  see  the 
reason  of  it ;  the  northern  Colonies  can't  bear  it.     Not  in  our 


456  DEBATES.  [1775. 

power  to  draw  people  from  the  plough  to  manufactures.  We 
can't  make  contracts  for  powder  without  opening  our  ports.  I 
am  for  exporting  where  Britain  will  allow  us,  to  Britain  itself. 
If  we  shut  up  our  ports,  we  drive  our  sailors  to  Britain ;  the 
army  will  be  supplied,  in  all  events.  Lee  makes  a  motion  for 
two  resolutions.  The  trade  of  Virginia  and  Maryland  may  be 
stopped  by  a  very  small  naval  force.  North  Carolina  is  badly 
off.  The  northern  Colonies  are  more  fortunate.  The  force  of 
Great  Britain  on  the  water  being  exceedingly  great,  that  of 
America  almost  nothing,  they  may  prevent  almost  all  our  trade 
in  our  own  bottoms.  Great  Britain  may  exert  every  nerve  next 
year  to  send  fifteen,  twenty,  or  even  thirty  thousand  men  to 
come  here.  The  provisions  of  America  are  become  necessary 
to  several  nations.  France  is  in  distress  for  them.  —  Tumults 
and  attempts  to  destroy  the  grain  in  the  ear.  England  has 
turned  arable  into  grass ;  France  into  vines.  Grain  cannot  be 
be  got  from  Poland,  nor  across  the  Mediterranean.  The  dissen- 
sions in  Poland  continue.  Spain  is  at  war  with  the  Algerines, 
and  must  have  provisions  ;  it  would  be  much  safer  for  them  to 
carry  our  provisions  than  for  us.  We  shall  get  necessary  man- 
ufactures, and  money,  and  powder.  This  is  only  a  temporary 
expedient,  at  the  present  time  and  for  a  short  duration,  to  end 
when  the  war  ends.  I  agree  we  must  sell  our  produce ;  foreign- 
ers must  come  in  three  or  four  months ;  the  risk  we  must  pay 
in  the  price  of  our  produce.  The  insurance  must  be  deducted. 
Insurance  would  not  be  high  to  foreigners  on  account  of  the 
novelty ;  it  is  no  new  thing ;  the  British  cruisers  will  be  the  dan- 
ger. 


The  Same  Debate  Continued. 

October  5.  Thursday.  Gadsden.  I  wish  we  may  confine 
ourselves  to  one  point.  Let  the  point  be,  whether  we  shall  shut 
up  all  our  ports,  and  be  all  on  a  footing.  The.  ministry  will 
answer  their  end,  if  we  let  the  custom-houses  be  open  in  New 
York,  North  Carolina,  and  the  lower  counties,  and  Georgia ;  they 
will  divide  us.  One  Colony  will  envy  another,  and  be  jealous. 
Mankind  act  by  their  feelings.  Rice  sold  for  three  pounds ;  it 
wont  sell  now  for  thirty  shillings.     We  have  rich  and  poor  there 


1775.]  DEBATES.  457 

as  well  as  in  other  Colonies ;  we  know  that  the  excepted  Colo- 
nies don't  want  to  take  advantage  of  the  others. 

Zubly.  Q.  Whether  the  custom-houses  be  stopped,  and  the 
trade  opened  to  all  the  world  ?  The  object  is  so  great,  that  I 
would  not  discuss  it,  on  horseback,  riding  post  haste ;  it  requires 
the  debate  of  a  week.  We  are  lifting  up  a  rod ;  if  you  don't 
repeal  the  acts,  we  will  open  our  ports.  Nations,  as  well  as 
individuals,  are  sometimes  intoxicated.  It  is  fair  to  give  them 
notice.  If  we  give  them  warning,  they  will  take  warning ;  they 
will  send  ships  out.  Whether  they  can  stop  our  trade,  is  the 
question.  New  England,  I  leave  out  of  the  question ;  New  York 
is  stopped  by  one  ship  ;  Philadelphia  says  her  trade  is  in  the 
power  of  the  fleet ;  Virginia  and  Maryland  are  within  the  capes 
of  Virginia ;  North  Carolina  is  accessible ;  only  one  good  harbor, 
Cape  Fear.  In  Georgia,  we  have  several  harbors ;  but  a  small 
naval  force  may  oppose  or  destroy  all  the  naval  force  of  Georgia. 
The  navy  can  stop  our  harbors  and  distress  our  trade ;  therefore 
it  is  impracticable  to  open  our  ports.  The  question  is,  whether 
we  must  have  trade  or  not.  We  can't  do  without  trade  ;  we  must 
have  trade ;  it  is  prudent  not  to  put  virtue  to  too  serious  a  test. 
I  would  use  American  virtue  as  sparingly  as  possible,  lest  we 
wear  it  out.  Are  we  sure  one  canoe  will  come  to  trade  ?  Has 
any  merchant  received  a  letter  from  abroad  that  they  will  come  ? 
Very  doubtful  and  precarious  whether  any  French  or  Spanish 
vessel  would  be  cleared  out  to  America ;  it  is  a  breach  of  the 
Treaty  of  Peace.  The  Spaniards  may  be  too  lazy  to  come  to 
America ;  they  may  be  supplied  from  Sicily.  It  is  precarious 
and  dilatory ;  extremely  dangerous  and  pernicious.  I  am  clearly 
against  any  proposition  to  open  our  ports  to  all  the  world ;  it  is 
not  prudent  to  threaten ;  the  people  of  England  will  take  it  we 
design  to  break  off,  to  separate.  We  have  friends,  in  England, 
who  have  taken  this  up,  upon  virtuous  principles. 

Lee.  I  will  follow  Mr.  Gadsden,  and  simplify  the  proposition, 
and  confine  it  to  the  question,  whether  the  custom-houses  shall 
be  shut.  If  they  are  open,  the  excepted  Colonies  may  trade, 
others  not,  which  will  be  unequal;  the  consequence,  jealousy, 
division,  and  ruin.  I  would  have  all  suffer  equally.  But  we 
should  have  some  offices  set  up,  where  bonds  should  be  given 
that  supplies  shall  not  go  to  our  enemies. 

VOL.   II.  39 


458  DEBATES.  [1775. 

Extract  from  the  Journals. 

Friday,  October  6  th. 
"  Resolved,  That  it  be  recommended  to  the  several  Provincial  Assemblies  or 
Conventions,  and  Councils  or  Committees  of  Safety,  to  arrest  and  secure  every 
person  in  their  respective  Colonies,  whose  going  at  large  may,  in  their  opinion, 
endanger  the  safety  of  the  Colony,  or  the  liberties  of  America." 

Chase.  I  don't  think  the  resolution  goes  far  enough.  Lord 
Dunmore  has  been  many  months  committing  hostilities  against 
Virginia,  and  has  extended  his  piracies  to  Maryland.  I  wish  he 
had  been  seized  by  the  Colony  months  ago.  They  would  have 
received  the  thanks  of  all  North  Ameriea.  Is  it  practicable 
now  ?  Have  the  Committee  any  naval  force  ?  This  order  will 
be  a  mere  piece  of  paper.  Is  there  a  power  in  the  Committee 
to  raise  and  pay  a  naval  force  ?  Is  it  to  be  done  at  the  expense 
of  the  Continent  ?     Have  they  ships  or  men  ? 

Lee.  I  wish  Congress  would  advise  Virginia  and  Maryland 
to  raise  a  force  by  sea  to  destroy  Lord  Dunmore's  power.  He 
is  fond  of  his  bottle,  and  may  be  taken  by  land,  but  ought  to  be 
taken  at  all  events. 

Zubhj.  I  am  sorry  to  see  the  very  threatening  condition  that 
Virginia  is  likely  to  be  in.  I  look  on  the  plan  we  heard  of  yes- 
terday, to  be  vile,  abominable,  and  infernal ;  but  I  am  afraid  it  is 
practicable.1  Will  these  mischiefs  be  prevented  by  seizing  Dun- 
more?  Seizing  the  King's  representatives  will  make  a  great 
impression  in  England,  and  probably  things  will  be  carried  on 
afterwards  with  greater  rage.  I  came  here  with  two  views ;  one, 
to  secure  the  rights  of  America ;  second,  a  reconciliation  with 
Great  Britain. 

Dyer.  They  can't  be  more  irritated  at  home  than  they  are ; 
they  are  bent  upon  our  destruction ;  therefore,  that  is  no  argu- 
ment against  seizing  them.  Dunmore  can  do  no  mischief  in 
Virginia ;  his  connections  in  England  are  such  that  he  may 
be  exchanged  to  advantage.  Wentworth  is  gone  to  Boston ; 
Franklin  is  not  dangerous,  Penn  is  not,  Eden  is  not. 

1  Lord  Dunmore  had  sworn  "  by  the  living  God,  that  if  any  injury  or  insult 
was  offered  to  himself,  he  would  declare  freedom  to  the  slaves."  At  this  time 
he  went  to  Norfolk,  threatening  to  execute  his  pledge.  Tucker's  Life  of  Jeffer- 
son, vol.  i.  pp.  74-76.  His  proclamation,  fulfilling  it,  is  dated  a  month  TateK 
llowison's  History  of  Virginia,  vol.  ii.  p.  99. 


1775.]  DEBATES.  459 

Johnson.  Dunmorc  a  very  bad  man.  A  defensive  conduct 
was  determined  on  in  the  Convention  of  Virginia.  I  am  for 
leaving  it  to  Virginia.  We  ought  not  to  lay  down  a  rule  in  a 
passion.  I  see  less  and  less  prospect  of  a  reconciliation  every 
day ;  but  I  would  not  render  it  impossible  ;  if  we  should  render  it 
impossible,  our  Colony  would  take  it  into  their  own  hands,  and 
make  concessions  inconsistent  with  the  rights  of  America.  North 
Carolina,  Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  at  least,  have  strong 
parties  in  each  of  them  of  that  mind.  This  would  make  a  disun- 
ion. Five  or  six  weeks  will  give  us  the  final  determination  of  the 
people  of  Great  Britain.  Not  a  Governor  on  the  Continent  has 
the  real  power,  but  some  have  the  shadow  of  it.  A  renunciation 
of  all  connection  with  Great  Britain  will  be  understood  by  a  step 
of  this  kind.  Thirteen  Colonies  connected  with  Great  Britain  in 
sixteen  months  have  been  brought  to  an  armed  opposition  to 
the  claims  of  Great  Britain.  The  line  we  have  pursued  has 
been  the  line  we  ought  to  have  pursued ;  if  what  we  have  done 
had  been  proposed  two  years  ago,  four  Colonies  would  not  have 
been  for  it.  Suppose  we  had  a  dozen  Crown  officers  in  our 
possession,  have  we  determined  what  to  do  with  them?  shall 
we  hang  them  ? 

Lee.  Those  who  apply  general  reasons  to  this  particular  case 
will  draw  improper  conclusions.  Those  Crown  officers  who 
have  advised  his  Lordship  against  his  violent  measures,  have 
been  quarrelled  with  by  him.  Virginia  is  pierced  in  all  parts 
with  navigable  waters.  His  Lordship  knows  all  these  waters, 
and  the  plantations  on  them.  Shuldham  is  coming  to  assist  him 
in  destroying  these  plantations.  We  see  his  influence  with  an 
abandoned  administration  is  sufficient  to  obtain  what  he  pleases. 
If  six  weeks  may  furnish  decisive  information,  the  same  time  may 
produce  decisive  destruction  to  Maryland  and  Virginia.  Did  we 
go  fast  enough  when  we  suffered  the  troops  at  Boston  to  fortify  ? 

Zubly.  This  is  a  sudden  motion  ;  the  motion  was  yesterday 
to  apprehend  Governor  Tryon.  We  have  not  yet  conquered  the 
army  or  navy  of  Great  Britain ;  a  navy,  consisting  of  a  cutter, 
rides  triumphant  in  Virginia.  There  are  persons  in  America 
who  wish  to  break  off  with  Great  Britain ;  a  proposal  has  been 
made  to  apply  to  France  and  Spain  ;  before  I  agree  to  it,  I  will 
inform  my  constituents.  I  apprehend  the  man  who  should  pro- 
pose it  would  be  torn  to  pieces  like  De  Witt. 


460  DEBATES.  [1775. 

Wythe.  It  was  from  a  reverence  for  this  Congress  that  the 
Convention  of  Virginia  neglected  to  arrest  Lord  Dunmore  ;  it 
was  not  intended  suddenly  to  form  a  precedent  for  Governor 
Tryon.  If  Maryland  have  a  desire  to  have  a  share  in  the  glory 
of  seizing  this  nobleman,  let  them  have  it.  The  first  objection 
is  the  impracticability  of  it.  I  don't  say  that  it  is  practicable ; 
but  the  attempt  can  do  no  harm.  From  seizing  clothing  in  Dela- 
ware, seizing  the  transports,  &c,  the  Battles  of  Lexington, 
Charlestown,  &c,  every  man  in  Great  Britain  will  be  con- 
vinced by  ministry  and  Parliament,  that  we  are  aiming  at  an 
independency  on  Great  Britain ;  therefore,  we  need  not  fear 
from  this  step  disaffecting  our  friends  in  England.  As  to  a 
defection  in  the  Colonies,  I  can't  answer  for  Maryland,  Pennsyl- 
vania, &c. ;  but  I  can  for  Virginia. 

Johnson.  I  am  not  against  allowing  liberty  to  arrest  Lord 
Dunmore ;  there  is  evidence  that  the  scheme  he  is  executing  was 
recommended  by  himself.  Maryland  does  not  regard  the  con- 
nection with  Great  Britain  as  the  first  good. 

Stone.  If  we  signify  to  Virginia  that  it  will  not  be  disagree- 
able to  us  if  they  secure  Lord  Dunmore,  that  will  be  sufficient. 

Leivis  moves  an  amendment,  that  it  be  recommended  to  the 
Council  of  Virginia,  that  they  take  such  measures  to  secure 
themselves  from  the  practices  of  Lord  Dunmore,  either  by  seiz- 
ing his  person,  or  otherwise,  as  they  think  proper. 

Hall.  A  material  distinction  between  a  peremptory  order  to 
the  Council  of  Virginia,  to  seize  his  Lordship,  and  a  recom- 
mendation to  take  such  measures  as  they  shall  judge  necessary 
to  defend  themselves  against  his  measures. 


Extract  from  the  Journals. 

"Resolved,  That  the  Committee  appointed  for  the  importation  of  powder,  be 
directed  to  export,  agreeable  to  the  Continental  Association,  as  much  provisions 
or  other  produce  of  these  Colonies,  as  they  shall  judge  expedient  for  the  pur- 
chase of  arms  and  ammunition." 

Motion  to  Export  Produce  for  Povider. 

Sherman.  I  think  we  must  have  powder,  and  we  may  send 
out  produce  for  powder.  But  upon  some  gentlemen's  principles 
we  must  have  a  general  exportation. 


1775.]  DEBATES.  461 

Paine.  From  the  observations  some  gentlemen  have  made,  I 
think  this  proposition  of  more  importance  than  it  appeared  at 
first  In  theory,  I  could  carry  it  further,  even  to  exportation  and 
importation  to  Great  Britain.  A  large  continent  can't  act  upon 
speculative  principles,  but  must  be  governed  by  rules.  Medi- 
cines we  must  have,  some  clothing,  &c.  I  wish  we  could  enter 
upon  the  question  at  large,  and  agree  upon  some  system. 

Chase.  By  that  resolution  we  may  send  to  Great  Britain, 
Ireland,  and  West  Indies. 

Lee.  Suppose  provisions  should  be  sold  in  Spain  for  money, 
and  cash  sent  to  England  for  powder. 

Duane.  We  must  have  powder ;  I  would  send  for  powder 
to  London  or  anywhere.  We  are  undone  if  we  have  not  pow- 
der. 

Deane.     I  hope  the  words,  "  agreeable  to  the  Association  " 
will  be  inserted,  but  I  would  import  from  Great  Britain  powder. 
R.  R.  Livingston.     We  are  between  hawk  and  buzzard ;  we 
puzzle  ourselves  between  the  commercial  and  warlike  opposi- 
tion. 

Rutledge.  If  ammunition  was  to  be  had  from  England  only, 
there  would  be  weight  in  the  gentleman's  argument.  The 
Captain,  Reed,  told  us  yesterday  that  he  might  have  brought 
one  thousand  barrels  of  powder.  Why  ?  because  he  was  not 
searched.  But  if  he  had  attempted  to  bring  powder,  he  would 
have  been  searched.  I  would  let  the  Association  stand  as  it  is, 
and  order  the  Committee  to  export  our  provisions  consistent 
with  it. 

Lee.  When  a  vessel  comes  to  England  against  our  Associ- 
ation, she  must  be  observed  and  watched ;  they  would  keep  the 
provisions,  but  not  let  us  have  the  powder. 

Deane.  I  have  not  the  most  distant  idea  of  infringing  the 
Association. 

Duane.  The  resolution  with  the  amendment  amounts  to 
nothing.  The  Committee  may  import  now  consistent  with  the 
Association.  I  apprehend  that,  by  breaking  the  Association, 
we  may  import  powder ;  without  it,  not.  We  must  have  pow- 
der. We  must  fight  our  battles,  in  two  or  three  months,  in 
every  Colony. 

J.  Rutledge.  They  may  export  to  any  other  place,  and  thence 
send  money  to  England. 


39* 


462 


DEBATES. 


[1775. 


Extract  from  the  Journals. 

"  The  Congress,  taking  into  consideration  the  letter  from  New  York,  respect- 
ing the  fortifications  ordered  to  be  erected  on  Hudson's  River,  — 

"Resolved,  That  a  Committee  of  three  be  appointed  to  report  to-morrow  morn- 
ing, an  answer  to  the  Convention  of  New  York. 

"  The  following  members  were  chosen  by  ballot,  namely,  Mr.  Morton,  Mr. 
Deane,  and  Mr.  R.  Livingston." 

New   York  Letter  concerning  a  fortification  on  the   Highlands 

considered. 

Dyer.  Can't  say  how  far  it  would  have  been  proper  to  have 
gone  upon  Romain's  plan  in  the  Spring,  but  thinks  it  too  late 
now.  There  are  places  upon  that  river  that  might  be  thrown 
up  in  a  few  days,  that  would  do.  We  must  go  upon  some  plan 
that  will  be  expeditious. 

Lee.  Romain  says  a  less  or  more  imperfect  plan  would  only 
be  beginning  a  strong-hold  for  an  enemy. 

Deane.  An  order  went  to  New  York ;  they  have  employed 
an  engineer.  The  people  and  he  agree  in  the  spot  and  the  plan. 
Unless  we  rescind  the  whole  we  should  go  on ;  it  ought  to  be 
done. 


Saturday,  October  7. 

No  trace  of  the  next  debate  appears  upon  the  Journals  as  originally  printed, 
but  much  light  is  shed  upon  it  in  the  extract  from  the  Autobiography,  which 
follows  these  reports. 

On  the  third  of  October  is  this  entry  on  the  Journals:  "  One  of  the  delegates 
for  Rhode  Island  laid  before  the  Congress  a  part  of  the  instructions  given  them 
by  their  two  Houses  of  Legislature,  August  26,  1775. 

"Resolved,  That  the  Congress  will,  on  Friday  next,  take  (lie  above  into  consid- 
eration." 

From  these  words  it  is  clear  that  the  instructions  were  themselves  to  be  in- 
serted as  a  part  of  the  record,  which  they  are  not.  But  in  the  republication  by 
Mr.  Force  in  the  American  Archives,  4th  series,  vol.  iv.  c.  1888-9,  they  are 
found  in  full.  The  purport  of  them  was  to  recommend  to  the  Congress  the 
building  a  fleet  at  the  Continental  expense. 

In  the  Journals  as  originally  printed,  it  would  appear  as  if,  when  the  subject 
came  up  on  the  appointed  day,  Friday,  the  consideration  of  it  had  been  put  off 
until  Monday  the  16th,  which  would  make  this  debate  seem  entirely  out  of 
place. 

Mr.  Force  has  here  again  rectified  the  first  edition  of  the  Journals  by  show- 
ing that  the  vote  on  Friday  was  to  postpone  to  Saturday;  so  that  it  then  came 
up  the  first  thing  in  the  order  of  business,  and  was  again  postponed  until  Monday 
the' 16th. 


17  75.]  DEBATES.  463 

From  the  report  of  the  debate  it  -would  seem  as  if,  notwithstanding  this  refer- 
ence, a  motion  was  then  made  to  refer  the  matter  to  a  Committee. 

Chase.  It  is  the  maddest  idea  in  the  world  to  think  of  build- 
ing an  American  fleet;  its  latitude  is  wonderful;  we  should 
mortgage  the  whole  Continent.  Recollect  the  intelligence  on 
your  table  —  defend  New  York  —  fortify  upon  Hudson's  River. 
We  should  provide,  for  gaining  intelligence,  two  swift  sailing 
vessels. 

Dyer.  The  affair  of  powder  from  New  York  should  be  referred 
to  the  Committee. 

Hopkins.  No  objection  to  putting  off  the  instruction  from 
Rhode  Island,  provided  it  is  to  a  future  day. 

Paine.  Seconds  Chase's  motion  that  it  be  put  off  to  a  future 
day,  sine  die. 

Chase.  The  gentleman  from  Maryland  never  made  such  a 
motion.  I  never  used  the  copulative  ;  the  gentleman  is  very  sar- 
castic, and  thinks  himself  very  sensible. 

Zubly.  If  the  plans  of  some  gentlemen  are  to  take  place,  an 
American  fleet  must  be  a  part  of  it,  extravagant  as  it  is. 

Randolph  moves  that  all  the  orders  of  the  day  should  be  read 
every  morning. 

Deane.  I  wish  it  may  be  seriously  debated.  I  don't  think  it 
romantic  at  all. 

J.  Rutledge  moves  that  some  gentlemen  be  appointed  to  pre- 
pare a  plan  and  estimate  of  an  American  fleet.  Zubly  seconds 
the  motion. 

Gadsden.  I  am  against  the  extensiveness  of  the  Rhode  Island 
plan ;  but  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  some  plan  of  defence, 
by  sea,  should  be  adopted. 

J.  Rutledge.  I  shall  not  form  a  conclusive  opinion,  till  I  hear 
the  arguments.  I  want  to  know  how  many  ships  are  to  be  built, 
and  what  they  will  cost. 

S.  Adams.  The  committee  can't  make  an  estimate,  until  they 
know  how  many  ships  are  to  be  built. 

Zubly.  Rhode  Island  has  taken  the  lead.  I  move  that  the 
delegates  of  Rhode  Island  prepare  a  plan ;  give  us  their  opinion. 

J.  Adams.  The  motion  is  entirely  out  of  order.  The  subject 
is  put  off  for  a  week,  and  now  a  motion  is  to  appoint  a  com- 
mittee to  consider  the  whole  subject. 


464  DEBATES.  [1775. 

Zubly,  Rutledge,  Paine,  Gadsden,  —  lightly  skirmishing. 

Deane.  It  is  like  the  man  that  was  appointed  to  tell  the 
dream  and  the  interpretation  of  it.  The  expense  is  to  be  esti- 
mated, without  knowing  what  fleet  there  shall  be,  or  whether 
any  at  all. 

Gadsden,  The  design  is,  to  throw  it  into  ridicule.  It  should 
be  considered,  out  of  respect  to  the  Colony  of  Rhode  Island,  who 
desired  it. 

Determined,  against  the  appointment  of  a  committee. 


Report  of  the    Committee,  for  fortifying  upon  Hudson's  River, 

considered.1 

J.  Rutledge.  I  think  we  should  add  to  the  report,  that  they 
take  the  most  effectual  measures  to  obstruct  the  navigation  of 
Hudson's  River,  by  booms,  or  otherwise.  Gadsden  seconds  the 
motion.  Deane  doubts  the  practicability  of  obstructing  it  with 
booms,  it  is  so  wide.  The  committee  said,  four  or  five  booms 
chained  together,  and  ready  to  be  drawn  across,  would  stop  the 
passage. 

The  Congress  of  New  York  is  to  consult  the  Assembly  of  Con- 
necticut, and  the  Congress  of  New  Jersey,  on  the  best  method 
of  taking  posts,  and  making  signals,  and  assembling  forces  for 
the  defence  of  the  river. 

Gadsden  moves  that  all  the  letters  laid  before  us,  from  Eng- 
land, should  be  sent  to  the  Convention  of  New  York.  Tryon  is 
a  dangerous  man,  and  the  Convention  of  that  Colony  should  be 
upon  their  guard.  Lee.  I  think  the  letters  should,  by  all  means, 
be  sent.  Rutledge.  Dr.  Franklin  desired  they  might  not  be 
printed.  Moves  that  General  Wooster,  with  his  troops,  may  be 
ordered  down  to  New  York.  Duane  moves  that  Wooster's  men 
may  be  employed  in  building  the  fortifications.  Dyer  seconds  the 
motion,  allowing  the  men  what  is  usual. 

Sherman  would  have  the  order  conditional,  if  Schuyler  don't 
want  them ;  understands  that  New  York  has  the  best  militia 
upon  the  continent. 

R.  Livingston.  They  will  be  necessary  at  the  Highlands. 
Dyer  thinks  they  ought  to  have  the  usual  allowance  for  work. 

i  This  Report  will  be  found  at  large  in  the  printed  Journals  of  this  date. 


1775.]  DEBATES.  465 

S.  Adams  understands  that  the  works  at  Cambridge  wen- 
done  without  any  allowance,  but  that  General  Washington  has 
ordered,  that,  for  future  works,  they  be  allowed  half  a  pistareen 
a  day. 

Lang-don  would  not  have  the  order  to  Wooster,1  but  to  Schuy- 
ler; for  he  wTould  not  run  any  risk  of  the  northern  expedition. 

Rutledge  thinks  Schuyler  can't  want  them ;  he  waited  only 
for  boats  to  send  five  hundred  men  more.  Sherman.  Would  it 
not  be  well  to  inform  Schuyler  of  our  endeavors  to  take  the 
transports,  and  desire  him  to  acquaint  Colonel  Arnold  of  it? 

Rutledge.  He  may  cooperate  with  Arnold  in  taking  the  trans- 
ports.    I  hope  he  is  in  possession  of  Montreal  before  now. 

Deane.  I  wish  that  whatever  money  is  collected,  may  be  sent 
along  to  Schuyler. 

E.  Rutledge.  We  have  been  represented  as  beggarly  fellows, 
and  the  first  impressions  are  the  strongest.  If  we  eat  their  pro- 
visions, and  don't  pay,  it  will  make  a  bad  impression. 


Ross  produces  a  Resolve  of  the  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania, 
that  their  delegates  lay  the  Connecticut  Intrusion  2  before  Con- 
gress, that  something  may  be  done  to  cmiet  the  minds. 

J.  Rutledge  moves  that  the  papers  be  referred  to  the  delegates 
of  the  two  Colonies. 

Willing  thinks  them  parties,  and  that  they  must  have  an 
umpire.     Sherman  thinks  they  may  agree  on  a  temporary  line. 


Debate  on  the  Report  for  fortifying  upon  Hudsoris  River,  resumed. 
Lee  3  moves  that  parliamentary  or  ministerial  posts  may  be 

1  The  following  resolution  made  a  part  of  the  report  under  consideration  :  — 
"  Resolved,  That  orders  be  sent  to  General  Wooster,  in  case  he  has  no  orders  to 

the  contrary  from  General  Schuyler,  that  he  immediately  return  to  the  batteries 
erecting  in  the  Highlands,  and  there  leave  as  many  of  his  troops  as  the  conductors 
of  the  work  shall  think  necessary  for  completing  them,  and  that  he  repair  with 
the  remainder  to  New  York." 

2  A  brief,  but  clear,  account  of  the  controversy  between  Connecticut  and 
Pennsylvania,  respecting  the  lands  at  Wyoming,  is  found  in  the  life  of  Roger 
Sherman,  in  Sanderson's  Biography  of  the  Signers,  &c.  It  was  finally  decided, 
in  1782,  in  favor  of  Pennsylvania.     Reed's  Life  of  Reed,  vol.  ii.  p.  388. 

3  One  part  of  the  report  was  in  these  words :  — 

"  That  it  be  recommended  to  said  Convention,  to  establish,  at  proper  distances, 
posts  to  be  ready  to  give  intelligence  to  the  country,  in  case  of  any  invasion,  or, 

7)2 


46G  DEBATES.  [l 


4  li>. 


stopped,  as  a  constitutional  post  is  now  established  from  New 
Hampshire  to  Georgia.     Langdon  seconds  the  motion. 

Willing  thinks  it  is  interfering  with  that  line  of  conduct  which 
we  have  hitherto  prescribed  to  ourselves ;  it  is  going  back  beyond 
the  year  1763. 

Lee.  When  the  Ministry  are  mutilating  our  correspondence 
in  England,  and  our  enemies  here  are  corresponding  for  our  ruin, 
shall  we  not  stop  the  ministerial  post  ? 

Willing  looks  upon  this  to  be  one  of  the  offensive  measures 
which  are  improper  at  this  time.  It  will  be  time  enough  to 
throw  this  aside,  when  the  time  comes  that  we  shall  throw 
every  thing  aside ;  at  present,  we  don't  know  but  there  may  be 
a  negotiation. 

Dyer.  We  have  already  superseded  the  Act  of  Parliament 
effectually. 

Deane  is  for  a  recommendation  to  the  people  to  write  by  the 
constitutional  post ;  not  forbid  a  man  to  ride. 

S.  Adams  thinks  it  a  defensive  measure ;  and  advising  people 
not  to  write  by  it,  looks  too  cunning  for  me.  I  am  for  stopping 
the  correspondence  of  our  enemies. 

Langdon.  Administration  are  taking  every  method  to  come 
at  our  intentions.  Why  should  not  we  prevent  it  ?  Duane.  I 
shall  vote  against  it.  It  may  be  true  that  we  are  come  to  the 
time  when  we  are  to  lay  aside  all.  I  think  there  should  be  a 
full  representation  of  the  Colonies.  North  Carolina  should  be 
here.     Deane  seconds  the  motion  for  postponing  it. 

Zubly.  The  necessity  of  this  measure  does  not  appear  to  me. 
If  we  have  gone  beyond  the  line  of  1763  and  of  defence,  without 
apparent  necessity,  it  was  wrong ;  if  with  necessity,  right.  I  look 
upon  the  invasion  of  Canada  as  a  very  different  thing ;  I  have  a 
right  to  defend  myself  against  persons  who  come  against  me,  let 
them  come  from  whence  they  will.  We,  in  Georgia,  have  gained 
intelligence,  by  the  King's  Post,  that  we  could  not  have  got  any 
other  way.  Some  gentlemen  think  all  merit  lies  in  violent  and 
unnecessary  measures. 

S.  Adams.     The  gentleman's  argument  would  prove  that  we 

by  signals,  to  give  alarms  in  case  of  clanger;  and  that  they  confer  with  the 
Assembly  of  Connecticut,  and  Convention  of  New  Jersey,  on  the  speediest 
manner  of  conveying  intelligence  in  such  cases,  and  receiving  assistance  when 
necessary." 


17  75.]  DEBATES.  407 

should  let  the  post  go  into  Boston.  Morton.  Would  not  this 
stop  the  packet  ?  Would  it  not  be  ordered  to  Boston  ?  Does 
the  packet  bring  any  intelligence  to  us  that  is  of  use  ? 

Lee.  No  intelligence  comes  to  us,  but  constant  intelligence 
to  our  enemies.  Stone  thinks  it  an  innocent  motion,  but  is  for 
postponing  it,  because  he  is  not  at  present  clear.  He  thinks  that 
the  setting  up  a  new  post  has  already  put  down  the  old  one. 

Paine.  My  opinion  was,  that  the  ministerial  post  will  die  a 
natural  death ;  it  has  been  under  a  languishment  a  great  while ; 
it  would  be  cowardice  to  issue  a  decree  to  kill  that  which  is 
dying;  it  brought  but  one  letter  last  time,  and  was  obliged  to 
retail  newspapers  to  bear  its  expenses.  I  am  very  loth  to  say 
that  this  post  shall  not  pass. 

Lee.  Is  there  not  a  Doctor,  Lord  North,  who  can  keep  this 
creature  alive? 

R.  R.  Livingston.  I  don't  think  that  Tory  letters  are  sent  by 
the  royal  post.  I  consider  it  rather  as  a  convenience  than  other- 
wise ;  we  hear  five  times  a  week  from  New  York.  The  letters, 
upon  our  table,  advise  us  to  adopt  every  conciliatory  measure, 
that  we  may  secure  the  affections  of  the  people  of  England. 


October  10.  On  the  preceding  day,  the  Congress  had  adopted  a  resolution, 
in  the  following  words  :  — 

"  That  it  be  recommended  to  the  Convention  of  New  Jersey,  that  they  imme- 
diately raise,  at  the  expense  of  the  continent,  two  battalions,  consisting  of  eioht 
companies  each,  and  each  company  of  sixty-eight  privates,  officered  with  one 
captain,  one  lieutenant,  one  ensign,  four  sergeants,  and  four  corporals." 

Who  shall  have  the  appointment  of  the  officers,  in  the  two 
battalions  to  be  raised  in  New  Jersey  ? 

Sherman.  Best  to  leave  it  to  the  Provincial  Conventions. 
Ward  seconds  the  motion. 

Chase.  This  is  persisting  in  error,  in  spite  of  experience ;  we 
have  found,  by  experience,  that  giving  the  choice  of  officers  to 
the  people  is  attended  with  bad  consequences.  The  French 
officers  are  allowed  to  exceed  any  in  Europe,  because  a  gentle- 
man is  hardly  entitled  to  the  smiles  of  the  ladies,  without  serving 
a  campaign.  In  my  Province,  we  want  officers.  Gentlemen 
have  recommended  persons,  from  personal  friendships,  who  were 
not  suitable  ;    such  friendships  will   have   more  weight  in  the 


468  DEBATES.  [1775. 

Colonies.  Dyer.  We  must  derive  all  our  knowledge  from  the 
delegates  of  that  Colony.  The  representatives  at  large  are  as 
good  judges,  and  would  give  more  satisfaction.  You  can't  raise 
an  army,  if  you  put  officers  over  the  men,  whom  they  don't  know. 
It  requires  time  to  bring  people  off  from  ancient  usage.  E.  Rut- 
led^e.  We  don't  mean  to  break  in  upon  what  has  been  done. 
In  our  Province  we  have  raised  our  complement  of  men  in  the 
neighboring  Colonies.  I  am  for  it,  that  we  may  have  power  to 
reward  merit. 

Ward.  The  motion  is  intended  for  a  precedent.  In  the  expe- 
dition to  Carthagena  and  Canada,  the  Crown  only  appointed  a 
lieutenant  in  my  Colony ;  the  men  will  not  enlist.  When  the 
Militia  Bill  was  before  us,  I  was  against  giving  the  choice  to 
the  men.  I  don't  know  any  man  in  the  Jerseys.  Duane.  A 
subject  of  importance ;  a  matter  of  delicacy ;  we  ought  to  be  all 
upon  a  footing ;  we  are  to  form  the  grand  outlines  of  an  Ameri- 
can army ;  a  general  regulation.  Will  such  a  regulation  be 
salutary  ?  The  public  good  alone  will  govern  me.  If  we  were 
to  set  out  anew,  would  the  same  plan  be  pursued  ?  It  has  not 
been  unprecedented  in  this  Congress.  Mr.  Campbell,  Allen, 
Warner,  were  promoted  here.  We  ought  to  insist  upon  it ;  we 
shall  be  able  to  regulate  an  army  better.  Schuyler  and  Mont- 
gomery would  govern  my  judgment.  I  would  rather  take  the 
opinion  of  General  Washington  than  of  any  convention.  We 
can  turn  out  the  unworthy,  and  reward  merit ;  the  usage  is  for 
it.  Governors  used  to  make  officers,  except  in  Connecticut  and 
Rhode  Island.  But  we  can't  raise  an  army !  We  are  then  in  a 
deplorable  condition  indeed.  We  pay !  —  can't  we  appoint,  with 
the  advice  of  our  Generals  ? 

Langdon  looks  upon  this  as  a  very  extraordinary  motion,  and 
big  with  many  mischiefs.  Deane.  It  is  the  people's  money,  not 
ours ;  it  will  be  fatal.  We  can't  set  up  a  sale  for  offices,  like 
Lord  Barrington.  E.  Ridledge.  The  appointment,  hitherto,  has 
been  as  if  the  money  belonged  to  particular  Provinces,  not  to 
the  Continent.  We  can't  reward  merit ;  the  Governor  appointed 
officers  with  us. 

Ross.  My  sentiments  coincide  with  those  of  the  gentlemen 
from  New  York  and  Carolina,  and  would  go  further  and  appoint 
every  officer,  even  an  ensign.  We  have  no  command  of  the 
army.     They  have  different  rules  and  articles.     Jay.     Am  of 


1775.]  DEBATES.  |H9 

opinion  with  the  gentleman  who  spoke  last.  The  Union  depends 
much  upon  breaking  down  Provincial  Conventions ;  the  whole 
army  refused  to  be  mustered  by  your  Muster- Master. 


Debate  on  the  State  of  Trade,  continued  from  Page  457. 

October  12.  Report,  on  Trade,  considered  in  a  committee  of 
the  whole. 

Lee.  It  has  been  moved  to  bring  the  debate  to  one  point  by 
putting  the  question,  whether  the  custom-houses  shall  be  shut 
up,  and  the  officers  discharged  from  their  several  functions. 
This  would  put  New  York,  North  Carolina,  the  lower  Counties, 
and  Georgia,  upon  the  same  footing  with  the  other  Colonies.  I, 
therefore,  move  you,  that  the  custom-houses  be  shut,  and  the 
officers  discharged ;  this  will  remove  jealousies  and  divisions. 

Zubly.  The  measure  we  are  now"  to  consider  is  extremely 
interesting.  I  shall  offer  my  thoughts.  If  we  decide  properly, 
I  hope  we  shall  establish  our  cause  ;  if  improperly,  we  shall 
overthrow  it  altogether. 

1st  Proposition.  Trade  is  important.  2.  We  must  have  a 
reconciliation  with  Great  Britain,  or  the  means  of  carrying  on 
the  war ;  an  unhappy  day  when  we  shall  ...  A  republican 
government  is  little  better  than  government  of  devils.  I  have 
been  acquainted  with  it  from  six  years  old.  We  must  regulate 
our  trade,  so  as  that  a  reconciliation  be  obtained,  or  we  enabled  to 
carry  on  the  war.  Can't  say,  but  I  do  hope  for  a  reconciliation, 
and  that  this  winter  may  bring  it.  I  may  enjoy  my  hopes  for 
reconciliation  ;  others  may  enjoy  theirs,  that  none  will  take 
place.  A  vessel  will  not  go  without  sails  or  oars.  Wisdom  is 
better  than  weapons  of  war.  We  don't  mean  to  oppose  Great 
Britain,  merely  for  diversion ;  if  it  is  necessary,  that  we  make 
war,  and  that  we  have  the  means  of  it.  This  Continent  ought 
to  know  what  it  is  about ;  the  nation  don't.  We  ought  to  know 
wThat  they  mean  to  be  about ;  we  ought  to  have  intelligence  of 
the  designs.  King  of  Prussia  and  Count  Daun  marched  and 
countermarched,  until  they  could  not  impose  upon  each  other 
any  more.  Every  thing  we  want  for  the  war  is  powder  and 
shot.  Second  thing  necessary,  that  we  have  arms  and  ammuni- 
tion. Third,  we  must  have  money ;  the  continental  credit  must 
be  supported ;  we  must  keep  up  a  notion  that  this  paper  is  good 

VOL.    II.  40 


470  DEBATES.  [1775. 

for  something;  it  has  not  yet  a  general  circulation.  The  Mis- 
sissippi scheme,  in  France,  and  the  South  Sea  scheme,  in  Eng- 
land, were  written  for  our  learning ;  a  hundred  millions  fell  in 
one  day.  Twenty  men-of-war  may  block  up  the  harbor  of 
New  York,  Delaware  River,  Chesapeake  Bay,  the  Carolinas, 
and  Georgia.  Whether  we  can  raise  a  navy,  is  an  important 
question.  We  may  have  a  navy,  and,  to  carry  on  the  war,  we 
must  have  a  navy.  Can  we  do  this  without  trade  ?  Can 
we  gain  intelligence  without  trade  ?  Can  we  get  powder 
without  trade  ?  Every  vessel  you  send  out  is  thrown  away. 
New  England,  where  the  war  is,  may  live  without  trade ; 
the  money  circulates  there ;  they  may  live.  Without  trade  our 
people  must  starve ;  we  cannot  live ;  we  cannot  feed  or  clothe 
our  people.  My  resolution  was,  that  I  would  do  and  suffer  any 
thing,  rather  than  not  be  free ;  but  I  am  resolved  not  to  do 
impossible  things;  if  we  must  trade,  we  must  trade  with  some- 
body, and  with  somebody  that  will  trade  with  us ;  either  with 
foreigners  or  Great  Britain ;  if  with  foreigners,  we  must  either 
go  to  them  or  they  must  come  to  us ;  we  can't  go  to  them,  if 
our  harbors  are  shut  up.  I  look  upon  the  trade  with  foreigners 
as  impracticable.  St.  Lawrence  being  open  is  a  supposition. 
New  England  people,  last  war,  went  to  Cape  Francois.  Span- 
iards are  too  lazy  to  come  to  us.  If  we  can't  trade  with  foreign- 
ers, we  must  trade  with  Great  Britain.  Is  it  practicable  ?  will 
it  quit  cost  ?  will  it  do  more  hurt  than  good  ?  This  is  breaking 
our  association.  Our  people  will  think  we  are  giving  way,  and 
giving  all  up ;  they  will  say,  one  mischievous  man  has  overset 
the  whole  navigation.  I  speak  from  principle ;  it  has  been  said 
here  that  the  association  was  made  in  terrorem. 

Gadsden  seconds  Lee's  motion,  and  affirms  that  we  can  carry 
on  trade  from  one  end  of  the  continent  to  the  other. 

Deane.  Custom-house  officers  discharged !  Were  they  ever 
in  our  pay,  in  our  service  ?  Let  them  stand  where  they  are ;  let 
this  Congress  establish  what  offices  they  please ;  let  the  others 
die.  I  think  that  all  the  Colonies  ought  to  be  upon  a  footing ;  we 
must  have  trade.  I  think  we  ought  to  apply  abroad ;  we  must 
have  powder  and  goods ;  we  can't  keep  our  people  easy  without. 

Lee.  The  gentleman  agrees  that  all  ought  to  be  upon  a  foot- 
ing. Let  him  show  how  this  can  be  done  without  shutting  the 
custom-houses. 


1775.]  DEBATES.  471 

Jay.  This  should  be  the  last  business  we  undertake.  It  is 
like  cutting  the  foot  to  the  shoe,  not  making  a  shoe  for  the  foot. 
Let  us  establish  a  system  first. 

I  think  we  ought  to  consider  the  whole,  before  we  come  to 
any  resolutions.  Now  gentlemen  have  their  doubts  whether  the 
non-exportation  was  a  good  measure.  I  was,  last  year,  clear 
against  it.  Because  the  enemy  have  burned  Charlestown,  would 
gentlemen  have  us  burn  New  York  ?  Let  us  lay  every  burden 
as  equal  on  all  the  shoulders  as  we  can.  If  Providence  or 
Ministry  inflict  misfortunes  on  one,  shall  we  inflict  the  same  on 
all  ?  I  have  one  arm  sore,  why  should  not  the  other  arm  be 
made  sore  too  ?  But  jealousies  will  arise ;  are  these  reasonable  ? 
is  it  politic  ?  We  are  to  consult  the  general  good  of  all  America. 
Are  we  to  do  hurt,  to  remove  unreasonable  jealousies  ?  Because 
Ministry  have  imposed  hardships  on  one,  shall  we  impose  the 
same  on  all  ?  It  is  not  from  affection  to  New  York  that  I  speak. 
If  a  man  has  lost  his  teeth,  on  one  side  of  his  jaws,  shall  he  pull 
out  the  teeth  from  the  other,  that  both  sides  may  be  upon  a  foot- 
ing ?  Is  it  not  realizing  the  quarrel  of  the  belly  and  the  mem- 
bers ?  The  other  Colonies  may  avail  themselves  of  the  custom- 
houses in  the  exempted  Colonies. 

Lee.  All  must  bear  a  proportional  share  of  the  Continental 
expense.  Will  the  exempted  Colonies  take  upon  themselves  the 
whole  expense  ?  Virginia  pays  a  sixth  part,  the  lower  Counties 
an  eightieth ;  yet  the  lower  counties  may  trade,  Virginia  not. 
The  gentleman  exercised  an  abundance  of  wit  to  show  the 
unreasonableness  of  jealousies.  If  this  ministerial  bait  is  swal- 
lowed by  America,  another  will  be  thrown  out. 

Jay.  Why  should  not  New  York  make  money,  and  New 
Jersey  not  ?     One  Colony  can  clothe  them. 

McKean.  I  have  four  reasons  for  putting  the  favored  Colo- 
nies upon  a  footing  with  the  rest.  1.  To  disappoint  the  min- 
istry ;  their  design  was  insidious.  2.  I  would  not  have  it  believed 
by  ministry,  or  other  Colonies,  that  those  Colonies  had  less  virtue 
than  others.  3.  I  have  a  reconciliation  in  view ;  it  would  be  in 
the  power  of  those  Colonies,  it  might  become  their  interest,  to 
prolong  the  war.  4.  I  believe  Parliament  has  done,  or  will  do 
it  for  us,  that  is,  put  us  on  the  same  footing.  I  would  choose 
that  the  exempted  Colonies  should  have  the  honor  of  it;  not 
clear  that  this  is  the  best  way  of  putting  them  upon  a  footing. 


472 


DEBATES. 


[177- 


If  we  should  be  successful  in  Canada,  I  would  be  for  opening 
our  trade  to  some  places  in  Great  Britain,  Jamaica,  &c. 

J.  Rutledge  wonders  that  a  subject  so  clear  has  taken  up  so 
much  time.  I  was  for  a  general  non-exportation.  Is  it  not  sur- 
prising that  there  should  so  soon  be  a  motion  for  breaking  the 
Association  ?  We  have  been  reproached  for  our  breach  of  faith 
in  breaking  the  non-importation.  I  have  the  best  authority  to 
say  that  if  we  had  abided  by  a  former  non-importation  we 
should  have  had  redress.  We  may  be  obliged  hereafter  to  break 
the  Association ;  but  why  should  we  break  it  before  we  feel  it  ? 
I  expected  the  delegates  from  the  exempted  Colonies  would  have 
moved  to  be  put  upon  the  same  footing.  Don't  like  shutting 
the  custom-houses  and  discharging  the  officers,  but  moves  that 
the  resolve  be,  that  people  in  New  York,  North  Carolina,  and 
lower  Counties  don't  apply  to  the  custom-house. 

Zubly.  Georgia  is  settled  along  Savannah  River,  two  hun- 
dred miles  in  extent,  and  one  hundred  miles  the  other  way.  I 
look  upon  it,  the  Association  altogether  will  be  the  ruin  of  the 
cause.  We  have  ten  thousand  fighting  Indians  near  us.  Caro- 
lina has  already  smuggled  goods  from  Georgia. 

Chase.  I  will  undertake  to  prove  that  if  the  reverend  gentle- 
man's positions  are  true,  and  his  advice  followed,  we  shall  all  be 
made  slaves.  If  he  speaks  the  opinion  of  Georgia,  I  sincerely 
lament  that  they  ever  appeared  in  Congress.  They  cannot,  they 
will  not  comply !  Why  did  they  come  here  ?  Sir,  we  are 
deceived !  Sir,  we  are  abused !  Why  do  they  come  here  ?  I 
want  to  know  why  their  Provincial  Congress  came  to  such  reso- 
lutions. Did  they  come  here  to  ruin  America  ?  The  gentle- 
man's advice  will  bring  destruction  upon  all  North  America.  I 
am  for  the  resolution  upon  the  table.  There  will  be  jealousies, 
if  New  York  and  the  other  exempted  Colonies  are  not  put  upon 
a  footing.  It  is  not  any  great  advantage  to  the  exempted  Colo- 
nies. What  can  they  export,  that  will  not  be  serviceable  to  Great 
Britain  and  the  West  Indies  ?  The  exports  of  North  Carolina 
are  of  vast  importance  to  Great  Britain.  If  these  Colonies  are 
in  rebellion,  will  not  their  effects  be  confiscated  and  seized  even 
upon  the  ocean  ?  Arms  and  ammunition  must  be  obtained  by 
what  is  called  smuggling.  I  doubt  not  we  shall  have  the  supply. 
Leaving  open  New  York  &c.  will  prevent  our  getting  arms  and 
ammunition. 


1775.]  DEBATES.  1?:', 

Houston.  Where  the  protection  of  this  room  did  not  extend, 
I  would  not  sit  very  tamely.  Chase.  I  think  the  gentleman 
ought  to  take  offence  at  his  brother  delegate. 

Wythe  agrees  with  the  gentleman  from  New  York  that  we 
don't  proceed  regularly.  The  safety  of  America  depends  essen- 
tially on  a  union  of  the  people  in  it.  Can  we  think  that  union 
will  be  preserved  if  four  Colonies  are  exempted  ?  When  New 
York  Assembly  did  not  approve  the  proceedings  of  the  Con- 
gress, it  was  not  only  murmured  at,  but  lamented  as  a  defection 
from  the  public  cause.  When  Attica  was  invaded  by  the  Lace- 
demonians, Pericles  ordered  an  estate  to  be  ravaged  and  laid 
waste,  because  he  thought  it  would  be  exempted  by  the  Spartan 
King.  Nothing  was  ever  more  unhappily  applied  than  the  fable 
of  the  stomach  and  the  limbs. 

Sherman.     Another  argument  for  putting     .     .     . 


On  Trade,  continued. 

October  13.  R.  Livingston  hopes  the  whole  matter  will  be 
put  off.  Is  willing,  as  it  seems  the  general  sense,  that  all  should 
be  put  upon  a  footing. 

Gadsden  hopes  it  will  not  be  put  off.  South  Carolina  will  be 
in  the  utmost  confusion  if  this  matter  is  not  decided.  Let  the 
Continent  determine. 

Stone  can  see  no  particular  inconvenience  to  Carolina;  se- 
conds the  motion  of  Mr.  Livingston,  for  postponing  the  question, 
and  <jives  his  reasons.  The  Powder  Committee  must  take  clear- 
ances.  If  they  are  allowed  to  take  clearances,  and  no  other,  then 
whenever  they  take  a  clearance,  it  will  be  known  that  it  is  for 
powder,  and  the  vessel  will  be  watched. 

Lee.  I  see  very  clearly  that  the  best  time  for  putting  a  ques- 
tion is  when  it  is  best  understood.  That  time  is  the  present. 
As  to  powder,  time  may  be  allowed  for  the  Committee  to  clear 
vessels. 

J.  Rutledge  thinks  this  motion  extraordinary ;  this  subject  has 
been  under  consideration  three  weeks.  It  is  really  trifling. 
The  Committee  may  have  time  allowed  to  clear  vessels  for 
powder;  but  I  had  rather  the  Continent  should  run  the  risk 
of  sending  vessels  without  clearances.     What  confusion  would 

40* 


474  DEBATES.  [1775. 

ensue,  if  Congress  should  break  up  without  any  resolution  of 
this  sort!  The  motion  seems  intended  to  defeat  the  resolution 
entirely.     Those  who  are  against  it  are  for  postponing. 

Jay.  We  have  complied  with  the  restraining  act.  The  ques- 
tion is,  whether  we  shall  have  trade  or  not?  and  this  is  to  intro- 
duce a  most  destructive  scheme,  a  scheme  which  will  drive 
away  all  your  sailors,  and  lay  up  all  your  ships  to  rot  at  the 
wharves. 


Debate  continued. 

October  20.  Deane.  Their  plunder  only  afforded  one  meal  of 
fresh  meat  for  the  privates  ;  all  the  rest  was  reserved  for  the  offi- 
cers, and  their  friends  among  the  inhabitants.  I  would  have 
traders  prohibited  from  importing  unnecessary  articles,  and  from 
exporting  live  stock,  except  horses. 

Gadsden.  If  we  give  one  leave,  when  there  are  one  hundred 
who  have  an  equal  right,  it  will  occasion  jealousy.  Let  each 
Colony  export  to  the  amount  of  so  many  thousand  pounds,  and 
no  more. 

Chase.  We  have  letters  from  Guadaloupe,  Martinique,  and 
the  Havana,  that  they  will  supply  us  with  powder  for  tobacco. 

Gadsden.  France  and  Spain  would  be  glad  to  see  Great 
Britain  despotic  in  America.  Our  being  in  a  better  state  than 
their  Colonies  occasions  complaints  among  them,  insurrections 
and  rebellions.  But  these  powers  would  be  glad  we  were  an 
independent  State. 

Chase.  The  proposition  is  for  exporting  for  a  special  purpose, 
—  importing  powder.  I  would  not  permit  our  cash  to  go  for 
rum.  Live  stock  is  an  inconsiderable  part  of  our  cargoes.  I 
don't  wish  to  intermix  any  thing  in  this  debate.  I  would  restrain 
the  merchant  from  importing  any  thing  but  powder,  &c.  Molas- 
ses was  an  article  of  importance  in  the  trade  of  the  Northern  Col- 
onies. But  now  they  can't  carry  on  the  African  trade,  and  the 
rum  is  pernicious.  If  you  give  a  latitude  for  any  thing  but  arms 
and  ammunition,  we  shan't  agree  what  articles  are  necessary  and 
what  unnecessary.  Each  Colony  should  carry  on  this  trade, 
not  individuals.  I  would  not  limit  the  quantity  of  ammunition 
to  be  imported  by  each  Colony.  A  hundred  tons  a  Colony 
would  supply   the  West   Indies,  mediately  all   the   army   and 


1775.]  DEBATES.  475 

navy.  Twenty  tons  would  be  a  considerable  adventure  for  a 
Colony.  Debts  are  due  from  the  British  West  India  Islands  to 
the  inhabitants  of  these  Colonies.  I  am  not  for  permitting  ves- 
sels to  go  in  ballast  and  fetch  cash  ;  I  wish  to  import  cash  from 
every  place  as  much  as  possible. 

Dearie.  It  cannot  be  done  with  secrecy  or  despatch.  I  rather 
think  it  would  be  as  well  to  leave  it  to  traders. 

Zubly.     It  is  of  great  weight  that  there  be  no  favorites. 

Dyer.  There  will  be  such  continual  applications  to  the 
Assemblies  by  their  friends  among  the  traders,  it  will  open  a 
complete  exportation;  it  would  completely  supply  the  West 
Indies. 

Jay.  We  have  more  to  expect  from  the  enterprise,  activity 
and  industry  of  private  adventurers,  than  from  the  lukewarm- 
ness  of  assemblies.  We  want  French  woollens,  Dutch  worst- 
eds, duck  for  tents,  German  steel,  &c.  Public  virtue  is  not  so 
active  as  private  love  of  gain.  Shall  we  shut  the  door  against 
private  enterprise  ? 

Lee.  The  gentleman  may  move  for  those  things  as  excep- 
tions to  the  general  rule. 

Randolph.  We  are  making  laws  contradictory  in  terms. 
We  say  nobody  shall  export,  and  yet  somebody  shall.  Against 
all  rule. 

Lee.  It  is  a  common  rule  in  making  laws,  to  make  a  rule 
and  then  make  a  proviso  for  special  cases. 

Dyer.  The  rule  and  the  proviso  are  passed  at  once  in  the 
same  act,  though.  If  I  give  my  voice  for  an  unconditional  pro- 
position, what  security  have  I  that  the  condition  or  proviso  will 
be  added  afterwards  ?     The  greatest  impropriety  in  the  world. 

Chase.  Both  sides  are  right;  and  it  arises  from  this,  that 
one  proposition  is  to  be  made  public,  and  the  other  kept  secret. 
We  have  very  little  confidence  in  each  other. 

Zubly.  If  half  the  law  is  to  be  public  and  the  other  half 
secret,  will  not  half  the  people  be  governed  by  one  half  and  the 
other  half  by  the  other  ?     Will  they  not  clash  ? 

Jay.  Lest  your  produce  fall  into  the  hands  of  your  enemies, 
you  publish  a  law  that  none  go  from  the  Continent ;  yet  to  get 
powder,  we  keep  a  secret  law  that  produce  may  be  exported. 
Then  come  the  wrangles  among  the  people.  A  vessel  is  seen 
loading,  —  a  fellow  runs  to  the  committee. 


176  DEBATES.  [1775. 

Lee.  The  inconvenience  may  arise  in  some  measure ;  but  will 
not  the  people  be  quieted  by  the  authority  of  the  Conventions  ? 
If  we  give  public  notice,  our  enemies  will  be  more  active  to 
intercept  us.  On  the  contrary,  the  people  may  be  quieted  by 
the  committees  of  safety. 

Wythe.  The  only  persons  who  can  be  affected  by  this  reso- 
lution, are  those,  who,  on  the  other  side  of  the  water,  will  be 
called  smugglers.  Consider  the  danger  these  smugglers  will 
run ;  liable  to  seizure  by  custom-house  officers,  by  men  of  war 
at  sea,  and  by  custom-house  officers  in  the  port  they  go  to. 
What  can  they  bring  ?  Cash,  powder,  or  foreign  manufactures  ? 
Can't  see  the  least  reason  for  restraining  our  trade,  as  little  can 
be  carried  on.  My  opinion  is,  we  had  better  open  our  trade 
altogether.  It  has  long  been  my  opinion,  and  I  have  heard  no 
arguments  against  it. 

Zubly.  We  can't  do  without  trade.  To  be  or  not  to  be  is 
too  trifling  a  question  for  many  gentlemen.  All  that  wise  men 
can  do  among  many  difficulties,  is  to  choose  the  least. 

Stone.  Cannot  agree  to  the  propositions  made  by  the  gentle- 
man from  Maryland,  —  not  for  binding  the  people  closer  than 
they  are  bound  already,  —  the  proposition  is  the  same  with  that 
which  was  made,  that  our  vessels  should  be  stopped,  and  for- 
eigners invited  to  come  here  for  our  produce  and  protect  their 
own  trade.  This  appears  to  be  a  destructive  system.  It  was  a 
laborious  task  to  get  America  into  a  general  non-exportation  to 
Great  Britain,  Ireland,  and  West  Indies, —  shall  we  now  com- 
bine with  Britain  to  distress  our  people  in  their  trade,  more 
than  by  the  Association  ?  People  have  looked  up  to  this,  and 
are  unwilling  to  go  further.  The  restraining  bill,  a  most  cruel, 
unjust,  unconstitutional  act ;  yet  we  are  going  to  greater  cruel- 
ties than  they.  We  are  all  to  be  in  the  same  circumstances  of 
poverty  and  distress.  Will  the  West  Indies  be  supplied  by  a 
circuitous  trade  ?  I  think  not.  How  can  the  West  Indies  get 
supplies  from  Holland,  France,  or  Spain  ?  The  whole  produce 
will  not  be  carried;  it  is  said  the  men  of  war  will  take  their 
produce  ;  this  argument  will  operate  against  exporting  for  pow- 
der. The  army  will  be  supplied;  it  is  impossible  to  prevent 
their  getting  supplies,  at  least  of  bread.  It  appears  to  me  this  is 
not  a  temporary  expedient,  but  will  have  a  perpetual  influence. 
It  is  a  destructive,  ruinous  expedient,  and  our  people  never  will 


1775.]  DEBATES.  |?7 

bear  it.  Under  the  faith  that  your  ports  would  be  kept  open  to 
foreigners,  people  have  made  contracts  with  foreigners.  You 
are  giving  a  sanction  to  the  Act  of  Parliament,  and  going 
further.  Under  such  a  regulation  we  never  can  exist.  I  would 
export  produce  to  foreign  West  Indies,  or  anywhere  for  pow- 
der ;  but  the  mode  of  doing  it  will  defeat  it.  The  Assemblies 
never  will  turn  merchants  successfully.  I  would  have  private 
adventurers  give  bond  to  return  powder,  or  the  produce  itself. 

Chase.  Differs  from  his  colleague ;  a  different  proposition 
from  that  for  restraining  our  people  and  inviting  foreigners. 
This  proposition  invites  your  people.  If  you  carry  on  your 
exports,  without  the  protection  of  a  foreign  power  you  destroy 
America.  If  you  stop  provisions  and  not  other  produce,  you 
create  a  jealousy.  If  you  export  provisions  and  not  other  pro- 
duce, you  create  a  jealousy.  Don't  think  the  risk  will  prevent 
supplies  to  the  West  India  Islands. 

We  must  prevent  them  lumber  as  well  as  provisions ;  great 
quantities  will  be  exported,  notwithstanding  the  risk.  All  the 
fleet  of  Britain  cannot  stop  our  trade ;  we  can  carry  it  all  on. 
We  must  starve  the  West  India  Islands,  and  prevent  them 
exporting  their  produce  to  Great  Britain.  There  will  be  great 
quantities  of  provisions  and  lumber  exported.  It  will  enhance 
the  expense,  to  carry  them  to  Spain  or  France  first,  and  thence 
to  the  West  Indies ;  but  the  price  will  be  such  that  the  West 
Indies  will  get  them.  I  hold  it  clearly,  we  can  do  without 
trade ;  this  country  produces  all  the  necessaries,  many  of  the 
conveniences,  and  some  of  the  superfluities,  of  life.  We  can't 
grow  rich ;  our  provisions  will  be  cheap ;  we  can  maintain  our 
army  and  our  poor.  We  shan't  lose  our  sailors ;  the  fishermen 
will  serve  in  another  capacity.  We  must  defend  the  lakes  and 
cities.  Merchants  will  not  grow  rich ;  there  is  the  rub.  I  have 
too  good  an  opinion  of  the  virtue  of  our  people,  to  suppose  they 
will  grumble.  If  we  drop  our  commercial  system  of  opposition, 
we  are  undone ;  we  must  fail ;  we  must  give  up  the  profits  of 
trade,  or  lose  our  liberties.  Let  the  door  of  reconciliation  be 
once  shut,  I  would  trade  with  foreign  powers,  and  apply  to  them 
for  protection.  Leave  your  ports  open,  and  every  man  that  can, 
will  adventure  ;  the  risk  will  not  prevent  it. 

It  was  strongly  contended,  at  the  first  Congress,  that  trade 
should  be  stopped  to  all  the  world  ;  that  all  remittances  should 


478  DEBATES.  [1775. 

cease.  You  would  have  saved  a  civil  war,  if  you  had ;  but  it 
could  not  be  carried ;  the  gentlemen  from  South  Carolina  could 
not  prevail  to  stop  our  exports  to  Britain,  Ireland,  and  West  In- 
dies. Our  vessels  will  all  be  liable  to  seizure ;  our  trade  must 
be  a  smuggling  trade.  Yet  we  can  trade  considerably,  and  many 
vessels  will  escape.  No  vessel  can  take  a  clearance.  Many 
vessels  will  go  out,  unless  you  restrain  them ;  all  America  is  in 
suspense ;  the  common  sense  of  the  people  has  pointed  out 
this  measure;  they  have  stopped  their  vessels. 

Lee.  We  possess  a  fine  climate  and  a  fertile  soil ;  wood,  iron, 
sheep,  &c.  We  make  eleven  or  twelve  hundred  thousand  pounds' 
worth  of  provisions  more  than  is  necessary  for  our  own  consump- 
tion. Don't  think  it  necessary  to  combat  the  opinion  of  some  gen- 
tlemen, that  we  cannot  live  without  trade.  Money  has  debauched 
States,  as  well  as  individuals,  but  I  hope  its  influence  will  not 
prevail  over  America  against  her  rights  and  dearest  interests. 
We  shall  distress  the  West  Indies,  so  as  immediately  to  quit 
coin  for  corn.  Four  millions  go  yearly  from  the  West  Indies  to 
Britain,  and  a  million  at  least  returns.  If  our  provisions  go  from 
these  shores,  then  they  will  go  where  the  best  price  is  to  be  had. 
West  Indies  and  our  enemies  will  get  them.  If  it  was  not 
proper  a  year  ago,  it  may  be  now ;  this  proposition  is  not  per- 
petual. When  we  get  powder,  we  may  make  ourselves  strong 
by  sea,  and  carry  on  trade. 

J.  Padledge.  A  question  of  the  greatest  magnitude  that  has 
come  before  this  Congress.  If  it  is  necessary  to  do  without 
trade,  our  constituents  will  submit  to  it.  The  army  will  be 
supplied  with  flour  from  England,  where  it  is  now  cheaper  than 
here ;  but  they  would  be  supplied  here,  if  they  were  to  demand 
it  upon  pain  of  destroying  our  towns.  West  Indies  are  supplied, 
and  have  laid  up  stores,  and  some  of  them  have  been  raising 
provisions  on  their  own  lands.  It  will  bear  hard  upon  the 
farmer,  as  well  as  the  merchant.  Don't  think  the  reasons  the 
same  now  as  last  year ;  it  would  then  have  destroyed  the  linen 
manufactory  and  the  West  Indies ;  but  now  they  have  had  notice 
of  it,  they  are  prepared  against  it. 


1775.]  DEBATES.  479 


Same  Subject  continued. 

October  21.  Zubly.  We  can't  do  without  powder,  intelli- 
gence, drugs.  Georgia  must  have  an  Indian  war,  if  they  can't 
supply  the  Indians.  The  Creeks  and  Cherokees  are  in  our 
Province ;  we  must  have  Indian  trade.  Four  millions  have  been 
spent  in  six  months.  We  have  been  successful,  but  we  have 
gained  little ;  all  the  power  of  Great  Britain,  it  is  true,  has  gained 
very  little.  New  England  has  been  at  great  expense,  so  has 
New  York ;  Pennsylvania  has  spent  a  hundred  thousand  pounds 
of  their  money,  to  fortify  their  river ;  Virginia  as  much  ;  North 
Carolina  a  great  deal;  South  Carolina  have  issued  a  million. 
Eighteen  millions  of  dollars  is  an  enormous  sum  of  money ; 
whenever  your  money  fails,  you  fail  too.  We  are  to  pay  six 
millions  now,  twelve  millions  more  presently,  and  have  no 
trade.  I  would  bear  the  character  of  a  madman,  or  that  of  an 
emissary  of  Lord  North,  rather  than  believe  it  possible  to  pay 
eighteen  millions  of  dollars  without  trade.  Can  we  make  bricks 
without  straw  ?     We  can  live  upon  acorns  ;  but  will  we  ? 

Wythe.  The  rule,  that  the  question  should  be  put  upon  the 
last  motion  that  is  made  and  seconded,  is  productive  of  great 
confusion  in  our  debates ;  six  or  seven  motions  at  once.  Com- 
merce, whether  we  consider  it  in  an  economical,  a  moral,  or 
political  light,  appears  to  be  a  great  good ;  civility  and  charity, 
as  well  as  knowledge,  are  promoted  by  it.  The  ami  sacra  fames 
is  a  fine  subject  for  philosophers  and  orators  to  display  them- 
selves upon ;  but  the  abuse  of  a  thing  is  not  an  argument  against 
it.  If  the  gentleman  was  possessed  of  the  philosopher's  stone,  or 
Fortunatus's  cap,  would  he  not  oblige  the  continent  with  the 
use  of  it  ?  Why  should  not  America  have  a  navy  ?  No  mari- 
time power  near  the  sea-coast  can  be  safe  without  it.  It  is  no 
chimera.  The  Romans  suddenly  built  one  in  their  Carthaginian 
war.  Why  may  not  we  lay  a  foundation  for  it  ?  We  abound 
with  firs,  iron  ore,  tar,  pitch,  turpentine ;  we  have  all  the  mate- 
rials for  construction  of  a  navy.  No  country  exceeds  us  in 
felicity  of  climate  or  fertility  of  soil.  America  is  one  of  the 
wings  upon  which  the  British  eagle  has  soared  to  the  skies.  I 
am  sanguine  and  enthusiastical  enough  to  wish  and  to  hope 
that  it  will  be  sung,  that  America  inter  iiubila  conclit. 


4yo  DEBATES.  [1775. 

British  navy  will   never  be   able  to   effect   our    destruction. 
Before  the  days  of  Minos,  nations  round  the  Archipelago  carried 
on  piratical  wars.     The  Moors  carry  on  such  wars  now,  but  the 
pillars  of  Hercules  are  their  ne  plus  ultra.     We  are  too  far  off 
for  Britain  to  carry  on  a  piratical  war.     We  shall,  sometime  or 
other,  rise  superior  to  all  the  difficulties  they  may  throw  in  our 
way.     I  wont  say,  there  is  none  that  doeth  good  in  Britain,  no, 
not  one ;  but  I  will  say,  she  has  not  righteous  persons  enough 
to  save  their  State.     They  hold  those  things  honorable  which 
please  them,  and  those  for  just  which  profit  them.     I  know  of 
no  instance  where  a  Colony  has  revolted,  and  a  foreign  nation 
has  interposed  to  subdue  them ;  but  many  of  the  contrary.     If 
France  and  Spain  should  furnish  ships  and  soldiers,  England 
must  pay  them.     Where   are  her  finances?     Why  should  we 
divert  our  people  from  commerce,  and  banish  our  seamen  ?     Com- 
petition may  be  declared  to  be  received  graciously,  and  promised 
to  be  laid  before  Parliament,  but  we  can  expect  no  success  from 
it.    Have  they  ever  condescended  to  take  notice  of  you  ?    Rapine, 
depopulation,  burning,  murder.      Turn  your  eyes  to  Concord, 
Lexington,  Charlestown,  Bristol,  New  York ;  there  you  see  the 
character  of  Ministry  and  Parliament.     We  shall  distress  our 
enemies  by  stopping  trade ;  granted.     But  how  will  the  small 
quantities  we   shall   be   able   to  export  supply  our   enemies? 
Tricks  may  be  practised.     If  desire  of  gain  prevails  with  mer- 
chants, so  does  caution  against  risks. 

Gadsden.  I  wish  we  could  keep  to  a  point,  I  have  heard 
the  two  gentlemen  with  a  great  deal  of  pleasure.  I  have  argued 
for  opening  our  ports,  but  am  for  shutting  them  until  we  hear 
the  event  of  our  petition  to  the  King,  and  longer  until  the  Con- 
gress shall  determine  otherwise.  I  am  for  a  navy,  too,  and  I 
think  that  shutting  our  ports  for  a  time  will  help  us  to  a  navy. 
If  we  leave  our  ports  open,  warm  men  will  have  their  ships 
seized,  and  moderate  ones  will  be  favored. 

Lee.  When  you  hoist  out  a  glimmering  of  hope  that  the 
people  are  to  be  furnished  from  abroad,  you  give  a  check  to  our 
own  manufactures.  People  are  now  everywhere  attending  to 
corn  and  sheep  and  cotton  and  linen. 

Chase.  A  glove  has  been  offered  by  the  gentleman  from 
Georgia,  and  I  beg  leave  to  discharge  my  promise  to  that  gen- 
tleman, to  answer  his  arguments.     My  position  was  this ;  that 


1775.]  DEBATES.  \s\ 

the  gentleman's  system  would  end  in  the  total  destruction  of 
American  liberty.  I  never  shall  dispute  self-evident  proposi- 
tions. 

The  present  state  of  things  requires  reconciliation  or  means  to 
carry  on  war.  Intelligence  we  must  have ;  we  must  have  pow- 
der and  shot ;  we  must  support  the  credit  of  our  money.  You 
must  have  a  navy  to  carry  on  the  war.  You  can't  have  a  navy, 
says  the  gentleman.  What  is  the  consequence  ?  I  say,  that  we 
must  submit.  Great  Britain,  with  twenty  ships,  can  destroy  all 
our  trade,  and  ravage  our  sea-coast ;  can  block  up  all  your 
harbors,  prevent  your  getting  powder.  What  is  the  conse- 
quence ?  That  we  should  submit.  You  can't  trade  with 
nobody ;  you  must  trade  with  somebody ;  you  can't  trade  with 
anybody  but  Great  Britain,  therefore,  I  say,  we  must  submit. 
We  can't  trade  with  foreigners,  the  gentleman  said.  The  whole 
train  of  his  reasoning  proved  that  we  must  break  our  whole 
association,  as  to  exports  and  imports.  If  we  trade  with  Great 
Britain,  will  she  furnish  us  with  powder  and  arms  ?  Our  exports 
are  about  three  millions ;  would  Britain  permit  us  to  export  to 
her,  and  receive  cash  in  return  ?  It  would  impoverish  and  ruin 
Great  Britain.  They  will  never  permit  a  trade  on  our  side, 
without  a  trade  on  theirs.  Gentlemen  from  New  York  would 
not  permit  tobacco  and  naval  stores  to  be  sent  to  Great  Britain ; 
nothing  that  will  support  their  naval  power  or  revenue.  But 
will  not  this  break  the  Union  ?  Would  three  Colonies  stop 
their  staple  when  the  other  Colonies  exported  theirs  ?  Fifteen 
hundred  seamen  are  employed  by  the  tobacco  Colonies  —  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  sail  of  British  ships ;  but  you  may  drop 
your  staple,  your  tobacco ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  alter  old  habits. 
We  have  a  great  number  of  female  slaves  that  are  best  employed 
about  tobacco.  North  Carolina  cannot,  will  not,  give  up  their 
staple.  The  gentleman  from  Georgia  was  for  trading  with  Great 
Britain  and  all  the  world.  He  says  we  can't  trade  with  any 
nation  but  Britain,  therefore  we  must  trade  with  Britain  alone. 
What  trade  shall  we  have,  if  we  exclude  Britain,  Ireland,  West 
Indies,  British  and  foreign  ?  Eastern  Provinces  might  carry  it 
on  with  a  small  fleet,  if  their  harbors  were  fortified.  Southern 
Colonies  cannot.  Eastern  Colonies  can't  carry  on  their  trade  to 
that  extent,  without  a  naval  power  to  protect  them,  not  only  on 
the  coast,  but  on  the  ocean,  and  to  the  port  of  their  destination. 

VOL.  II.  41  e  2 


482  DEBATES.  [1775. 

The  same  force  that  would  assist  the  Eastern  Colonies,  would 
be  of  little  service  to  us  in  summer  time ;  it  must  be  a  small, 
narrow,  and  limited  trade. 

The  best  instrument  we  have,  is  our  opposition  by  commerce. 
If  we  take  into  consideration  Great  Britain  in  all  her  glory; 
Commons  voted  eighteen,  twenty  millions  last  war ;  eighty 
thousand  seamen,  from  her  trade  alone ;  her  strength  is  all  arti- 
ficial, from  her  trade  alone.  Imports  from  Great  Britain  to  the 
United  Colonies  are  three  millions  per  annum  ;  fifteen  millions 
to  all  the  world ;  one  fifth ;  three  quarters  is  British  manufac- 
tures. A  thousand  British  vessels  are  employed  in  American 
trade ;  twelve  thousand  sailors  ;  all  out  of  employ.  What  a 
stroke !  I  don't  take  into  view  Ireland  or  West  Indies.  Colo- 
nies generally  indebted  about  one  year's  importation ;  the  reve- 
nue of  tobacco  alone  half  a  million,  if  paid.  North  Britain 
enter  less  than  the  quantity,  and  don't  pay  what  they  ought ;  it 
employs  a  great  number  of  manufacturers ;  reexported  abroad, 
is  a  million;  it  is  more.  Eighty  thousand  hogsheads  are  reex- 
ported, and  it  pays  British  debts.  The  reexport  employs  ships, 
sailors,  freight,  commissions,  insurance. 

Ireland ;  the  flax  seed,  forty  thousand  pounds  sterling.  Linen 
brought  two  million  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds 
from  Ireland  to  England ;  yards,  two  hundred  thousand.  Ire- 
land can  raise  some  flax  seed,  but  not  much. 

West  Indies.  Glover,  Burke,  and  other  authors.  They  depend 
for  Indian  corn  and  provisions  and  lumber,  and  they  depend  upon 
us  for  a  great  part  of  the  consumption  of  their  produce.  Indian 
corn  and  fish  are  not  to  be  had,  but  from  the  Colonies,  except 
pilchards  and  herrings.  Jamaica  can  best  provide  for  her  wants, 
but  not  entirely.  Ireland  can  send  them  beef  and  butter,  but  no 
grain.  Britain  can  send  them  wheat,  oats ;  not  corn,  without 
which  they  cannot  do. 

Stop  rum  and  sugar,  how  do  you  affect  the  revenue  and  the 
trade  ? 

They  must  relax  the  Navigation  Act,  to  enable  foreign  nations 
to  supply  the  West  Indies.  This  is  dangerous,  as  it  would 
force  open  a  trade  between  foreigners  and  them. 

Britain  can  never  support  a  war  with  us,  at  the  loss  of  such  a 
valuable  trade.  African  trade  dependent  upon  the  West  India 
trade ;  seven  hundred  thousand  pounds. 


1775.]  DEBATES.  483 

Twenty-five  thousand  hogsheads  of  sugar  are  imported  directly 
into  these  Colonies,  and  as  much  more,  from  Britain,  manufac- 
tured. Jamaica  alone  takes  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
pounds  sterling  of  our  produce. 

National  debt,  one  hundred  and  forty  millions ;  ten  millions, 
the  peace  establishment ;  twenty  millions,  the  whole  current 
cash  of  the  nation.  Blackstone.  I  never  read  anybody  that 
better  understood  the  subject.  For  the  state  of  the  revenue  he 
calculates  the  taxes  of  Ireland  and  England  ;  taxes  of  Britain, 
perpetual  and  annual ;  funds,  three,  the  aggregate,  general,  and 
South  Sea ;  taxes,  upon  every  article  of  luxuries  and  necessaries. 
These  funds  are  mortgaged,  for  the  civil  list,  eight  hundred  thou- 
sand pounds,  as  well  as  the  interest  of  the  debt. 


Debate  continued. 

October  27.  R.  R.  Livingston.  Clothing  will  rise,  though 
provisions  will  fall ;  laborers  will  be  discharged ;  one  quarter  part 
of  Rhode  Island,  New  York,  and  Pennsylvania,  depend  upon 
trade,  as  merchants,  shopkeepers,  shipwrights,  blockmakers, 
riggers,  smiths,  &c.  &c. :  the  six  northern  Colonies  must  raise 
nine  millions  of  dollars  to  support  the  poor.  This  vote  will 
stop  our  trade  for  fourteen  months,  although  it  professes  to  do  it 
only  to  the  20th  of  March;  for  the  winter,  when  the  men  of  war 
cannot  cruise  upon  the  coast,  is  the  only  time  that  we  can  trade. 
Wealthy  merchants  and  moneyed  men  cannot  get  the  interest 
of  money.  More  virtue  is  expected  from  our  people,  than  any 
people  ever  had.  The  low  countries  did  not  reason  as  we  do 
about  speculative  opinions,  but  they  felt  the  oppression  for  a 
long  course  of  years,  rich  and  poor. 

Zubly.  Concludes  that  the  sense  and  bent  of  the  people  are 
against  stopping  trade,  by  the  eagerness  with  which  they 
exported  before  the  10th  of  September.  We  can't  get  intel- 
ligence without  trade.  All  that  are  supported  by  trade,  must 
be  out  of  business.  Every  argument  which  shews  that  our 
association  will  materially  affect  the  trade  of  Great  Britain, 
will  shew  that  we  must  be  affected  too,  by  a  stoppage  of  our 
trade.  Great  Britain  has  many  resources.  I  have  bought  two 
barrels  of  rice  in  Carolina  for  fifteen  shillings,  and  negro  cloth 
was  three  shillings  instead  of  eighteen  pence. 


484  DEBATES.  [1776. 

The  West  Indies  will  get  supplies  to  keep  soul  and  body 
together ;  the  ingenious  Dutchmen  will  smuggle  some  Indian 
corn  from  America.  Is  it  right  to  starve  one  man  because  I 
have  quarrelled  with  another  ?  I  have  a  great  scruple  whether 
it  is  just  or  prudent.  In  December,  1776,  we  shall  owe  between 
twenty  and  thirty  millions  of  money. 

J.  Kutledge.  Am  for  adhering  to  the  Association,  and  going 
no  further ;  the  non  export  in  terror  em,  and  generally  agreed ; 
the  consequences  will  be  dreadful  if  we  ruin  the  merchants. 
Will  not  the  army  be  supplied  if  vessels  go  from  one  Province 
to  another  ?  We  may  pass  a  resolution  that  no  live  stock  shall 
be  exported. 

October  30.  Monday.  Floss.1  We  can't  get  seamen  to 
man  four  vessels.  We  could  not  get  seamen  to  man  our  boats, 
our  galleys.     Wythe,  Nelson,  and  Lee,  for  fitting  out  four  ships. 

1  Extract  from  the  Journals  :  — 

"  The  Committee  appointed  to  prepare  an  estimate,  and  to  fit  out  the  vessels, 
brought  in  their  report,  which  being  taken  into  consideration,  &c. 

"  Resolved,  That  two  more  vessels  be  fitted  out  with  all  expedition,  &c." 


1776.]  DEBATES.  485 


Extract  from  the  Journals. 

1776.     February  1 6 .     Friday. 
"  Agreeable  to  the  order  of  the  day,  the  Congress  resolved  itself  into  a  com- 
mittee of  the  whole,  to  take  into  consideration  the  propriety  of  opening  the 
ports,  and  the  restrictions  and  regulations  of  the  trade  of  these  Colonies  after 
the  first,  of  March  next." 

(This  discussion  was  continued  from  time  to  time  until  the  sixth  of  April, 
when  the  Congress  came  in  to  sundry  resolutions  taking  off  the  restrictions  on 
trade.) 

In  Committee  of  the  Wliole. 

Can't  we  oblige  Britain  to  keep  a  navy  on  foot,  the  expense 
of  which  will  be  double  to  what  they  will  take  from  us  ?  I  have 
heard  of  bullion  Spanish  flotas  being  stopped,  lest  they  should 
be  taken,  but  perishable  commodities  never  were  stopped.  Open 
your  ports  to  foreigners ;  your  trade  will  become  of  so  much  con- 
sequence that  foreigners  will  protect  you. 

Wilson.  A  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  thinks  that  a  mid- 
dle way  should  be  taken ;  that  trade  should  be  opened  for  some 
articles,  and  to  some  places,  but  not  for  all  things  and  to  all 
places.  I  think  the  merchants  ought  to  judge  for  themselves  of 
the  danger  and  risk.  We  should  be  blamed  if  we  did  not  leave 
it  to  them.  I  differ  from  the  gentleman  of  Massachusetts. 
Trade  ought  in  war  to  be  carried  on  with  greater  vigor.  By 
what  means  did  Britain  carry  on  their  triumphs  last  war  ?  the 
United  Provinces  their  war  against  Spain  ?  If  we  determine 
that  our  ports  shall  not  be  opened,  our  vessels  abroad  will  not 
return.  Our  seamen  are  all  abroad ;  will  not  return  unless  we 
open  our  trade.  I  am  afraid  it  will  be  necessary  to  invite  for- 
eigners to  trade  with  us,  although  we  lose  a  great  advantage, 
that  of  trading  in  our  own  bottoms. 

Sherman.  I  fear  we  shall  maintain  the  armies  of  our  ene- 
mies at  our  own  expense  with  provisions.  We  can't  carry  on  a 
beneficial  trade,  as  our  enemies  will  take  our  ships.     A  treaty 


41* 


48(5  DEBATES.  [1776. 

with  a  foreign  power  is  necessary,  before  we  open  our  trade,  to 
protect  it. 

Harrison.  We  have  hobbled  on  under  a  fatal  attachment  to 
Great  Britain.  I  felt  it  as  much  as  any  man,  but  I  feel  a 
stronger  to  my  country. 

Wythe.  The  ports  will  be  open  the  1st  March.  The  question 
is  whether  we  shall  shut  them  up.  Fence  Romuli  non  Repub- 
lic a  PJatonis.  Americans  will  hardly  live  without  trade.  It  is 
said  our  trade  will  be  of  no  advantage  to  us,  because  our  ves- 
sels will  be  taken,  our  enemies  will  be  supplied,  the  West  Indies 
will  be  supplied  at  our  expense.  This  is  too  true,  unless  we 
can  provide  a  remedy.  Our  Virginia  Convention  have  resolved, 
that  our  ports  be  opened  to  all  nations  that  will  trade  with  us, 
except  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  and  West  Indies.  If  the  inclina- 
tion of  the  people  should  become  universal  to  trade,  we  must 
open  our  ports.  Merchants  will  not  export  our  produce,  unless 
they  get  a  profit. 

We  might  get  some  of  our  produce  to  market,  by  authorizing 
adventurers  to  arm  themselves,  and  giving  letters  of  marque, 
make  reprisals.  2d.  By  inviting  foreign  powers  to  make  trea- 
ties of  commerce  with  us. 

But  other  things  are  to  be  considered,  before  such  a  measure 
is  adopted;  in  what  character  shall  we  treat?  —  as  subjects  of 
Great  Britain,  —  as  rebels  ?  Why  should  we  be  so  fond  of 
calling  ourselves  dutiful  subjects  ?  If  we  should  offer  our  trade 
to  the  Court  of  France,  would  they  take  notice  of  it  any  more 
than  if  Bristol  or  Liverpool  should  offer  theirs,  while  we  profess 
to  be  subjects  ?  No.  We  must  declare  ourselves  a  free  people. 
If  we  were  to  tell  them,  that  after  a  season,  we  would  return  to 
our  subjection  to  Great  Britain,  would  not  a  foreign  Court 
wish  to  have  something  permanent?  We  should  encourage 
our  fleet.  I  am  convinced  that  our  fleet  may  become  as  for- 
midable as  we  wish  to  make  it.     Moves  a  resolution. 


Resolved,  That  the  Committee  of  Secret  Correspondence  be 
directed  to  lay  their  letters  before  this  Congress. 

Resolved,  That  be  a  committee  to  prepare  a  draught  of 

firm  confederation,  to  be  reported  as  soon  as  may  be  to  this 
Congress,  to  be  considered  and  digested  and  recommended  to 


1776.]  DEBATES.  487 

the  several  Assemblies  and  Conventions  of  these  United  Colo- 
nies, to  be  by  them  adopted,  ratified,  and  confirmed. 


Resolved,  That  it  be  recommended  to  the  several  Assemblies, 
Conventions,  Councils  of  Safety,  and  Committees  of  Corres- 
pondence and  Inspection,  that  they  use  their  utmost  endeavors, 
by  all  reasonable  means,  to  promote  the  culture  of  flax,  hemp, 
and  cotton,  and  the  growth  of  wool,  in  these  United  Colonies.1 

Resolved,  That  it  be  recommended  to  the  Assemblies,  Con- 
ventions, and  Councils  of  Safety,  that  they  take  the  earliest 
measures  for  erecting,  in  each  and  every  Colony,  a  society  for 
the  encouragement  of  agriculture,  arts,  manufactures,  and  com- 
merce ;  and  that  a  correspondence  be  maintained  between  such 
societies,  that  the  numerous  natural  advantages  of  this  country, 
for  supporting  its  inhabitants,  may  not  be  neglected. 

Resolved,  That  it  be  recommended  to  the  said  Assemblies, 
Conventions,  and  Councils  of  Safety,  that  they  consider  of  ways 
and  means  of  introducing  the  manufactures  of  duck  and  sail- 
cloth2 into  such  Colonies  where  they  are  not  now  understood, 
and  of  increasing  and  promoting  them  where  they  are. 

Resolved,  That  be  a  committee  to  receive  all  plans  and 

proposals  for  encouraging  and  improving  the  agriculture,  arts, 
manufactures,  and  commerce,  both  foreign  and  domestic,  of 
America,  to  correspond  with  the  several  Assemblies,  Conven- 
tions, Councils,  and  Committees  of  Safety,  Committees  of  Cor- 
respondence and  of  Observation,  in  these  United  Colonies,  upon 
these  interesting  subjects. 

That  these  be  published. 


1776.  March  l.3  How  is  the  interest  of  France  and  Spain 
affected,  by  the  dispute  between  Britain  and  the  Colonies  ? 

1  The  first  three  of  these  resolutions  are  found,  with  only  verbal  amendments, 
in  the  Journals  of  the  21st  of  March.  They  were  drawn,  presented,  and  carried 
through  by  Mr.  Adams,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  Extract  from  the  Autobiography, 
that  follows  these  debates. 

2  In  the  resolutions,  as  adopted,  the  words  "  and  steel,"  are  here  inserted. 

3  The  three  entries,  which  follow,  seem  to  be  notes  of  speeches  made  by  the 
writer,  at  this  period,  in  Congress,  although  it  is  not  easy  to  decide  precisely 
upon  the  form  of  the  question  proposed. 


488  DEBATES.  [1776. 

Is  it  the  interest  of  France  to  stand  neuter,  to  join  with  Bri- 
tain, or  to  join  with  the  Colonies  ?  Is  it  not  her  interest  to  dis- 
member the  British  empire  ?  Will  her  dominions  be  safe,  if 
Britain  and  America  remain  connected  ?  Can  she  preserve  her 
possessions  in  the  West  Indies  ?  She  has,  in  the  West  Indies, 
Martinico,  Guadaloupe,  and  one  half  of  Hispaniola.  In  case  a 
reconciliation  should  take  place  between  Britain  and  America, 
and  a  war  should  break  out  between  Britain  and  France,  would 
not  all  her  islands  be  taken  from  her  in  six  months  ?  The  Col- 
onies are  now  much  more  warlike  and  powerful  than  they  were 
during  the  last  war.  A  martial  spirit  has  seized  all  the  Colonies. 
They  are  much  improved  in  skill  and  discipline ;  they  have  now 
a  large  standing  army ;  they  have  many  good  officers  ;  they 
abound  in  provisions ;  they  are  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  West 
Indies.  A  British  fleet  and  army,  united  with  an  American  fleet 
and  army,  and  supplied  with  provisions  and  other  necessaries 
from  America,  might  conquer  all  the  French  Islands  in  the  West 
Indies  in  six  months,  and  a  little  more  time  than  that  would  be 
required  to  destroy  all  their  marine  and  commerce. 

4.  Monday.  Resentment  is  a  passion  implanted  by  nature 
for  the  preservation  of  the  individual.  Injury  is  the  object  which 
excites  it.  Injustice,  wrong,  injury,  excite  the  feeling  of  resent- 
ment as  naturally  and  necessarily  as  frost  and  ice  excite  the  feel- 
ing of  cold,  as  fire  excites  heat,  and  as  both  excite  pain.  A  man 
may  have  the  faculty  of  concealing  his  resentment,  or  suppressing 
it,  but  he  must  and  ought  to  feel  it ;  nay,  he  ought  to  indulge 
it,  to  cultivate  it ;  it  is  a  duty.  His  person,  his  property,  his 
liberty,  his  reputation,  are  not  safe  without  it.  He  ought,  for 
his  own  security  and  honor,  and  for  the  public  good,  to  punish 
those  who  injure  him,  unless  they  repent,  and  then  he  should 
forgive,  having  satisfaction  and  compensation.  Revenge  is 
unlawful.  It  is  the  same  with  communities;  they  ought  to 
resent  and  to  punish. 

Is  any  assistance  attainable  from  France  ? 

What  connection  may  we  safely  form  with  her? 

1.  No  political  connection.  Submit  to  none  of  her  authority; 
receive  no  governors  or  officers  from  her.  2.  No  military  con- 
nection. Receive  no  troops  from  her.  3.  Only  a  commercial 
connection ;  that  is,  make  a  treaty  to  receive  her  ships  into  our 


1776.]  DEBATES.  489 

ports ;  let  her  engage  to  receive  our  ships  into  her  ports ;  furnish 
us  with  arms,  cannon,  saltpetre,  powder,  duck,  steel. 


Whereas  the  present  state  of  America,  and  the  cruel  efforts 
of  our  enemies,  render  the  most  perfect  and  cordial  union  of  the 
Colonies,  and  the  utmost  exertions  of  their  strength,  necessary 
for  the  preservation  and  establishment  of  their  liberties,  therefore, 

Resolved,  That  it  be  recommended  to  the  several  Assemblies 
and  Conventions  of  these  United  Colonies,  who  have  limited 
the  powers  of  their  delegates  in  this  Congress,  by  any  express 
instructions,  that  they  repeal  or  suspend  those  instructions  for  a 
certain  time,  that  this  Congress  may  have  power,  without  any 
unnecessary  obstruction  or  embarrassment,  to  concert,  direct,  and 
order  such  further  measures  as  may  seem  to  them  necessary  for 
the  defence  and  preservation,  support  and  establishment  of  right 
and  liberty  in  these  Colonies.1 


Extract  from  the  Journals  of  Congress,  for  Friday,  10  May,  1776. 

Congress  resumed  the  consideration  of  the  resolution  reported  from  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  Whole,  and  the  same  was  agreed  to,  as  follows :  — 

"  Resolved,  That  it  be  recommended  to  the  respective  Assemblies  and  Con- 
ventions of  the  United  Colonies,  where  no  government  sufficient  to  the  exigen- 
cies of  their  affairs  hath  been  hitherto  established,  to  adopt  such  government  as 
shall,  in  the  opinion  of  the  representatives  of  the  people,  best  conduce  to  the 
happiness  and  safety  of  their  constituents  in  particular,  and  America  in  general. 

"  Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  three  be  appointed  to  prepare  a  preamble  to 
the  foregoing  resolution. 

"  The  members  chosen,  Mr.  J.  Adams,  Mr.  Rutledge,  and  Mr.  R.  H.  Lee." 

A  significant  form  of  preamble  was  accordingly  reported  on  Wednesday,  the 
15th  of  May,  debated,  and  adopted.  The  following  remarks  were  made  in  the 
course  of  the  discussion  :  — 

Mr.  Duane  moves  that  the  delegation  from  New  York  might 
be  read. 

"When  we  were  invited  by  Massachusetts  Bay  to  the  first 
Congress,  an  objection  was  made  to  binding  ourselves  by  votes 
of  Congress.     Congress  ought  not  to  determine  a  point  of  this 

1  This  is  perhaps  the  first  draught  of  the  well  known  motion  made  in  Commit- 
tee of  the  Whole,  on  the  sixth  of  May,  which  was  reported  to  the  House,  on  the 
tenth,  in  the  shape  in  which  it  appeal's  extracted  from  the  Journal  of  that  day. 


490  DEBATES.  [1776. 

sort  about  instituting  government.  What  is  it  to  Congress  how 
justice  is  administered  ?  You  have  no  right  to  pass  the  resolu- 
tion, any  more  than  Parliament  has.  How  does  it  appear  that 
no  favorable  answer  is  likely  to  be  given  to  our  petitions  ?  Every 
account  of  foreign  aid  is  accompanied  with  an  account  of  com- 
missioners. Why  all  this  haste  ?  why  this  urging  ?  why  this 
driving  ?  Disputes  about  independence  are  in  all  the  Colonies. 
What  is  this  owing  to  but  our  indiscretion  ?  I  shall  take  the 
liberty  of  informing  my  constituents  that  I  have  not  been  guilty 
of  a  breach  of  trust.  I  do  protest  against  this  piece  of  mechan- 
ism, this  preamble.  If  the  facts  in  this  preamble  should  prove 
to  be  true,  there  will  not  be  one  voice  against  independence.  I 
suppose  the  votes  have  been  numbered,  and  there  is  to  be  a 
majority. 

McKean  construes  the  instructions  from  New  York  as  Mr. 
Sherman  does,  and  thinks  this  measure  the  best  to  procure  har- 
mony with  Great  Britain.  There  are  now  two  governments  in 
direct  opposition  to  each  other.  Don't  doubt  that  foreign  mer- 
cenaries are  coming  to  destroy  us.  I  do  think  we  shall  lose  our 
liberties,  properties,  and  lives  too,  if  we  do  not  take  this  step. 

S.  Adams.  We  have  been  favored  with  a  reading  of  the 
instructions  from  New  York;  I  am  glad  of  it.  The  first  object 
of  that  Colony  is  no  doubt  the  establishment  of  their  rights. 
Our  petitions  have  not  been  heard,  yet  answered  with  fleets 
and  armies,  and  are  to  be  answered  with  myrmidons  from  abroad. 
The  gentleman  from  New  York,  Mr.  Duane,  has  not  objected  to 
the  preamble,  but  this,  that  he  has  not  a  right  to  vote  for  it. 
We  cannot  go  upon  stronger  reasons  than  that  the  King  has 
thrown  us  out  of  his  protection.  Why  should  we  support  gov- 
ernments under  his  authority  ?  I  wonder  that  people  have  con- 
ducted so  well  as  they  have. 

Mr.  Wilson.  Was  not  present  in  Congress  when  the  resolution 
passed,  to  which  this  preamble  is  proposed.  I  was  present,  and 
one  of  the  committee  who  reported  the  advice  to  Massachusetts 
Bay.  New  Hampshire,  Carolina,  and  Virginia,  had  the  same 
advice,  and  with  my  hearty  concurrence. 

The  claim  of  Parliament  will  meet  with  resistance  to  the  last 
extremity.  Those  Colonies  were  royal  governments ;  they  could 
not  subsist  without  some  government.  A  maxim,  that  all  gov- 
ernment originates  from  the  people.     We  are  the  servants  of 


1776.]  DEBATES.  491 

the  people,  sent  here  to  act  under  a  delegated  authority.  If  we 
exceed  it,  voluntarily,  we  deserve  neither  excuse  nor  justification. 
Some  have  been  put  under  restraints  by  their  constituents ; 
they  cannot  vote  without  transgressing  this  line.  Suppose  they 
should  hereafter  be  called  to  an  account  for  it.  This  Province 
has  not,  by  any  public  act,  authorized  us  to  vote  upon  this  ques- 
tion ;  this  Province  has  done  much  and  asked  little  from  this 
Congress ;  the  Assembly,  largely  increased,  will  (not)  meet  till 
next  Monday.  Will  the  cause  suffer  much,  if  this  preamble  is 
not  published  at  this  time  ?  if  the  resolve  is  published  without 
the  preamble?  The  preamble  contains  a  reflection  upon  the 
conduct  of  some  people  in  America.  It  was  equally  irreconcil- 
able to  good  conscience,  nine  months  ago,  to  take  the  oaths  of 
allegiance,  as  it  is  now.  Two  respectable  members,  last  Febru- 
ary, took  the  oath  of  allegiance  in  our  Assembly.  Why  should 
we  expose  any  gentlemen  to  such  an  invidious  reflection  ?  In 
Magna  Charta  there  is  a  clause  which  authorizes  the  people  to 
seize  the  King's  castles  and  oppose  his  arms  when  he  exceeds 
his  duty. 

In  this  Province,  if  that  preamble  passes,  there  will  be  an 
immediate  dissolution  of  every  kind  of  authority ;  the  people 
will  be  instantly  in  a  state  of  nature.  Why  then  precipitate  this 
measure  ?  Before  we  are  prepared  to  build  the  new  house,  why 
should  we  pull  down  the  old  one,  and  expose  ourselves  to  all  the 
inclemencies  of  the  season  ? 

R.  H.  Lee.  Most  of  the  arguments  apply  to  the  resolve,  not 
to  the  preamble. 


CONFEDERATION 


On  the  eleventh  of  June,  1776,  Congress  voted  that  a  committee  should 
be  appointed  to  prepare  and  report  a  plan  of  confederation  lor  the  Colonies. 
The  next  day,  it  was  decided  that  the  committee  should  consist  of  one  member 
from  each  Colony.  The  following  persons  were  appointed:  —  Mr.  Bartlett, 
Mr.  S.  Adams,  Mr.  Hopkins,  Mr.  Sherman,  Mr.  R.  R.  Livingston,  Mr.  Dickin- 
son, Mr.  McKean,  Mr.  Stone,  Mr.  Nelson,  Mr.  Hewes,  Mr.  E.  Rutledge  and  Mr. 
Gwinnett. 

To  whom  Mr.  Hopkinson  was  added  on  the  28th. 

This  committee  reported  on  Friday  the  1 2th  of  July,  a  draught,  consisting  of 
twenty  articles.  On  Monday,  the  22d,  the  Congress  resolved  itself  into  a  com- 
mittee of  the  whole  to  take  the  report  into  consideration,  which  continued  from 
day  to  day  to  debate  it  until  Tuesday  the  20th  of  August,  when  the  amended 
form  was  reported  back  to  the  House.  It  was  laid  aside  until  the  8th  of  April, 
1777,  when  the  articles  were  again  taken  up,  and  discussed  until  the  15th  of 
November,  at  which  time,  having  been  reduced  to  thirteen,  they  were  finally 
adopted. 

The  following  discussions  all  took  place  in  committee  of  the  whole,  upon 
the  original  draught  of  twenty  articles.  They  embrace  the  main  points  upon 
which  there  was  a  marked  difference  of  opinion :  the  western  territories,  the 
Indians,  representation,  and  taxation. 


In  Committee  of  the  Wliole. 

1776.  July  25.  Article  14  of  the  confederation.1  Terms 
in  this  Article  equivocal  and  indefinite. 

Jefferson.  The  limits  of  the  Southern  Colonies  are  fixed. 
Moves  an  amendment,  that  all  purchases  of  lands,  not  within 
the  boundaries  of  any  Colony,  shall  be  made  by  Congress  of 
the  Indians  in  a  great  Council. 

Sherman  seconds  the  motion. 

l  This,  in  the  first  draught,  reads  as  follows  :  "  No  purchases  of  lands,  hereaf- 
H'i*0  I),e,ma.,le  of  the  !ndians,  by  Colonies  or  private  persons,  before  the  limits 
of  the  Colonies  are  ascertained,  to  be  valid.  All  purchases  of  lands  not  included 
within  those  limits,  where  ascertained,  to  be  made  by  contracts  between  the 
United  States  assembled,  or  by  persons  for  that  purpose  authorized  by  them 
and  the  great  councils  of  the  Indians,  for  the  general  benefit  of  all  the  United 
Colonies." 


1776.]  DEBATES.  493 

Chase.  The  intention  of  this  Article  is  very  obvious  and 
plain.  The  Article  appears  to  me  to  be  right,  and  the  amend- 
ment wrong.  It  is  the  intention  of  some  gentlemen  to  limit 
the  boundaries  of  particular  States.  No  Colony  has  a  right  to 
go  to  the  South  Sea;  they  never  had;  they  can't  have.  It 
would  not  be  safe  to  the  rest.  It  would  be  destructive  to  her 
sisters  and  to  herself.1 

Article  15.2  Jefferson.  What  are  reasonable  limits  ?  What 
security  have  we,  that  the  Congress  will  not  curtail  the  present 
settlements  of  the  States  ?  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  Colonies 
will  limit  themselves. 

Wilson.  Every  gentleman  has  heard  much  of  claims  to  the 
South  Sea.  They  are  extravagant.  The  grants  were  made 
upon  mistakes.  They  were  ignorant  of  the  Geography.  They 
thought  the  South  Sea  within  one  hundred  miles  of  the  Atlan- 
tic Ocean.  It  was  not  conceived  that  they  extended  three 
thousand  miles.  Lord  Camden  considers  the  claims  to  the 
South  Sea,  as  what  never  can  be  reduced  to  practice.  Penn- 
sylvania has  no  right  to  interfere  in  those  claims,  but  she  has 
a  right  to  say,  that  she  will  not  confederate  unless  those  claims 
are  cut  off.  I  wish  the  Colonies  themselves  would  cut  off  those 
claims.3 

Article  16.4  Chase  moves  for  the  word  deputies,  instead  of 
delegates,  because  the  members  of  the  Maryland  Convention 
are  called  delegates,  and  he  would  have  a  distinction.  Answer. 
In  other  Colonies  the  reverse  is  true.  The  members  of  the 
House  are  called  deputies.5 

1  This  article  was  stricken  out. 

2  u  "ftrjien  the  boundaries  of  any  Colony  shall  be  ascertained  by  agreement,  or 
in  the  manner  hereinafter  directed,  all  the  other  Colonies  shall  guarantee  to 
such  Colony  the  full  and  peaceable  possession  of,  and  the  free  and  entire  juris- 
diction in,  and  over  the  territory  included  within  such  boundaries." 

3  The  article  was  stricken  out. 

4  '•  For  the  more  convenient  management  of  the  general  interests  of  the 
United  States,  delegates  should  be  annually  appointed  in  such  manner  as  the 
Legislature  of  each  Colony  shall  direct,  to  meet  at  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  in 
the  Colony  of  Pennsylvania,  until  otherwise  ordered  by  the  United  States 
assembled ;  which  meeting  shall  be  on  the  first  Monday  of  November  in  every 
year,  with  a  power  reserved  to  those  who  appointed  the  said  delegates,  respect- 
ively, to  re-call  them,  or  any  of  them,  at  any  time  within  the  year,  and  to  send 
new  delegates  in  their  stead  for  the  remainder  of  the  year.  Each  Colony  shall 
support  its  own  delegates  in  a  meeting  of  the  States,  and  while  they  act  as 
members  of  the  council  of  State,  hereinafter  mentioned." 

5  This  motion  did  not  succeed. 

VOL.    II.  42 


494  DEBATES.  [1776. 

Jefferson.  Objects  to  the  first  of  November.  Dr.  Hall  moves 
for  May,  for  the  time  to  meet.  Jefferson  thinks  that  Congress 
will  have  a  short  meeting  in  the  Fall,  and  another  in  the  Spring. 
Heyward.  Thinks  the  Spring  the  best  time.  Wilson.  Thinks 
the  Fall,  and  November  better  than  October ;  because  Septem- 
ber is  a  busy  month  everywhere.  Dr.  Hall.  September  and 
October  the  most  sickly  and  mortal  months  in  the  year.  The 
season  is  more  forward  in  Georgia  in  April,  than  here  in  May.1 

Hopkinson  moves  that  the  power  of  recalling  delegates  be 
reserved  to  the  State,  not  to  the  Assembly,  because  that  may 
be  changed.2 

Article  17.     "  Each  Colony  shall  have  one  vote."  3 

July  26.4  Rutledge  and  Lynch  oppose  giving  the  power  of 
regulating  the  trade  and  managing  all  affairs  of  the  Indians  to 
Congress.  The  trade  is  profitable,  they  say.  Gwinnett  is  in 
favor  of  Congress  having  such  power.  Braxton  is  for  excepting 
such  Indians  as  are  tributary  to  any  State.  Several  nations 
are  tributary  to  Virginia.  Jefferson  explains  it  to  mean  the 
Indians  who  live  in  the  Colony.  These  are  subject  to  the  laws 
in  some  degree. 

Wilson.  We  have  no  right  over  the  Indians,  whether  within 
or  without  the  real  or  pretended  limits  of  any  Colony.  They 
will  not  allow  themselves  to  be  classed  according  to  the  bounds 
of  Colonies.  Grants  made  three  thousand  miles  to  the  east- 
ward, have  no  validity  with  the  Indians.  The  trade  of  Penn- 
sylvania has  been  more  considerable  with  the  Indians  than 
that  of  the  neighboring  Colonies. 

Walton.  The  Indian  trade  is  of  no  essential  service  to  any 
Colony.  It  must  be  a  monopoly.  If  it  is  free,  it  produces 
jealousies  and  animosities  and  wars.     Carolina,  very  passion- 

1  The  motion  did  not  succeed. 

2  This  amendment  prevailed  in  committee.  The  words  "  those  who  appointed 
the  said  delegates  respectively,"  were  stricken  out  and  the  words  "  each  State  " 
inserted.  The  word  "  Colony "  was  also  stricken  out  where  it  occurs,  and 
"  State  "  inserted.  It  should  be  recollected  that  the  first  draught  was  reported 
by  John  Dickinson.  The  article  was  again  amended  in  the  House  by  cutting 
off  the  last  clause,  and  striking  out  the  city  of  Philadelphia  as  the  place  of  meet- 
ing. In  this  last  shape,  it  was  transferred  to,  and  made  the  first  part  of,  the 
fifth  article,  where  it  stands  in  the  paper  as  finally  adopted. 

3  Probably  passed  over  tor  the  moment. 

4  The  eighteenth  article  of  the  first  draught  enumerates  the  rights  and  powers 
of  the  United  States.  Among  these  is  that  of  "  regulating  the  trade,  and  man- 
aging all  affairs  with  the  Indians." 


1776.]  DEBATES.  495 

ately,  considers  this  trade  as  contributing  to  her  grandeur  and 
dignity.  Deerskins  are  a  great  part  of  the  trade.  A  great  dif- 
ference between  South  Carolina  and  Georgia.  Carolina  is  in 
no  danger  from  the  Indians  at  present.  Georgia  is  a  frontier 
and  barrier  to  Carolina.  Georgia  must  be  overrun  and  extir- 
pated before  Carolina  can  be  hurt.  Georgia  is  not  equal  to  the 
expense  of  giving  the  donations  to  the  Indians,  which  will  be 
necessary  to  keep  them  at  peace.  The  emoluments  of  the  trade 
are  not  a  compensation  for  the  expense  of  donations. 

Rutledge  differs  from  Walton  in  a  variety  of  points.  We 
must  look  forward  with  extensive  views.  Carolina  has  been  run 
to  an  amazing  expense  to  defend  themselves  against  Indians ;  in 
1760,  &c,  fifty  thousand  guineas  were  spent.  We  have  now  as 
many  men  on  the  frontiers,  as  in  Charleston.  We  have  forts  in 
the  Indian,  countries.     We  are  connected  with  them  by  treaties. 

Lynch.  Congress  may  regulate  the  trade,  if  they  will  indem- 
nify Carolina  against  the  expense  of  keeping  peace  with  the 
Indians,  or  defending  us  against  them. 

Wither  spoon.  Here  are  two  adjacent  provinces,  situated  alike 
with  respect  to  the  Indians,  differing  totally  in  their  sentiments 
of  their  interests. 

Chase.  South  Carolina  claims  to  the  South  Sea;  so  does 
North,  Virginia  and  Massachusetts  Bay.  South  Carolina  says 
they  have  a  right  to  regulate  the  trade  with  the  Indians  ;  if  so, 
four  Colonies  have  all  the  power  of  regulating  trade  with  the 
Indians.  South  Carolina  could  not  stand  alone  against  the 
Indian  nations. 

Sherman  moves  that  Congress  may  have  a  superintending 
power,  to  prevent  injustice  to  the  Indians  or  Colonies. 

Wilson.  No  lasting  peace  will  be  with  the  Indians,  unless 
made  by  some  one  body.  No  such  language  as  this  ought  to 
be  held  to  the  Indians.  "  We  are  stronger,  we  are  better,  we 
treat  you  better  than  another  Colony."  No  power  ought  to 
treat  with  the  Indians,  but  the  United  States.  Indians  know 
the  striking  benefits  of  confederation ;  they  have  an  example  of 
it  in  the  union  of  the  Six  Nations.  The  idea  of  the  union  of 
the  Colonies  struck  them  forcibly  last  year.  None  should  trade 
with  Indians  without  a  license  from  Congress.  A  perpetual 
war  would  be  unavoidable,  if  everybody  was  allowed  to  trade 
with  them. 


496  DEBATES.  [1770. 

Stone.  This  expedient  is  worse  than  either  of  the  alterna- 
tives. What  is  the  meaning  of  this  superintendency  ?  Colo- 
nies will  claim  the  right  first.  Congress  can't  interpose  until 
the  evil  has  happened.  Disputes  will  arise  when  Congress 
shall  interpose.1 

July  30.  Article  17.  "  In  determining  questions,  each  Colony 
shall  have  one  vote." 

Dr.  Franklin.  Let  the  smaller  Colonies  give  equal  money  and 
men,  and  then  have  an  equal  vote.  But  if  they  have  an  equal 
vote  without  bearing  equal  burthens,  a  confederation  upon  such 
iniquitous  principles  will  never  last  long. 

Dr.  Wither  spoon.  "We  all  agree  that  there  must  and  shall  be 
a  confederation,  for  this  war.  It  will  diminish  the  glory  of  our 
object,  and  depreciate  our  hope  ;  it  will  damp  the  ardor  of  the 
people.  The  greatest  danger  we  have,  is  of  disunion  among 
ourselves.  Is  it  not  plausible  that  the  small  States  will  be 
oppressed  by  the  great  ones  ?  The  Spartans  and  Helotes.  The 
Romans  and  their  dependents.  Every  Colony  is  a  distinct  per- 
son.    States  of  Holland. 

Clark.     We  must  apply  for  pardons  if  we  don't  confederate. 

Wilson.  We  should  settle  upon  some  plan  of  representa- 
tion.2 

Chase?  Moves  that  the  word  "  white,"  should  be  inserted  in 
the  eleventh  Article.  The  negroes  are  wealth.  Numbers  are 
not  a  certain  rule  of  wealth.  It  is  the  best  rule  we  can  lay 
down.  Negroes  a  species  of  property,  personal  estate.  If 
negroes  are  taken  into  the  computation  of  numbers  to  ascer- 
tain wealth,  they   ought  to    be,  in  settling  the  representation. 

1  The  clause  was  retained  in  committee,  with  the  addition  of  the  following 
words,  "  not  members  of  any  of  the  States,"  and  makes  a  part  of  the  ninth  article 
as  adopted. 

2  Probably  passed  over  for  the  moment. 

3  The  original  draught  of  the  eleventh  article  of  the  confederation,  upon 
which  this  debate  took  place,  was  in  these  words  : 

"  All  charges  of  wars,  and  all  other  expenses  that  shall  be  incurred  for  the 
common  defence,  or  general  welfare,  and  allowed  by  the  United  States  assem- 
bled, shall  be  defrayed  out  of  a  common  treasury,  which  shall  be  supplied  by 
the  several  Colonies  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  inhabitants  of  every  age, 
sex,  and  quality,  except  Indians  not  paying  taxes,  in  each  Colony,  a  true 
account  of  which,  distinguishing  the  white  inhabitants,  shall  be  triennially  taken 
and  transmitted  to  the  Assembly  of  the  United  States.     Taxes  for  paying  that 

f>roportion  shall  be  laid  and  levied  by  the  authority  and  directions  of  the  legis- 
ature  of  the  several  Colonies  within  the  time  agreed  upon  by  the  United  States 
assembled." 


1776.]  DEBATES.  497 

The  Massachusetts  fisheries,  and  navigation,  ought  to  be  taken 
into  consideration.  The  young  and  old  negroes  are  a  burthen 
to  their  owners.  The  eastern  Colonies  have  a  great  advantage 
in  trade.  This  will  give  them  a  superiority.  We  shall  be 
governed  by  our  interests,  and  ought  to  be.  If  I  am  satisfied 
in  the  rule  of  levying  and  appropriating  money,  I  am  willing 
the  small  Colonies  should  have  a  vote.1 

Wilson.     If  the  war  continues  two  years,  each  soul  will  have 
forty  dollars  to  pay  of  the  public  debt.     It  will  be  the  greatest 


1  Notes  of  this  speech  of  Mr.  Chase,  and  of  a  portion  of  the  debate,  were 
also  taken  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  they  are  found  in  the  first  volume  of  his 
papers  published  by  his  grandson,  Mr.  Randolph.  A  comparison  of  the  two 
reports,  as  far  as  they  go,  shows  a  substantial  agreement  between  them.  But  Mr. 
Jefferson's  contains  an  abstract  of  two  speeches  by  Mr.  Adams,  which  are  not 
found  elsewhere.  The  first  of  them  is  inserted,  as  having  been  made  imme- 
diately after  that  of  Mr.  Chase. 

"  Mr.  John  Adams  observed,  that  the  numbers  of  people  were  taken  by  this 
article,  as  an  index  of  the  wealth  of  the  State,  and  not  as  subjects  of  taxation ; 
that,  as  to  this  matter,  it  was  of  no  consequence  by  what  name  you  called  your 
people,  whether  by  that  of  freemen  or  slaves ;  that  in  some  countries  the  labor- 
ing poor  were  called  freemen,  in  others  they  were  called  slaves ;  but  that  the 
difference  as  to  the  State  was  imaginary  only.  What  matters  it  whether  a 
landlord  employing  ten  laborers  on  his  farm,  gives  them  annually  as  much 
money  as  will  buy  them  the  necessaries  of  life,  or  gives  them  such  necessaries 
at  short  hand  ?  The  ten  laborers  add  as  much  wealth  annually  to  the  State, 
increase  its  exports  as  much,  in  the  one  case  as  the  other.  Certainly  five  hun- 
dred freemen  produce  no  more  profits,  no  greater  surplus  for  the  payment  of 
taxes,  than  five  hundred  slaves.  Therefore  the  State  in  which  the  laborers  are 
called  freemen,  should  be  taxed  no  more  than  that  in  which  are  those  called 
slaves.  Suppose,  by  an  extraordinary  operation  of  nature  or  of  law,  one  half 
the  laborers  of  a  State  could  in  the  course  of  one  night  be  transformed  into 
slaves.  Would  the  State  be  made  the  poorer  or  the  less  able  to  pay  taxes  V 
That  the  condition  of  the  laboring  poor  in  most  countries,  that  of  the  fishermen 
particularly,  of  the  northern  States,  is  as  abject  as  that  of  slaves.  Tf  Is  the  num- 
ber of  laborers  which  produces  the  surplus  for  taxation,  ancTnumbers,  there- 
fore, indiscriminately,  are  the  fair  index  of  wealth  ;  that  it  is  the  use  of  the  word 
'  property '  here,  and  its  application  to  some  of  the  people  of  the  State,  which 
produces  the  fallacy.  How  does  the  southern  farmer  procure  slaves  ?  Either 
by  importation,  or  by  purchase  from  his  neighbor.  If  he  imports  a  slave,  he 
adds  one  to  the  number  of  laborers  in  his  country,  and,  proportionably,  to  its 
profits  and  ability  to  pay  taxes ;  if  he  buys  from  his  neighbor,  it  is  only  a  trans- 
fer of  a  laborer  from  one  farm  to  another,  which  does  not  change  the  annual 
produce  of  the  State,  and  therefore  should  not  change  its  tax  ;  that  if  a  north- 
ern farmer  works  ten  laborers  on  his  farm,  he  can,  it  is  true,  invest  the  surplus 
of  ten  men's  labor  in  cattle ;  but  so  may  the  southern  farmer,  working  ten 
slaves ;  that  a  State  of  one  hundred  thousand  freemen  can  maintain  no  more 
cattle,  than  one  of  one  hundred  thousand  slaves.  Therefore,  they  have  no 
more  of  that  kind  of  property ;  that  a  slave  may  indeed,  from  the  custom  of 
speech,  be  more  properly  called  the  wealth  of  his  master,  than  the  free  laborer 
might  be  called  the  wealth  of  his  employer ;  but  as  to  the  State,  both  were 
equally  its  wealth,  and  should  therefore  equally  add  to  the  quota  of  its  tax." 

42*  p2 


498  DEBATES.  [1776. 

encouragement  to  continue  slave-keeping,  and  to  increase  it, 
that  can  be,  to  exempt  them  from  the  numbers  which  are  to  vote 
and  pay.  Slaves  are  taxables  in  the  Southern  Colonies.  It  will 
be  partial  and  unequal.  Some  Colonies  have  as  many  black  as 
white  ;  these  will  not  pay  more  than  half  what  they  ought. 
Slaves  prevent  freemen  from  cultivating  a  country.  It  is  at- 
tended with  many  inconveniences. 

Lynch.  If  it  is  debated,  whether  their  slaves  are  their  pro- 
perty, there  is  an  end  of  the  confederation.  Our  slaves  being 
our  property,  why  should  they  be  taxed  more  than  the  land, 
sheep,  cattle,  horses,  &c.  ? 

Freemen  cannot  be  fi^oj^to  work  in^ur_Colonies_|  it  is  not  in 
the  ability  or  inclination  of  freemen  to  do  the  work  that  the 
negroes  do.  Carolina  has  taxed  their  negroes ;  so  have  other 
Colonies  their  lands. 

Dr.  Franklin.  Slayesj^ather  weaken  than  strengthen  the  State, 
and  there  is  therefore  some  difference  between  them  and  sheep ; 
sheep  will  never  make  any  insurrections. 

Rutledge.  I  shall  be  happy  to  get  rid  of  the  idea  of  slavery. 
The  slaves  do  not  signify  property ;  the  old  and  young  cannot 
work.  The  property  of  some  Colonies  is  to  be  taxed,  in  others, 
not.  The  Eastern  Colonies  will  become  the  carriers  for  the 
Southern ;  they  will  obtain  wealth  for  which  they  will  not  be 
taxed. 

August  1.  Hooper.  North  Carolina  is  a  striking  exception 
to  the  general  rule  that  was  laid  down  yesterday,  that  the  riches 
of  a  country  are  in  proportion  to  the  numbers  of  inhabitants. 
A  gentleman  of  three  or  four  hundred  negroes  don't  raise  more 
corn  than  feeds  them.  A  laborer  can't  be  hired  for  less  than 
twenty-four  pounds  a  year  in  Massachusetts  Bay.  The  net 
profit  of  a  negro  is  not  more  than  five  or  six  pounds  per  annum. 
I  wish  to  see  the  day  that  slaves  are  not  necessary.  Whites 
and  negroes  cannot  work  together.  Negroes  are  goods  and 
chattels,  are  property.  A  negro  works  under  the  impulse  of 
fear,  has  no  care  of  his  master's  interest.1 

1  Mr.  Chase's  amendment  was  lost.  Seven  States,  New  Hampshire,  Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania, 
voting  against  it.  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  and  South  Carolina, 
voting  for  it.     Georgia  divided. 

The  article,  amended  only  by  substituting  the  word  "  States,"  for  "  Colonies," 
was  reported  to  the  House  as  the  ninth  of  the  new  draught. 


1776.]  DEBATES.  499 


The  Consideration  of  the  Seventeenth  Article,  resumed.1 

Article  17.  Dr.  Franklin  moves  that  votes  should  be  in  pro- 
portion to  numbers.  Mr.  Middleton  moves  that  the  vote  should 
be  according  to  what  they  pay. 

Sherman  thinks  we  ought  not  to  vote  according  to  numbers. 
We  are  representatives  of  States,  not  individuals.  States  of 
Holland.  The  consent  of  every  one  is  necessary.  Three  Colo- 
nies would  govern  the  whole,  but  would  not  have  a  majority  of 
strength  to  carry  those  votes  into  execution.  The  vote  should 
be  taken  two  ways ;  call  the  Colonies,  and  call  the  individuals, 
and  have  a  majority  of  both. 

Dr.  Rush.2  Abbe  Raynal  has  attributed  the  ruin  of  the  United 
Provinces  to  three  causes.  The  principal  one  is,  that  the  consent 
of  every  State  is  necessary ;  the  other,  that  the  members  are 
obliged  to  consult  their  constituents  upon  all  occasions.  We 
lose  an  equal  representation ;  we  represent  the  people.  It  will 
tend  to  keep  up  colonial  distinctions.    We  are  now  a  new  nation. 

It  was  again  taken  up  on  the  9th  of  October,  1777,  and  discussed  until  the 
14th,  when  the  following  important  amendment  was  adopted :  — 

New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  voting  unani- 
mously in  the  negative. 

New  Jersey,  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  and  South  Carolina,  unanimously  in 
the  affirmative. 

New  York  and  Pennsylvania  equally  divided. 

"  That  the  proportion  of  the  public  expense,  incurred  by  the  United  States 
for  their  common  defence  and  general  welfare,  to  be  paid  by  each  State  into  the 
Treasury,  be  ascertained  by  the  value  of  all  land  within  each  State  granted  to 
or  surveyed  for  any  person,  as  such  land,  the  buildings  and  improvements  thereon, 
shall  be  estimated  according  to  such  mode  as  Congress  shall,  from  time  to  time, 
direct  or  appoint." 

On  the  22d,  23d,  24th,  and  25th  of  June,  1778,  the  various  States  proposed, 
by  their  delegates,  amendments.  Maryland,  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Con- 
necticut, New  Jersey,  and  South  Carolina,  each  offered  some  form  of  modifica- 
tion of  this  article,  but  they  were  all  rejected.  See  the  History  of  the  Confed- 
eration, at  the  end  of  the  first  volume  of  the  Secret  Journals,  vol.  i.  pp.  368-385. 

1  From  page  494. 

2  The  order  of  the  speakers,  in  this  debate,  does  not  correspond  with  the 
report  made  by  Mr.  Jefferson.  But,  immediately  before  this  speech  of  Dr. 
Rush,  there  is  inserted,  by  him,  a  speech  of  Mr.  Adams,  which  may  properly 
find  its  place  in  this  note. 

"  John  Adams  advocated  the  voting  in  proportion  to  numbers.  He  said  that 
we  stand  here  as  the  representatives  of  the  people ;  that  in  some  States  the 
people  are  many,  in  others  they  are  few ;  that,  therefore,  their  vote  here  should 
be  proportioned  to  the  numbers  from  which  it  comes.  Reason,  justice,  and 
equity,  never  had  weight  enough  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  to  govern  the  councils 


500  DEBATES.  [1776. 

Our  trade,  language,  customs,  manners,  don't  differ  more  than 
they  do  in  Great  Britain.  The  more  a  man  aims  at  serving 
America,  the  more  he  serves  his  Colony.  It  will  promote  fac- 
tions in  Congress  and  in  the  States ;  it  will  prevent  the  growth 
of  freedom  in  America ;  we  shall  be  loth  to  admit  new  Colonies 
into  the  confederation.  If  we  vote  by  numbers,  liberty  will  be 
always  safe.  Massachusetts  is  contiguous  to  two  small  Colo- 
nies, Rhode  Island  and  New  Hampshire ;  Pennsylvania  is  near 
New  Jersey  and  Delaware ;  Virginia  is  between  Maryland  and 
North  Carolina.  We  have  been  too  free  with  the  word  inde- 
pendence ;  we  are  dependent  on  each  other,  not  totally  inde- 
pendent States.  Montesquieu  pronounces  the  confederation  of 
Lycia,  the  best  that  ever  was  made  ;  the  cities  had  different 
weights  in  the  scale.  China  is  not  larger  than  one  of  our  Colo- 
nies ;  how  populous !  It  is  said  that  the  small  Colonies  deposit 
their  all ;  this  is  deceiving  us  with  a  word.  I  would  not  have 
it  understood  that  I  am  pleading  the  cause  of  Pennsylvania; 
when  I  entered  that  door,  I  considered  myself  a  citizen  of 
America. 

Dr.  Witherspoon.      Representation   in   England   is   unequal. 
Must   I  have  three  votes  in  a  county,  because   I  have  three 

of  men.  It  is  interest  alone  which  does  it,  and  it  is  interest  alone  which  can  be 
trusted ;  that,  therefore,  the  interests,  within  doors,  should  be  the  mathematical 
representations  of  the  interests  without  doors ;  that  the  individuality  of  the  Col- 
onies is  a  mere  sound.  Does  the  individuality  of  a  Colony  increase  its  wealth  or 
numbers  ?  If  it  does,  pay  equally.  If  it  does  not  add  weight  in  the  scale  of 
the  confederacy,  it  cannot  add  to  their  rights,  nor  weigh  in  argument.  A  has 
fifty  pounds ;  B  five  hundred  pounds ;  C  one  thousand  pounds,  in  partnership. 
Is  it  just  they  should  equally  dispose  of  the  moneys  of  the  partnership  ?  It  has 
been  said,  we  are  independent  individuals  making  a  bargain  together.  The 
question  is  not  what  we  are  now,  but  what  we  ought  to  be  when  our  bargain 
shall  be  made.  The  confederacy  is  to  make  us  one  individual  only  ;  it  is  to  form 
us,  like  separate  parcels  of  metal,  into  one  common  mass.  We  shall  no  longer 
retain  our  separate  individuality,  but  become  a  single  individual  as  to  all  ques- 
tions submitted  to  the  confederacy.  Therefore  all  those  reasons  which  prove 
the  justice  and  expediency  of  equal  representation  in  other  Assemblies,  hold 
good  here. 

"  It  has  been  objected  that  a  proportional  vote  will  endanger  the  smaller 
States.  We  answer  that  an  equal  vote  will  endanger  the  larger.  Virginia, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Massachusetts,  are  the  three  greater  Colonies.  Consider 
their  distance,  their  difference  of  produce,  of  interests,  and  of  manners,  and  it 
is  apparent  they  can  never  have  an  interest  or  inclination  to  combine  for  the 
oppression  of  the  smaller;  that  the  smaller  will  naturally  divide  on  all  questions 
with  the  larger.  Rhode  Island,  from  its  relation,  similarity,  and  intercourse,  will 
generally  pursue  the  same  objects  with  Massachusetts ;  Jersey,  Delaware,  and 
Maryland,  with  Pennsylvania." 


1776.]  DEBATES.  501 

times  as  much  money  as  my  neighbor  ?  Congress  are  to  deter- 
mine the  limits  of  Colonies. 

G.  Hopkins.  A  momentous  question ;  many  difficulties  on 
each  side ;  four  larger,  five  lesser,  four  stand  indifferent.  Vir- 
ginia, Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  make  more  than 
half  the  people. 

Connecticut,  New  York,  two  Carolinas,  not  concerned  at  all. 
The  disinterested  coolness  of  these  Colonies  ought  to  determine. 
I  can  easily  feel  the  reasoning  of  the  larger  Colonies ;  pleasing 
theories  always  gave  way  to  the  prejudices,  passions,  and  inter- 
ests of  mankind.  The  Germanic  Confederation.  The  King  of 
Prussia  has  an  equal  vote.  The  Helvetic  confederacy.  It  can't 
be  expected  that  nine  Colonies  will  give  way  to  be  governed  by 
four.  The  safety  of  the  whole  depends  upon  the  distinctions  of 
Colonies. 

Dr.  Franklin.  I  hear  many  ingenious  arguments  to  persuade 
us  that  an  unequal  representation  is  a  very  good  thing.  If  we 
had  been  born  and  bred  under  an  unequal  representation,  we 
might  bear  it ;  but  to  set  out  with  an  unequal  representation,  is 
unreasonable.  It  is  said  the  great  Colonies  will  swallow  up  the 
less.     Scotland  said  the  same  thins:  at  the  union. 

Dr.  Witherspoon  rises  to  explain  a  few  circumstances  relating 
to  Scotland ;  that  was  an  incorporating  union,  not  a  federal ;  the 
nobility  and  gentry  resort  to  England. 

In  determining  all  questions,  each  State  shall  have  a  weight, 
in  proportion  to  what  it  contributes  to  the  public  expenses  of  the 
United  States.1 

August  2.2  "  Limiting  the  bounds  of  States,  which  by  charter, 
&c.  extend  to  the  South  Sea." 

Sherman  thinks  the  bounds  ought  to  be  settled.  A  majority 
of  States  have  no  claim  to  the  South  Sea.     Moves  this  amend* 

1  The  seventeenth  article  was  reported  to  the  House,  with  only  the  change 
of  the  word  "  Colony  "  for  "  Stata,"  as  article  thirteen  of  the  new  draught.  The 
struggle  was  renewed  on  the  7th  of  October,  but  without  effect.  Mr.  Adams's 
vote  stands  recorded  alone,  north  of  Virginia,  in  favor  of  an  amendment, 
basing  representation  upon  population,  every  State  to  have  one  delegate  thi- 
every thirty  thousand  of  its  inhabitants,  and  every  delegate  to  have  one  vote. 
The  vote  by  States  was  finally  incorporated  into  the  fifth  article  as  at  last 
adopted. 

2  This  makes,  in  the  first  draught,  a  part  of  the  eighteenth  article,  defining 
the  rights  and  power  of  the  United  States : 

"Limiting  the  bounds  of  those  Colonies  which,  by  charter  or  proclamation,  or 
under  any  pretence,  are  said  to  extend  to  the  South  Sea." 


502  DEBATES.  [1776. 

ment  to  be  substituted  in  place  of  this  clause,  and  also  instead 
of  the  fifteenth  article ;  — "  No  lands  to  be  separated  from  any 
State,  which  are  already  settled,  or  become  private  property." 

Chase  denies  that  any  Colony  has  a  right  to  go  to  the  South 
Sea. 

Harrison.  How  came  Maryland  by  its  land,  but  by  its  charter  ? 
By  its  charter,  Virginia  owns  to  the  South  Sea.  Gentlemen 
shall  not  pare  away  the  Colony  of  Virginia.  Rhode  Island  has 
more  generosity  than  to  wish  the  Massachusetts  pared  away. 
Delaware  does  not  wish  to  pare  away  Pennsylvania. 

Hunting-ton.  Admit  there  is  danger  from  Virginia,  does  it 
follow  that  Congress  has  a  right  to  limit  her  bounds  ?  The  con- 
sequence is,  not  to  enter  into  confederation.  But  as  to  the  ques- 
tion of  right,  we  all  unite  against  mutilating  charters.  I  can't 
agree  to  the  principle.  We  are  a  spectacle  to  all  Europe.  I  am 
not  so  much  alarmed  at  the  danger  from  Virginia  as  some  are ; 
my  fears  are  not  alarmed ;  they  have  acted  as  noble  a  part  as 
any.  I  doubt  not  the  wisdom  of  Virginia  will  limit  themselves. 
A  man's  right  does  not  cease  to  be  a  right,  because  it  is  large ; 
the  question  of  right  must  be  determined  by  the  principles  of  the 
common  law. 

Stone.  This  argument  is  taken  up  upon  very  wrong  ground. 
It  is  considered  as  if  we  were  voting  away  the  territory  of 
particular  Colonies,  and  gentlemen  work  themselves  up  into 
warmth  upon  that  supposition.  Suppose  Virginia  should.  The 
small  Colonies  have  a  right  to  happiness  and  security;  they 
would  have  no  safety  if  the  great  Colonies  were  not  limited.  We 
shall  grant  lands,  in  small  quantities,  without  rent  or  tribute  or 
purchase-money.  It  is  said  that  Virginia  is  attacked  on  every 
side.  Is  it  meant  that  Virginia  shall  sell  the  lands  for  their  own 
emolument  ?  All  the  Colonies  have  defended  these  lands  against 
the  King  of  Britain,  and  at  the  expense  of  all.  Does  Virginia 
intend  to  establish  quit  rents  ?  I  don't  mean  that  the  United 
States  shall  sell  them,  to  get  money  by  them. 

Jefferson.  I  protest  against  the  right  of  Congress  to  decide 
upon  the  right  of  Virginia.  Virginia  has  released  all  claims  to 
the  land  settled  by  Maryland,  &C.1 

i  This  clause  was  stricken  out  in  committee.  The  subsequent  history  of  the 
struggle  is  well  known,  terminating  in  the  acts  of  cession  of  claims  to  the  Western 
territory. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 


1775.  September.  [At  the  appointed  time,  we  returned  to 
Philadelphia,  and  Congress  were  reassembled.  Mr.  Richard  Penn 
had  sailed  for  England,  and  carried  the  petition,  from  which  Mr. 
Dickinson  and  his  party  expected  relief.  I  expected  none,  and 
was  wholly  occupied  in  measures  to  support  the  army  and  the 
expedition  into  Canada.  Every  important  step  was  opposed, 
and  carried  by  bare  majorities,  which  obliged  me  to  be  almost 
constantly  engaged  in  debate ;  but  I  was  not  content  with  all 
that  was  done,  and  almost  every  day  I  had  something  to  say 
about  advising  the  States  to  institute  governments,  to  express 
my  total  despair  of  any  good  from  the  petition  or  any  of  those 
things  which  were  called  conciliatory  measures.  I  constantly 
insisted  that  all  such  measures,  instead  of  having  any  tendency 
to  produce  a  reconciliation,  would  only  be  considered  as  proofs 
of  our  timidity  and  want  of  confidence  in  the  ground  we  stood 
on,  and  would  only  encourage  our  enemies  to  greater  exertions 
against  us ;  that  we  should  be  driven  to  the  necessity  of  declaring 
ourselves  independent  States,  and  that  we  ought  now  to  be 
employed  in  preparing  a  plan  of  confederation  for  the  Colonies, 
and  treaties  to  be  proposed  to  foreign  powers,  particularly  to 
France  and  Spain ;  that  all  these  measures  ought  to  be  maturely 
considered  and  carefully  prepared,  together  with  a  declaration 
of  independence ;  that  these  three  measures,  independence,  con- 
federation, and  negotiations  with  foreign  powers,  particularly 
France,  ought  to  go  hand  in  hand,  and  be  adopted  all  together ; 
that  foreign  powers  could  not  be  expected  to  acknowledge  us 
till  we  had  acknowledged  ourselves,  and  taken  our  station  among 
them  as  a  sovereign  power  and  independent  nation ; *  that  now 

1  The  following  memorandum  gives  in  brief  the  system  probably  dilated  upon 
in  the  speeches  of  the  writer  at  this  time  :  — 

Mem.  The  confederation  to  be  taken  up  in  paragraphs.  An  alliance  to  be 
formed  with  France  and  Spain.     Ambassadors  to  be  sent  to  both  courts.     Gov- 


504 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 


[1775. 


we  were  distressed  for  want  of  artillery,  arms,  ammunition, 
clothing,  and  even  for  flints ;  that  the  people  had  no  markets  for 
their  produce,  wanted  clothing  and  many  other  things,  which 
foreign  commerce  alone  could  fully  supply,  and  we  could  not 
expect  commerce  till  we  were  independent ;  that  the  people  were 
wonderfully  well  united,  and  extremely  ardent.  There  was  no 
danger  of  our  wanting  support  from  them,  if  we  did  not  dis- 
courage them  by  checking  and  quenching  their  zeal ;  that  there 
was  no  doubt  of  our  ability  to  defend  the  country,  to  support  the 
war,  and  maintain  our  independence.  We  had  men  enough,  our 
people  were  brave,  and  every  day  improving  in  all  the  exercises 
and  discipline  of  war ;  that  we  ought  immediately  to  give  per- 
mission to  our  merchants  to  fit  out  privateers  and  make  reprisals 
on  the  enemy ;  that  Congress  ought  to  arm  ships,  and  commis- 
sion officers,  and  lay  the  foundation  of  a  navy;  that  immense 
advantages  might  be  derived  from  this  resource ;  that  not  only 
West  India  articles,  in  great  abundance,  and  British  manufac- 
tures, of  all  kinds,  might  be  obtained,  but  artillery  ammunitions 
and  all  kinds  of  supplies  for  the  army ;  that  a  system  of  mea- 
sures, taken  with  unanimity  and  pursued  with  resolution,  would 
insure  us  the  friendship  and  assistance  of  France. 

Some  gentlemen  doubted  of  the  sentiments  of  France ;  thought 
she  would  frown  upon  us  as  rebels,  and  be  afraid  to  countenance 
the  example.  I  replied  to  those  gentlemen,  that  I  apprehended 
they  had  not  attended  to  the  relative  situation  of  France  and 
England ;  that  it  was  the  unquestionable  interest  of  France  that 
the  British  Continental  Colonies  should  be  independent;  that 
Britain,  by  the  conquest  of  Canada  and  her  naval  triumphs 
during  the  last  war,  and  by  her  vast  possessions  in  America  and 
the  East  Indies,  was  exalted  to  a  height  of  power  and  preemi- 
nence that  France  must  envy  and  could  not  endtire.  But  there 
was  much  more  than  pride  and  jealousy  in  the  case.     Her  rank, 

ernment  to  be  assumed  in  every  Colony.  Coin  and  currencies  to  be  regulated. 
Forces  to  be  raised  and  maintained  in  Canada  and  New  York.  St.  Lawrence 
and  Hudson  Rivers  to  be  secured.  Hemp  to  be  encouraged,  and  the  manufac- 
ture of  duck.  Powder-mills  to  be  built  in  every  Colony,  and  fresb  efforts  to 
make  saltpetre.  An  address  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Colonies.  The  committee 
for  lead  and  salt  to  be  filled  up,  and  sulphur  added  to  their  commission.  Money 
to  be  sent  to  the  paymaster,  to  pay  our  debts  and  fulfil  our  engagements.  Taxes 
to  be  laid  and  levied.  Funds  established.  New  notes  to  be  given  on  interest 
for  bills  borrowed.  Treaties  of  commerce  with  France,  Spain,  Holland,  Den- 
mark, &c. 


^Et.  39.]  AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  505 

her  consideration  in  Europe,  and  even  her  safety  and  independ- 
ence, were  at  stake.     The  navy  of  Great  Britain  was  now  mis- 
tress of  the  seas,  all  over  the  globe.     The  navy  of  France  almost 
annihilated.     Its  inferiority  was  so  great  and  obvious,  that  all 
the  dominions  of  France,  in  the  West  Indies  and  in  the  East 
Indies,  lay  at  the  mercy  of  Great  Britain,  and  must  remain  so 
as  long  as  North  America  belonged  to  Great  Britain,  and  afforded 
them  so  many  harbors  abounding  with  naval  stores  and  resources 
of  all  kinds,  and  so  many  men  and  seamen  ready  to  assist  them 
and  man  their  ships ;  that  interest  could  not  lie ;  that  the  inter- 
est of  France  was  so  obvious,  and  her  motives  so  cogent,  that 
nothing  but  a  judicial  infatuation  of  her  councils  could  restrain 
her  from  embracing  us ;  that  our  negotiations  with  France  ought, 
however,  to  be  conducted  with  great  caution,  and  with  all  the 
foresight  we  could  possibly  obtain  ;  that  we  ought  not  to  enter 
into  any  alliance  with  her,  which  should  entangle  us  in  any 
future  wars  in  Europe ;  that  we  ought  to  lay  it  down,  as  a  first 
principle  and  a  maxim  never  to  be  forgotten,  to  maintain  an 
entire  neutrality  in  all  future  European  wars ;  that  it  never  could 
be  our  interest  to  unite  with  France  in  the  destruction  of  Eng- 
land, or  in  any  measures  to  break  her  spirit,  or  reduce  her  to  a 
situation  in  which  she  could  not  support  her  independence.     On 
the  other  hand,  it  could  never  be  our  duty  to  unite  with  Britain 
in  too  great  a  humiliation  of  France ;  that  our  real,  if  not  our 
nominal,  independence,  would  consist  in  our  neutrality.     If  we 
united  with  either  nation,  in  any  future  war,  we  must  become 
too  subordinate  and  dependent  on  that  nation,  and  should  be 
involved  in  all  European  wars,  as  we  had  been  hitherto ;  that 
foreign  powers  would  find  means  to  corrupt  our  people,  to  influ- 
ence our  councils,  and,  in  fine,  we  should  be  little  better  than 
puppets,  danced  on  the  wires  of  the  cabinets  of  Europe.     We 
should  be  the  sport  of  European  intrigues  and  politics ;  that, 
therefore,  in  preparing  treaties  to  be  proposed  to  foreign  powers, 
and  in  the  instructions  to  be  given  to  our  ministers,  we  ought  to 
confine  ourselves  strictly  to  a  treaty  of  commerce ;  that  such  a 
treaty  would  be  an  ample  compensation  to  France  for  all  the  aid 
we  should  want  from  her.     The  opening  of  American  trade  to 
her,  would  be  a  vast  resource  for  her  commerce  and  naval  power, 
and  a  great  assistance  to  her  in  protecting  her  East  and  West 
India  possessions,  as  well  as  her  fisheries ;  but  that  the  bare  dis- 
VOL.   II.  43 


506  AUTOBIOGAPHY.  [1775. 

memberment  of  the  British  empire  would  be  to  her  an  incalcu- 
lable security  and  benefit,  worth  more  than  all  the  exertions  we 
should  require  of  her,  even  if  it  should  draw  her  into  another 
eight  or  ten  years'  war. 

When  I  first  made  these  observations  in  Congress,  I  never  saw 
a  greater  impression  made  upon  that  assembly  or  any  other. 
Attention  and  approbation  were  marked  upon  every  countenance. 
Several  gentlemen  came  to  me  afterwards,  to  thank  me  for  that 
speech,  particularly  Mr.  Csesar  Rodney,  of  Delaware,  and  Mr. 
Duane,  of  New  York.  I  remember  these  two  gentlemen  in  par- 
ticular, because  both  of  them  said  that  I  had  considered  the 
subject  of  foreign  connections  more  maturely  than  any  man 
they  had  ever  heard  in  America ;  that  I  had  perfectly  digested 
the  subject,  and  had  removed,  Mr.  Rodney  said,  all,  and  Mr. 
Duane  said,  the  greatest  part  of  his  objections  to  foreign  nego- 
tiations. Even  Mr.  Dickinson  said,  to  gentlemen  out  of  doors, 
that  I  had  thrown  great  light  on  the  subject. 

These  and  such  as  these,  were  my  constant  and  daily  topics, 
sometimes  of  reasoning  and  no  doubt  often  of  declamation, 
from  the  meeting  of  Congress  in  the  autumn  of  1775,  through 
the  whole  winter  and  spring  of  1776. 

Many  motions  were  made,  and  after  tedious  discussions,  lost 
I  received  little  assistance  from  my  colleagues  in  all  these  con- 
tests ;  three  of  them  were  either  inclined  to  lean  towards  Mr. 
Dickinson's  system,  or  at  least  chose  to  be  silent,  and  the  fourth 
spoke  but  rarely  in  Congress,  and  never  entered  into  any  exten- 
sive arguments,  though,  when  he  did  speak,  his  sentiments  were 
clear  and  pertinent  and  neatly  expressed.  Mr.  Richard  Henry 
Lee,  of  Virginia,  Mr.  Sherman,  of  Connecticut,  and  Mr.  Gads- 
den, of  South  Carolina,  were  always  on  my  side,  and  Mr.  Chase, 
of  Maryland,  when  he  did  speak  at  all,  was  always  powerful, 
and  generally  with  us.  Mr.  Johnson,  of  Maryland,  was  the  most 
frequent  speaker  from  that  State,  and,  while  he  remained  with 
us,  was  inclined  to  Mr.  Dickinson  for  some  time,  but  ere  long 
he  and  all  his  State  came  cordially  into  our  system.  In  the  fall 
of  1776,  his  State  appointed  him  General  of  militia,  and  he 
marched  to  the  relief  of  General  Washington  in  the  Jerseys. 
He  was  afterwards  chosen  Governor  of  Maryland,  and  he  came 
no  more  to  Congress. 

In  the  course  of  this  winter  appeared  a  phenomenon  in  Phila- 


JEt.  40.]  AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  507 

delphia,  a  disastrous  meteor,  I  mean  Thomas  Paine.  He  came 
from  England,  and  got  into  such  company  as  would  converse 
with  him,  and  ran  about  picking  up  what  information  he  could 
concerning  our  affairs,  and  finding  the  great  question  was  con- 
cerning independence,  he  gleaned  from  those  he  saw  the  com- 
mon-place arguments,  such  as  the  necessity  of  independence  at 
some  time  or  other;  the  peculiar  fitness  at  this  time;  the  justice 
of  it ;  the  provocation  to  it ;  our  ability  to  maintain  it,  &c.  &c. 
Dr.  Rush  put  him  upon  writing  on  the  subject,  furnished  him 
with  the  arguments  which  had  been  urged  in  Congress  a  hun- 
dred times,  and  gave  him  his  title  of  "  Common  Sense."  In  the 
latter  part  of  winter,  or  early  in  the  spring,  he  came  out  with  his 
pamphlet.  The  arguments  in  favor  of  independence  I  liked 
very  well ;  but  one  third  part  of  the  book  was  filled  with  argu- 
ments, from  the  Old  Testament,  to  prove  the  unlawfulness  of 
monarchy,  and  another  third,  in  planning  a  form  of  government 
for  the  separate  States,  in  one  assembly,  and  for  the  United 
States,  in  a  Congress.  His  arguments  from  the  Old  Testament 
were  ridiculous,  but  whether  they  proceeded  from  honest  igno- 
rance or  foolish  superstition  on  one  hand,  or  from  wilful  sophis- 
try and  knavish  hypocrisy  on  the  other,  I  know  not.  The  other 
third  part,  relative  to  a  form  of  government,  I  considered  as 
flowing  from  simple  ignorance,  and  a  mere  desire  to  please  the 
democratic  party,  in  Philadelphia,  at  whose  head  were  Mr. 
Matlack,  Mr.  Cannon,  and  Dr.  Young.  I  regretted,  however, 
to  see  so  foolish  a  plan  recommended  to  the  people  of  the  Uni- 
ted States,  who  were  all  waiting  only  for  the  countenance  of 
Congress  to  institute  their  State  governments.  I  dreaded  the 
effect  so  popular  pamphlet  might  have  among  the  people,  and 
determined  to  do  all  in  my  power  to  counteract  the  effect  of  it. 
My  continual  occupations  in  Congress  allowed  me  no  time  to 
write  any  thing  of  any  length ;  but  I  found  moments  to  write  a 
small  pamphlet,  which  Mr.  Richard  Henry  Lee,  to  whom  I 
showed  it,  liked  so  well,  that  he  insisted  on  my  permitting  him 
to  publish  it.  He  accordingly  got  Mr.  Dunlap  to  print  it,  under 
the  title  of  "  Thoughts  on  Government,  in  a  letter  from  a  gentle- 
man to  his  friend."  Common  Sense  was  published  without  a 
name,  and  I  thought  it  best  to  suppress  my  name  too.  But  as 
Common  Sense,  when  it  first  appeared,  was  generally  by  the 
public  ascribed  to  me  or  Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  I  soon  regretted 


508  AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  [1775. 

that  my  name  did  not  appear.     Afterwards  I  had  a  new  edition 
of  it  printed,  with  my  name  and  the  name  of  Mr.  Wythe,  of 
Virginia,  to  whom  the  letter  was  at  first  intended  to  be  addressed.1 
The  gentlemen  of  New  York  availed  themselves  of  the  ideas  in 
this  morsel,  in  the  formation  of  the  constitution  of  that  State. 
And  Mr.  Lee  sent  it  to  the  convention  of  Virginia,  when  they 
met  to  form  their  government,  and  it  went  to  North  Carolina, 
New  Jersey,  and  other  States.     Matlack,  Cannon,  Young,  and 
Paine,  had  influence  enough,  however,  to  get  their  plan  adopted 
in  substance  in  Georgia  and  Vermont,  as  well  as  Pennsylvania. 
These  three  States  have  since  found  them  such  systems  of  anar- 
chy, if  that  expression  is  not  a  contradiction  in  terms,  that  they 
have  altered  them  and  made  them  more  conformable  to  my  plan. 
Paine,  soon  after  the  appearance  of  my  pamphlet,  hurried  away 
to  my  lodgings  and  spent  an  evening  with  me.     His  business 
was  to  reprehend  me  for  publishing  my  pamphlet ;  said  he  was 
afraid  it  would  do  hurt,  and  that  it  was  repugnant  to  the  plan 
he  had  proposed  in  his  Common  Sense.     I  told  him  it  was  true 
it  was  repugnant,  and  for  that  reason  I  had  written  it  and  con- 
sented to  the  publication  of  it;  for  I  was  as  much  afraid  of 
his  work  as  he  was  of  mine.     His  plan  was  so  democratical,2 
without  any  restraints  or  even  an  attempt  at  any  equilibrium  or 
counterpoise,  that  it  must  produce  confusion  and  every  evil  work. 
I  told  him  further,  that  his  reasoning  from  the  Old  Testament 
was  ridiculous,  and  I  could  hardly  think  him  sincere.     At  this 
he  laughed,  and  said  he  had  taken  his  ideas  in  that  part  from 
Milton ;  and  then  expressed  a  contempt  of  the  Old  Testament, 
and  indeed  of  the  Bible  at  large,  which  surprised  me.     He  saw 
that  I  did  not  relish  this,  and  soon  checked  himself  with  these 
words :    "  However,   I  have   some  thoughts   of  publishing  my 
thoughts  on  religion,  but  I  believe  it  will  be  best  to  postpone  it 
to  the  latter  part  of  life."     This  conversation  passed  in  good 
humor,  without  any  harshness  on  either  side ;  but  I  perceived  in 


him  a  conceit  of  himself  and  a  daring  impudence,  which  have 
been  developed  more  and  more  to  this  day. 

The  third  part  of  Common  Sense,  which  relates  wholly  to  the 
question  of  independence,  was  clearly  written,  and  contained  a 

1  This  Essay  will  be  found  in  another  portion  of  this  work. 

2  This  was  the  very  objection  made  in  the  State  of  Virginia  to  his  own,  as 
will  appear  hereafter  in  a  remarkable  letter  of  Patrick  Henry  to  the  author. 


Mt.  40.]  AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  509 

tolerable  summary  of  the  arguments  which  I  had  been  repeating 
again  and  again  in  Congress  for  nine  months.  But  I  am  bold 
to  say  there  is  not  a  fact  nor  a  reason  stated  in  it,  which  had 
not  been  frequently  urged  in  Congress.  The  temper  and  wishes 
of  the  people  supplied  every  thing  at  that  time ;  and  the  phrases, 
suitable  for  an  emigrant  from  Newgate,  or  one  who  had  chiefly 
associated  with  such  company,  such  as,  "  The  Royal  Brute  of 
England,"  "  The  blood  upon  his  soul,"  and  a  few  others  of  equal 
delicacy,  had  as  much  weight  with  the  people  as  his  arguments. 
It  has  been  a  general  opinion  that  this  pamphlet  was  of  great 
importance  in  the  Revolution.  I  doubted  it  at  the  time,  and 
have  doubted  it  to  this  day.  It  probably  converted  some  to  the 
doctrine  of  independence,  and  gave  others  an  excuse  for  declar- 
ing in  favor  of  it.  But  these  would  all  have  followed  Congress 
with  zeal ;  and  on  the  other  hand  it  excited  many  writers  against 
it,  particularly  "  Plain  Truth,"  who  contributed  very  largely  to 
fortify  and  inflame  the  party  against  independence,  and  finally 
lost  us  the  Aliens,  Penns,  and  many  other  persons  of  weight  in 
the  community. 

Notwithstanding  these  doubts,  I  felt  myself  obliged  to  Paine 
for  the  pains  he  had  taken,  and  for  his  good  intentions  to  serve 
us,  which  I  then  had  no  doubt  of.  I  saw  he  had  a  capacity  and 
a  ready  pen ;  and,  understanding  he  was  poor  and  destitute,  I 
thought  we  might  put  him  into  some  employment  where  he 
might  be  useful  and  earn  a  living.  Congress  appointed  a  Com- 
mittee of  Foreign  Affairs,  not  long  after,  and  they  wanted  a 
clerk.  I  nominated  Thomas  Paine,  supposing  him  a  ready 
writer  and  an  industrious  man.  Dr.  Witherspoon,  the  Presi- 
dent of  New  Jersey  College,  and  then  a  delegate  from  that  State, 
rose  and  objected  to  it  with  an  earnestness  that  surprised  me. 
The  Doctor  said  he  would  give  his  reasons ;  he  knew  the  man 
and  his  communication ;  when  he  first  came  over,  he  was  on  the 
other  side,  and  had  written  pieces  against  the  American  cause ; 
that  he  had  afterwards  been  employed  by  his  friend,  Robert 
Aitkin,  and  finding  the  tide  of  popularity  run  rapidly,  he  had 
turned  about ;  that  he  was  very  intemperate,  and  could  not  write 
until  he  had  quickened  his  thoughts  with  large  draughts  of  rum 
and  water ;  that  he  was,  in  short,  a  bad  character,  and  not  fit  to 
be  placed  in  such  a  situation.  General  Roberdeau  spoke  in  his 
favor ;   no  one  confirmed  Witherspoon's  account,  though  the 

43  * 


510 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 


[^T.  40. 


truth  of  it  has  since  been  sufficiently  established.  Congress 
appointed  him;  but  he  was  soon  obnoxious  by  his  manners, 
and  dismissed. 

There  was  one  circumstance  in  his  conversation  with  me 
about  the  pamphlets,  which  I  could  not  account  for.  He  was 
extremely  earnest  to  convince  me  that  "  Common  Sense  "  was 
his  first  born ;  declared  again  and  again  that  he  had  never 
written  a  line  nor  a  word  that  had  been  printed,  before  "  Com- 
mon Sense."  I  cared  nothing  for  this,  and  said  nothing ;  but 
Dr.  Witherspoon's  account  of  his  writing  against  us,  brought 
doubts  into  my  mind  of  his  veracity,  which  the  subsequent  his- 
tories of  his  writings  and  publications  in  England,  when  he 
was  in  the  custom-house,  did  not  remove.  At  this  day  it  would 
be  ridiculous  to  ask  any  questions  about  Tom  Paine's  veracity, 
integrity,  or  any  other  virtue. 

I  was  incessantly  employed  through  the  whole  fall,  winter, 
and  spring  of  1775  and  1776,  in  Congress  during  their  sittings, 
and  on  committees  on  mornings  and  evenings,  and  unquestion- 
ably  did  more  business  than  any  other  member  of  that  house. 
In  the  beginning  of  May,  I  procured  the  appointment  of  a 
committee,  to  prepare  a  resolution  recommending  to  the  people 
of  the  States  to  institute  governments.  The  committee,  of  whom 
I  was  one,  requested  me  to  draught  a  resolve,  which  I  did,  and 
by  their  direction  reported  it.1  Opposition  was  made  to  it,  and 
Mr.  Duane  called  it  a  machine  to  fabricate  independence,  but 
on  the  15th  of  May,  1776,  it  passed.  It  was  indeed,  on  all 
hands,  considered  by  men  of  understanding  as  equivalent  to  a 
declaration  of  independence,  though  a  formal  declaration  of  it 
was  still  opposed  by  Mr.  Dickinson  and  his  party. 

Not  long  after  this,  the  three  greatest  measures  of  all  were 
carried.  Three  committees  were  appointed,  one  for  preparing 
a  declaration  of  independence, -another  for  reporting  a  plan  of  a 
treaty  to  be  proposed  to  France,  and  a  third  to  digest  a  system 
of  articles  of  confederation  to  be  proposed  to  the  States.  I 
was  appointed  on  the  committee  of  independence,  and  on  that 
for  preparing  the  form  of  a  treaty  with  France.  On  the  com- 
mittee of  confederation  Mr.  Samuel  Adams  was  appointed. 
The  committee  of  independence  were  Thomas  Jefferson,  John 


1  See  page  489. 


1776.]  AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  511 

Adams,  Benjamin  Franklin,  Roger  Sherman,  and  Robert  R.  Liv- 
ingston. Mr.  Jefferson  had  been  now  about  a  year  a  member 
of  Congress,  but  had  attended  his  duty  in  the  house  a  very 
small  part  of  the  lime,  and.  when  there,  had  nevei  spoken  in  pub- 
lic. During  the  whole  time  I  sat  with  him  in  Congress,  I 
never  heard  him  utter  three  sentences  together.     It  will  natu- 


rally be  inquired  how  it  happened  that  he  was  appointed  on  a 
committee  of  such  importance.  There  were  more  reasons  than 
one.  Mr.  Jefferson  had  the  reputation  of  a  masterly  pen ;  he 
had  been  chosen  a  delegate  in  Virginia,  in  consequence  of  a 
very  handsome  public  paper  which  he  had  written  for  the  House 
of  Burgesses,  which  had  given  him  the  character  of  a  fine  wri- 
ter.1 Another  reason  was,  that  Mr.  Richard  Henry  Lee  was 
not  beloved  by  the  most  of  his  colleagues  from  Virginia,  and 
Mr.  Jefferson  was  set  up  to  rival  and  supplant  him.  This  could 
be  done  only  by  the  pen,  for  Mr.  Jefferson  could  stand  no  com- 
petition with  him  or  any  one  else  in  elocution  and  public  debate. 
Here  I  will  interrupt  the  narration  for  a  moment  to  observe, 
that,  from  all  I  have  read  of  the  history  of  Greece  and  Rome, 
England  and  France,  and  all  I  have  observed  at  home  and 
abroad,  eloquence  in  public  assemblies  is  not  the  surest  road 
to  fame  or  preferment,  at  least,  unless  it  be  used  with  cau- 
tion, very  rarely,  and  with  great  reserve.  The  examples  of 
Washington,  Franklin,  and  Jefferson,  are  enough  to  show  that 
silence  and  reserve  in  public,  are  more  efficacious  than  argu- 
mentation or  oratory.  A  public  speaker  who  inserts  himself, 
or  is  urged  by  others,  into  the  conduct  of  affairs,  by  daily  ex- 
ertions to  justify  his  measures,  and  answer  the  objections  of 
opponents,  makes  himself  too  familiar  with  the  public,  and 
unavoidably  makes  himself  enemies.  Few  persons  can  bear  to 
be  outdone  in  reasoning  or  declamation  or  wit  or  sarcasm  or 
repartee  or  satire,  and  all  these  things  are  very  apt  to  grow  out 
of  public  debate.  In  this  way,  in  a  course  of  years,  a  nation 
becomes  full  of  a  man's  enemies,  or  at  least,  of  such  as  have 
been  galled  in  some  controversy,  and  take  a  secret  pleasure  in 
assisting  to  humble  and  mortify  him.  So  much  for  this  digres- 
sion.    We  will  now  return  to  our  memoirs. 

1  Afterwards  published  in  Great  Britain  under  the  title  of  "  A  summary  View 
of  the  Rights  of  British  America."  Mr.  Jefferson's  account  of  it  is  fdven  in  the 
first  volume  of  his  grandson's  publication  of  his  papers,  p.  7. 


512 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 


[2Et.  40. 


The  committee  had  several  meetings,  in  which  were  proposed 
the  articles  of  which  the  declaration  was  to  consist,  and  min- 
utes made  of  them.  The  committee  then  appointed  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son and  me  to  draw  them  up  in  form,  and  clothe  them  in  a  pro- 
per dress.1     The  sub-committee  met,  and  considered  the  min- 


1  It  is  due  to  Mr.  Jefferson  here  to  say  that  his  recollection  of  the  event  here 
described,  materially  differs  from  this  account.  In  the  month  of  August,  1S22, 
Colonel  Timothy  Pickering  addressed  to  Mr.  Adams  a  letter  of  inquiry,  respect- 
ing the  origin  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  His  reply  contains  so  many 
other  interesting  particulars,  besides  those  which  relate  to  the  single  purpose  of 
the  letter,  that  it  appears  peculiarly  suitable  for  insertion  in  this  place  in  full. 

TO    TIMOTHY   PICKERING. 

6  August,  1822. 

Sir  :  —  Your  favor  of  the  2d  instant  has  prescribed  a  dismal  plan,  which  I 
was  never  very  well  calculated  to  execute  ;  but  I  am  now  utterly  incapable.  I 
can  write  nothing  which  will  not  be  suspected  of  personal  vanity,  local  preju- 
dice, or  Provincial  and  State  partiality.  However,  as  I  hold  myself  responsible 
at  this  age,  to  one  only  tribunal  in  the  universe,  I  will  give  you  a  few  hints  at 
all  hazards. 

As  Mr.  Hancock  was  sick  and  confined,  Mr.  Bowdoin  was  chosen  at  the  head 
of  the  Massachusetts  delegation  to  Congress.  His  relations  thought  his  great 
fortune  ought  not  to  be  hazarded.  Gushing,  two  Adamses,  and  Paine,  all  desti- 
tute of  fortune,  four  poor  pilgrims,  proceeded  in  one  coach,  were  escorted  through 
Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  York,  and  New  Jersey,  into  Pennsylvania. 
We  were  met  at  Frankfort  by  l)r.  Rush,  Mr.  Mifflin,  Mr.  Bayard,  and  several 
other  of  the  most  active  sons  of  liberty  in  Philadelphia,  who  desired  a  conference 
with  us.  We  invited  them  to  take  tea  with  us  in  a  private  apartment.  They 
asked  leave  to  give  us  some  information  and  advice,  which  we  thankfully  granted. 
They  represented  to  us  that  the  friends  of  government  in  Boston  and  in  the 
Eastern  States,  in  their  correspondence  with  their  friends  in  Pennsylvania  and 
all  the  Southern  States,  had  represented  us  as  four  desperate  adventurers.  "Mr. 
Gushing  was  a  harmless  kind  of  man,  but  poor,  and  wholly  dependent  on  his 
popularity  for  his  subsistence.  Mr.  Samuel  Adams  was  a  very  artful,  designing 
man,  but  desperately  poor,  and  wholly  dependent  on  his  popularity  Avith  the 
lowest  vulgar  for  his  living.  John  Adams  and  Mr.  Paine  were  two  young  law- 
yers, of  no  great  talents,  reputation,  or  weight,  who  had  no  other  means  of  raising 
themselves  into  consequence,  than  by  courting  popularity."  *  We  were  all  sus- 
pected of  having  independence  in  view.  Now,  said  they,  you  must  not  utter 
the  word  independence,  nor  give  the  least  hint  or  insinuation  of  the  icIeaTeitheT" 
in  Congress  or  any  private  conversation ;  if  you  do,  you  are  undone ;  for  the 
idea  of  independence  is  as  unpopular  in  Pennsylvania,  and  in  all  the  Middle 
and  Southern  States,  as  the  Stamp  Act  itself.  No  man  dares  to  speak  of  it. 
Moreover,  you  are  the  representatives  of  the  suffering  State.  Boston  and  Mas- 
sachusetts are  under  a  rod  of  iron.  British  fleets  and  armies  are  tyrannizing 
over  you ;  you  yourselves  are  personally  obnoxious  to  them  and  all  the  friends 
of  government ;  you  have  been  long  persecuted  by  them  all ;  your  feelings  have 
been  hurt,  your  passions  excited ;  you  are  thought  to  be  too  warm,  too  zealous, 
too  sanguine.  You  must  be,  therefore,  very  cautious ;  you  must  not  come  for- 
ward with  any  bold  measures,  you  must  not  pretend  to  take  the  lead.     You 


*  Compare  this  with  the  language  of  the  Rev.  Jacob  Duehe,  in  his  letter  to  General  Washington  : 
"  Bankrupts,  attorneys,  and  men  of  desperate  fortunes,  are  the  colleagues  of  Mr.  Hancock."  Gray- 
don's  Memoirs  of  his  own  Time,  Littell's  edition,  Appendix,  p.  432. 


1776.]  AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  513 

utes,  making  such  observations  on  them  as  then  occurred,  when 
Mr.  Jefferson  desired   me  to  take  them  to  my  lodgings,   and 

know  Virginia  is  the  most  populous  State  in  the  Union.  They  are  very  proud 
of  their  ancient  dominion,  as  they  call  it ;  they  think  they  have  a  right  to  take 
the  lead,  and  the  Southern  States,  and  Middle  States  too,  are  too  much  disposed 
to  yield  it  to  them." 

This  was  plain  dealing,  Mr.  Pickering  ;  and  I  must  confess  that  there  appeared 
so  much  wisdom  and  good  sense  in  it,  that  it  made  a  deep  impression  on  my 
mind,  and  it  had  an  equal  effect  on  all  my  colleagues. 

This  conversation,  and  the  principles,  facts,  and  motives,  suggested  in  it,  have 
given  a  color,  complexion,  and  character,  to  the  whole  policy  of  the  United 
States,  from  that  day  to  this.  Without  it,  Mr.  Washington  would  never  have 
commanded  our  armies ;  nor  Mr.  Jefferson  have  been  the  author  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence ;  nor  Mr.  Richard  Henry  Lee  the  mover  of  it ;  nor  Mr. 
Chase  the  mover  of  foreign  connections.  If  I  have  ever  had  cause  to  repent 
of  any  part  of  this  policy,  that  repentance  ever  has  been,  and  ever  will  be,  una- 
vailing. I  had  forgot  to  say,  nor  had  Mr.  Johnson  ever  been  the  nominator  of 
Washington  for  General. 

Although  this  advice  dwelt  on  my  mind,  I  had  not,  in  my  nature,  prudence 
and  caution  enough  always  to  observe  it.  When  I  found  the  members  of  Con- 
gress, Virginians  and  all,  so  perfectly  convinced  that  they  should  be  able  to 
persuade  or  terrify  Great  Britain  into  a  relinquishment  of  her  policy,  and  a 
restoration  of  us  to  the  state  of  1763,  I  was  astonished,  and  could  not  help  mut- 
tering,  in  Congress,  and  sometimes  out  of  doors,  that  they  would  find,  the  proud, 
domineering  spirit  of  Britain,  their  vain  conceit  of  their  own  omnipotence, 
their  total  contempt  of  us,  and  the  incessant  representation  of  their  friends  and 
instruments  in  America,  would  drive  us  to  extremities,  and  finally  conquer  us, 
transport  us  to  England  for  trial,  there  to  be  hanged,  drawn  and  quartered  for 
treason,  or  to  the  necessity  of  declaring  independence,  however  hazardous  and 
uncertain  such  a  measure  might  be. 

It  soon  became  rumored  about  the  city  that  John  Adams  was  for  independ- 
ence. The  Quakers  and  proprietary  gentlemen  took  the  alarm ;  represented 
me  as  the  worst  of  men ;  the  true-blue  sons  of  liberty  pitied  me ;  all  put  me 
under  a  kind  of  Coventry.  I  was  avoided,  like  a  man  infected  with  the  leprosy. 
I  walked  the  streets  of  Philadelphia  in  solitude,  borne  down  by  the  weight  of 
care  and  unpopularity.*  But  every  ship,  for  the  ensuing  year,  brought  us  fresh 
proof  of  the  truth  of  my  prophecies,  and  one  after  another  became  convinced  of 
the  necessity  of  independence.  I  did  not  sink  under  my  discouragements.  I 
had  before  experienced  enough  of  the  wantonness  of  popularity,  in"the  trial  of 
Preston  and  the  soldiers,  in  Boston. 

You  inquire  why  so  young  a  man  as  Mr.  Jefferson  was  placed  at  the  head  of 
the  Committee  For  preparing  a  Declaration  of  Independence  ?  I  answer ;  It 
was  the  Frankfort  advice,  to  place  Virginia  at  the  head  of  everything.  Mr. 
Richard  Henry  Lee  might  be  gone  to  Virginia,  to  his  sick  family,  for  aught  I 
know,  but  that  was  not  the  reason  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  appointment.  There  were 
three  committees  appointed  at  the  same  time.  One  for  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, another  for  preparing  articles  of  Confederation,  and  another  for  pre- 
paring a  treaty  to  be  proposed  to  France.  Mr.  Lee  was  chosen  for  the  Com- 
mittee of  Confederation,  and  it  was  not  thought  convenient  that  the  same  person 
should  be  upon  both.  .JMx-  Jefferson  came  into  Congress,  in  June,  1775,  and 
brought  with  him  a  reputation  for  literature,  science,  and  a  happy  talent  of 

*  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush  says  of  the  Author,  in  a  manuscript  in  the  Editor's  hands,  —  "I  saw  this 
gentleman  walk  the  streets  of  Philadelphia  alone,  after  the  publication  of  his  intercepted  letter  in 
our  newspapers,  in  1775,  an  object  of  nearly  universal  scorn  and  detestation." 

g2 


514  AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  [Mr.  40. 

make  the  draught.     This  I  declined,  and  gave  several  reasons 
for  declining.     1.  That  he  was  a  Virginian,  and  I  a  Massachu- 

oomposition.  Writings  of  his  were  handed  about,  remarkable  for  the  peculiar 
felicity  of  expression.  Though  a  silent  member  in  Congress,  he  was  so  prompt, 
frank,  explicit,  and  decisive  upon  committees  and  in  conversation,  not  even 
Samuel  Adams  was  mofe~so,  that  he  soofTseized  uponjnyjteartj  and  upon  this"- 
occasion  I.  gave  him  my  vote,  anil  did'all  "in  my  power  to  procure  the  votes  of 
others.  I  think  he  had  one  more  vote  than  any  other,  and  that  placed  him  at 
the  head  of  the  committee.  I  had  the  next  highest  number,  and  that  placed 
me  the  second.  The  committee  met,  discussed  the  subject,  and  then  appointed 
Mr.  Jefferson  and  me  to  make  the  draught,  I  suppose  because  we  were  the  two 
first  on  the  list.  ^ 

The  sub-committee  met.  ^Jefferson  proposed  to  me  to  make  the  draught.  I 
said,  "  I  will  not."  "  You  should  do  it."  "  Oh  !  no."  "  Why  will  you  not  V  You 
ought  to  do  it."  "  I  will  not."  "  Why  ?  "  "  Reasons  enough."  "  What  can  be 
your  reasons  ?  "  "Reason  first — You  are  a  Virginian,  and  a  Virginian  ought 
to  appear  at  the  head  of  this  business.  Reason  second  —  I  am  obnoxious,  sus- 
pected, and  unpopular.  You  are  very  much  otherwise.  Reason  third  — You 
can  write  ten  times  better  than  I  can."  "  Well,"  said  Jefferson,  "  if  you  are 
decided,  I  will  do  as  well  as  I  can."  "  Very  well.  When  you  have  drawn  it 
up,  we  will  have  a  meeting." 

A  meeting  we  accordingly  had,  and  conned  the  paper  over.  I  was  delighted 
'  with  its  high  tone  and  the  flights  of  oratory  with  which  it  abounded,  especially 
that  concerning  negro  slavery ,_which,  though  I  knew  his  Southern  brethren 
would  never  suffer  to  pass  in  Congress,  I  certainly  never  would  oppose.  There 
were  other  expressions  which  I  would  not  have  inserted,  if  I  had  drawn  it  up, 
particularly  that  which  called  the  King  tyrant.  I  thought  this  too  personal ; 
for  I  never  believed  George  to  be  a  tyrant  in  disposition  and  in  nature  ;  I  always 
believed  him  to  be  deceived  by  his  courtiers  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  and 
in  his  official  capacity  only,  cruel.  I  thought  the  expression  too  passionate,  and 
too  much  like  scolding,  for  so  grave  and  solemn  a  document ;  but  as  Franklin 
and  Sherman  were  to  inspect  it  afterwards,  I  thought  ft  would  not  become  me 
to  strike  it  out.  I  consented  to  report  it,  and  do  not  now  remember  that  I  made 
or  suggested  a  single  alteration. 

We  reported  it  to  the  committee  of  five.  It  was  read,  and  I  do  not  remember 
that  Franklin  or  Sherman  criticized  any  thing.  We  were  all  in  haste.  Con- 
gress was  impatient,  and  the  instrument  was  reported,  as  I  believe,  in  Jefferson's 
handwriting,  as  he  first  drew  it.  jOongress  cut  off  about  a  quarter  of  it,  as  I 
expected  they  would ;  but  they  obliterated  some  of  the  best  of  it,  and  left  all 
that  was  exceptionable,  if  any  thing  in  it  was.  I  have  long  wondered  that  the 
original  draught  has  not  been  published.  I  suppose  the  reason  is,  the  vehement 
philippic  against  negro  slavery. 

As  you  justly  observe,  there  is  not  an  idea  in  it  but  what  had  been  hackneyed 
in  Congress  for  two  years  before.  The  substance  of  it  is  contained  in  the  decla- 
ration of  rights  and  the  violation  of  those  rights,  in  the  Journals  of  Congress,  in 
1774.  Indeed,  the  essence  of  it  is  contained  in  a  pamphlet,  voted  and  printed 
by  the  town  of  Boston,  before  the  first  Congress  met,  composed  by  James  Otis, 
as  I  suppose,  in  one  of  his  lucid  intervals,  and  pruned  and  polished  by  Samuel 
Adams.  Your  friend  and  humble  servant. 

On  the  national  anniversary  succeeding  the  date  of  this  letter,  Colonel  Pick- 
ering quoted  the  latter  part  of  it,  in  the  course  of  some  remarks  made  by  him  at 
a  celebration  of  the  day  in  Salem.  This  drew  forth  a  letter,  from  Mr.  Jefferson 
to  Mr.  Madison,  denying  its  accuracy,  particularly  in  the  matter  of  the  sub-corn- 


1775.]  AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  515 

settensian.  2.  That  he  was  a  southern  man,  and  I  a  northern 
one.  3.  That  I  had  been  so  obnoxious  for  my  early  and  con- 
stant zeal  in  promoting  the  measure,  that  any  draught  of  mine 
would  undergo  a  more  severe  scrutiny  and  criticism  in  Con- 
gress, than  one  of  his  composition.  4.  and  lastly,  and  that  would 
be  reason  enough  if  there  were  no  other,  I  had  a  great  opin- 
ion of  the  elegance  of  his  pen,  and  none  at  all  of  my  own.  I 
therefore  insisted  that  no  hesitation  should  be  made  on  his  part. 
He  accordingly  took  the  minutes,  and  in  a  day  or  two  produced 
to  me  his  draught.  Whether  I  made  or  suggested  any  correc- 
tion, I  remember  not.  The  report  was  made  to  the  committee 
of  five,  by  them  examined,  but  whether  altered  or  corrected  in 
any  thing,  I  cannot  recollect.  But,  in  substance  at  least,  it  was 
reported  to  Congress,  where,  after  a  severe  criticism,  and  strik- 
ing out  several  of  the  most  oratorical  paragraphs,  it  was  adopted 
on  the  fourth  of  July,  1776,  and  published  to  the  world. 

mittee,  and  attributing  the  error  to  the  failing  memory  of  eighty-eight,  the  as- 
sumed age  of  Mr.  Adams  at  the  time.*  Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  then  know,  what  the 
present  publication  of  the  Autobiography  shows,  not  to  speak  of  Mr.  Pickering's 
letter  of  inquiry,  that  almost  the  identical  statement  had  been  made,  not  only  in 
conversation  long  before,  but  also  in  this  record,  by  Mr.  Adams,  nearly  twenty 
years  earlier,  so  that,  if  it  be  an  error,  it  cannot  be  attributed  merely  to  age. 

Perceiving  also  the  awkward  nature  of  the  charge  made  by  one  —  himself — 
having,  at  the  moment,  nearly  attained  fourscore,  Mr.  Jefferson  disclaims  all 
reliance  upon  his  recollection,  and  appeals  to  the  unequivocal  authority  of  his 
notes,  made  at  the  time.  This  seemed  conclusive  testimony,  sufficient  to  set  the 
matter  at  rest  forever.  But  if  by  those  notes  is  to  be  understood  no  more 
than  what  has  since  been  published  under  that  name,  in  the  first  volume  of  his 
correspondence,  it  is  clear,  on  examination,  that  they  present  no  evidence,  ex- 
cepting that  which  may  be  implied  by  their  affirming  nothing  in  corroboration. 

The  question,  in  itself,  does  not  rise  beyond  the  character  of  a  curiosity  of 
literature,  as  the  substantial  facts  in  both  accounts  are  the  same.  The  case  hav- 
ing been  stated,  the  reader  must  be  left  to  form  his  opinions  from  the  materials 
before  him. 

Among  the  papers  left  by  Mr.  Adams,  is  a  transcript,  by  his  own  hand,  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  very  nearly  as  it  appears  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  first 
draught.  This  must  have  been  made  by  him  before  the  paper  had  been  sub- 
jected to  any  change  in  committee,  as  none  of  the  alterations  which  appear  on 
the  original,  as  made  at  the  instance  of  Dr.  Franklin,  and  but  one  of  the  two 
suggested  by  himself,  are  found  there.  Several  variations  occur,  however,  in 
the  phraseology,  and  one  or  two  passages  are  wholly  omitted.  The  most  natural 
inference  is,  that  he  had  modified  it  to  suit  his  own  notions  of  excellence,  without 
deeming  the  alterations  worth  pressing  in  committee.  As  Mr.  Jefferson  says 
that  his  draught  was  submitted  separately,  first  to  Mr.  Adams,  and  afterwards  to 
Dr.  Franklin,  the  presence  of  this  copy  does  not  affect  the  question  of  the  cor- 
rectness of  either  version  of  the  proceedings. 

*  Jefferson's  Memoir  and  Correspondence,  vol.  iv.  p.  375. 


516  AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  [iET.  40. 

The  committee  for  preparing  jthe  model  of  a  treaty  to  be  pro- 
posed  to  France,  consisted  of  Mr.  Dickinson,  Mr.  Franklin,  Mr. 
v/     John  Adams,  Mr.  Harrison,  and  Mr.  Robert  Morris.     When  we 
met  to  deliberate  on  the  subject,  I  contended  for  the  same  prin- 
ciples which  I  had  before  avowed  and  defended  in  Congress, 
namely,  that  we  should  avoid  all  alliance  which  might  embar- 
rass us  in  after  times,  and  involve  us  in  future  European  wars ; 
that  a  treaty  of  commerce  which  would  operate  as  a  repeal  of 
the  British  acts  of  navigation  so  far  as  respected  us,  and  admit 
France  into  an  equal  participation  of  the  benefits  of  our  com- 
merce, would  encourage  her  manufactures,  increase  her  exports 
of  the  produce  of  her  soil  and  agriculture,  extend  her  navigation 
and  trade,  augment  her  resources  of  naval  power,  raise  her  from 
her  present  deep  humiliation,  distress,  and  decay,  and  place  her 
on  a  more  equal  footing  with  England,  for  the  protection  of  her 
foreign  possessions ;  and  maintaining  her  independence  at  sea, 
would  be  an  ample  compensation  to  France  for  acknowledging 
our  independence,  and  for  furnishing  us,  for  our  money,  or  upon 
credit  for  a  time,  with  such  supplies  of  necessaries  as  we  should 
want,   even  if  this  conduct  should  involve  her  in  a  war;  if  a 
war  should  ensue,  which  did  not  necessarily  follow,  for  a  bare 
acknowledgment  of  our  independence,  after  we    had   asserted 
it,  was  not  by  the  law  of  nations   an  act  of  hostility,  which 
would  be  a  legitimate  cause  of  war.     Franklin,  although   he 
was  commonly  as  silent  on  committees  as  in  Congress,  upon 
iliis  occasion,  ventured  so  far  as  to  intimate  his  concurrence 
with  me  in  these  sentiments ;  though,  as  will  be  seen  hereafter,, 
he  shifted  them  as  easily  as  the  wind  ever  shifted,  and  assumed 
a  dogmatical  tone  in  favor  of  an  opposite  system.     The  com- 
mittee, after  as  much  deliberation   upon  the    subject  as  they 
chose  to  employ,  appointed  me  to  draw  up  a  plan  and  report, 
Franklin  had  made  some  marks  with  a  pencil    against   some 
articles  in  a  printed  volume  of  treaties,  which  he  put  into  my 
hand.      Some   of  these  were  judiciously  selected,   and  I  took 
them,  with  others  which  I  found  necessary,  into  the  draught,  and 
made  my  report  to  the  committee  at  large,  who,  after  a  reason- 
able examination  of  it,  agreed  to  report  it.     When  it  came  before 
Congress,  it   occupied  the  attention  of  that  body  for  several 
days.     Many  motions  were    made   to   insert  in  it  articles  of 
entangling  alliance,  of  exclusive  privileges,  and  of  warranties  of 


1776.]  AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  517 

possessions ;  and  it  was  argued  that  the  present  plan  reported  by 
the  committee  held  out  no  sufficient  temptation  to  France,  who 
would  despise  it  and  refuse  to  receive  our  Ambassador.  It  was 
chiefly  left  to  me  to  defend  my  report,  though  I  had  some  able 
assistance,  and  we  did  defend  it  with  so  much  success  that  the 
treaty  passed  without  one  particle  of  alliance,  exclusive  privi- 
lege, or  warranty.1 

1  This  plan  of  a  treaty  is  found  in  the  second  volume  of  the  Secret  Journals 
of  Congress,  pp.  7  -  30. 


VOL.    II.  44 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX. 


The  following  abstract  of  the  argument  in  the  cause  of  writs  of  assistants  or 
assistance  is  the  one  alluded  to  in  the  note  to  page  125  of  this  volume. 

Gridley.  The  Constables  distraining  for  rates,  more  inconsistent  with  English 
rights  and  liberties  than  Writs  of  Assistance  ;  and  necessity  authorizes  both. 

Thacher._  I  have  searched  in  all  the  ancient  repertories  of  precedents,  in 
Fitzherbert's  Natura  Brevium,  and  in  the  register  (Q.  What  the  register  is) 
and  have  found  no  such  writ  of  assistance  as  this  petition  prays.  I  have  found 
two  writs  of  assistance  in  the  register,  but  they  are  very  different  from  the  writ 
prayed  for.  In  a  book,  intituled  the  Modern  Practice  of  the  Court  of  Exche- 
cpier,  there  is  indeed  one  such  writ,  and  but  one.  _ 

By  the  Act  of  Parliament,  any  other  private  person  may,  as  well  as  a  custom- 
house officer,  take  an  officer,  a  sheriff  or  constable,  &c,  and  go  into  any  shop, 
store,  &c,  and  seize  ;  any  person  authorized  by  such  a  writ,  under  the  seal  of 
the  Court  of  Exchequer,  may  ;  not  custom-house  officers  only.     Strange. 

Only  a  temporary  thing. 

The  most  material  question  is,  whether  the  practice  of  the  Exchequer  will 
warrant  this  Court  in  granting  the  same.  The  act  empowers  all  the  officers  of 
the  revenue  to  enter  and  seize  in  the  plantations  as  well  as  in  England.  7  & 
3  William  III.  c.  22,  s.  6,  gives  the  same  as  13  &  14  Charles  II.  gives  in 
England.  The  ground  of  Mr.  Gridley's  argument  is  this,  that  this  Court  has 
the  power  of  the  Court  of  Exchequer.  But  this  Court  has  renounced  the 
Chancery  Jurisdiction,  which  the  Exchequer  has,  in  cases  where  either  party  is 
the  King's  debtor.     (Q.  into  that  case.) 

In  England  all  informations  of  uncustomed  or  prohibited  importations  are  in 
the  Exchequer.  So  that  the  custom-house  officers  are  the  officers  of  that  Court, 
under  the  eye  and  direction  of  the  Barons. 

The  writ  of  assistance  is  not  returnable.  If  such  seizure  were  brought  before 
your  honors,  you  would  often  find  a  wanton  exercise  of  their  power.  At  home, 
the  officers  seize  at  their  peril,  even  with  probable  cause. 

Otis.  This  writ  is  against  the  fundamental  principles  of  law.  The  privilege 
of  House.  A  man  who  is  quiet,  is  as  secure  in  his  house,  as  a  prince  in  his 
castle  —  notwithstanding  all  his  debts  and  civil  processes  of  any  kind.     But  — 

For  flagrant  crimes  and  in  cases  of  great  public  necessity,  the  privilege  may 
be  infringed  on.     For  felonies  an  officer  may  break,  upon  process  and  oath, 


44* 


522  APPENDIX.  [1761. 

that  is,  by  a  special  warrant  to  search  such  a  house,  sworn  to  be  suspected,  and 
good  grounds  of  suspicion  appearing. 

Make  oath  coram  Lord  Treasurer,  or  Exchequer  in  England,  or  a  magis- 
trate here,  and  get  a  special  warrant  for  the  public  good,  to  infringe  the  privi- 
lege of  house. 

General  warrant  to  search  for  felonies.  Hawkins,  Pleas  of  the  Crown.  Every 
petty  officer,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest ;  and  if  some  of  them  are  common, 
others  are  uncommon. 

Government  justices  used  to  issue  such  perpetual  edicts.  (Q.  with  what  par- 
ticular reference.)  But  one  precedent,  and  that  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II., 
when  star  chamber  powers,  and  all  powers  but  lawful  and  useful  powers,  were 
pushed  to  extremity. 

The  authority  of  this  modern  practice  of  the  Court  of  Exchequer.  It  has  an 
Imprimatur.  But  what  may  not  have  ?  It  may  be  owing  to  some  ignorant 
Clerk  of  the  Exchequer.  But  all  precedents,  and  this  among  the  rest,  are 
under  the  control  of  the  principles  of  law.  Lord  Talbot.  Better  to  observe 
the  known  principles  of  law  than  any  one  precedent,  though  in  the  House  of  Lords. 

As  to  Acts  of  Parliament.  An  act  against  the  Constitution  is  void ;  an  act 
against  natural  equity  is  void  ;  andTF  an  act  of  Parliament  should  be  made,  in 
the  very  words  of  this  petition,  it  would  be  void.  The  executive  Courts  must 
pass  such  acts  into  disuse. 

8  Hep.  118  from  Viner.  Reason  of  the  common  law  to  control  an  act  of  Par- 
liament. Iron  manufacture.  Noble  Lord's  proposal,  that  we  should  send  our 
horses  to  England  to  be  shod.  If  an  officer  will  justify  under  a  writ,  he  must 
return  it.  12  Mod.  396,  perpetual  writ.  Statute  Charles  n.  We  have  all  as 
good  right  to  inform  as  custom-house  officers,  and  every  man  may  have  a  general 
irreturnable  commission,  to  break  houses. 

By  12  of  Charles,  on  oath  before  Lord  Treasurer,  Barons  of  Exchequer,  or 
Chief  Magistrate,  to  break,  with  an  officer.  14  C.  to  issue  a  warrant  requiring 
sheriffs,  &c,  to  assist  the  officers  to  search  for  goods  not  entered  or  prohibited. 
7  &  8.  W.  &  M.  gives  officers  in  plantations  same  powers  with  officers  in  Eng- 
land. 

Continuance  of  writs  and  processes  proves  no  more,  nor  so  much,  as  I  grant  a 
special  writ  of  assistance  on  special  oath  for  special  purpose. 

Pew  indorsed  warrant  to  Ware.  Justice  Walley  searched  House.  Province 
Law,  p.  114. 

Bill  in  chancery.     This  Court  confined  their  chancery  power  to  revenue,  &c. 

Gridley.  By  the  7  &  8  Wm.  c.  22,  s.  6,  this  authority  of  breaking  and  enter- 
ing ships,  warehouses,  cellars,  &c.  given  to  the  custom-house  officers  in  England., 
By  the  statutes  of  the  12  &  14  of  Charles  H.  it  is  extended  to  the  cus- 
tom-house officers  in  the  plantations ;  and  by  the  statute  of  6  Anne,  writs  of 
assistance  are  continued,  in  company  with  all  other  legal  processes  used,  for 
six  months  after  the  demise  of  the  Crown.  Now,  what  this  writ  of  assistance  is, 
we  can  know  only  by  books  of  precedents.  And  we  have  produced,  in  a 
book  intituled  the  Modern  Practice  of  the  Court  of  Exchequer,  a  form  of  such  a 
writ  of  assistance  to  the  officers  of  the  customs.  The  book  has  the  imprimatur 
of  Wright  C.  J.  of  the  K.  B.,  which  is  as  great  a  sanction  as  any  books  of  prece- 
dents ever  have,  although  books  of  reports  are  usually  approved  by  all  the 


1761.]  APPENDIX.  523 

Judges,  and  I  take  Brown,  the  author  of  this  book,  to  have  been  a  very  good 
collector  of  precedents.  I  have  two  volumes  of  precedents,  of  his  collection, 
which  I  look  upon  as  good  as  any,  except  Coke  and  Rastall. 

And  the  power  given  in  this  writ,  is  no  greater  infringement  of  our  liberty 
than  the  method  of  collecting  taxes  in  this  Province. 

Everybody  knows  that  the  subject  has  the  privilege  of  house  only  against 
his  fellow  subjects,  not  versus  the  King  either  in  matters  of  crime  or  fine.1 

The  report  of  a  part  of  Mr.  Otis's  speech  as  given  in  Minot's  History,  must 
have  been  written  out  by  Mr.  Adams,  at  a  later  moment.  In  his  own  copy  of 
that  work,  he  has  underlined  the  passages  in  it,  which  he  says  were  interpo- 
lated by  the  person  who  furnished  it  for  publication.  It  is  no  more  than  just 
to  all  parties,  the  speaker  as  well  as  the  reporter,  that  the  correct  version  should 
be  given,  — 

"  MAY   IT   PLEASE   YOUR.   HONORS, 

"  I  was  desired  by  one  of  the  Court  to  look  into  the  books,  and  consider  the 
question  now  before  them  concerning  writs  of  assistance.  I  have  accordingly 
considered  it,  and  now  appear,  not  only  in  obedience  to  your  order,  but  likewise 
in  behalf  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  town,  who  have  presented  another  petition, 
and  out  of  regard  to  the  liberties  of  the  subject.  And  I  take  this  opportunity 
to  declare,  that  whether  under  a  fee  or  not  (for  in  such  a  cause  as  this  I  despise 
a  fee)  I  will  to  my  dying  day  oppose  with  all  the  powers  and  faculties  God  has 
given  me,  all  such  instruments  of  slavery  on  the  one  hand,  and  villany  on  the 
other,  as  this  writ  of  assistance  is. 

It  appears  to  me  the  worst  instrument  of  arbitrary  power,  the  most  destruc- 
tive of  English  liberty  and  the  fundamental  principles  of  law,  that  ever  was 
found  in  an  English  law-book.  I  must,  therefore,  beg  your  Honors'  patience 
and  attention  to  the  whole  range  of  an  argument,  that  may  perhaps  appear 
uncommon  in  many  things,  as  well  as  to  points  of  learning  that  are  more  remote 
and  unusual ;  that  the  whole  tendency  of  my  design  may  the  more  easily  be 
perceived,  the  conclusions  better  discerned,  and  the  force  of  them  be  better 
felt.  I  shall  not  think  much  of  my  pains  in  this  cause,  as  I  engaged  in  it  from 
principle.  I  was  solicited  to  argue  this  cause  as  Advocate-General ;  and 
because  I  would  not,  I  have  been  charged  with  desertion  from  my  office.  To 
this  charge  I  can  give  a  very  sufficient  answer.  I  renounced  that  office,  and  I 
argue  this  cause,  from  the  same  principle  ;  and  I  argue  it  with  the  greater 
pleasure,  as  it  is  in  favor  of  British  liberty,  at  a  time  when  we  hear  the  greatest 
monarch  upon  earth  declaring  from  his  throne  that  he  glories  in  the  name  of 
Briton,  and  that  the  privileges  of  his  people  are  dearer  to  him  than  the  most 
valuable  prerogatives  of  his  crown  ;  and  as  it  is  in  opposition  to  a  kind  of  power, 
the  exercise  of  which,  in  former  periods  of  English  history,  cost  one  King  of 
England  his  head,  and  another  his  throne.  I  have  taken  more  pains  in  this 
cause,  than  I  ever  will  take  again,  although  my  engaging  in  this  and  another 
popular  cause  has  raised  much  resentment.  But  I  think  I  can  sincerely  declare, 
that  I  cheerfully  submit  myself  to  every  odious  name  for  conscience'  sake  ;  and 
from  my  soul  I  despise  all  those,  whose  guilt,  malice,  or  folly  has  made  them 

1  Here  follow  extracts  from  the  Acts  of  Parliament  and  the  Province  Law,  together  with  the 
forms  of  the  petition  and  writ  used. 


524  APPENDIX.  [1761. 

my  foes.  Let  the  consequences  be  what  they  will,  I  am  determined  to  proceed. 
The  only  principles  of  public  conduct,  that  are  worthy  of  a  gentleman  or  a 
man,  are  to  sacrifice  estate,  ease,  health,  and  applause,  and  even  life,  to  the 
sacred  calls  of  his  country.  These  manly  sentiments,  in  private  life,  make  the 
good  citizen ;  in  public  life,  the  patriot  and  the  hero.  I  do  not  say,  that  when 
brought  to  the  test,  I  shall  be  invincible.  I  pray  God  I  may  never  be  brought 
to  the  melancholy  trial  ;  but  if  ever  I  should,  it  will  be  then  known  how  far  I 
can  reduce  to  practice  principles,  which  I  know  to  be  founded  in  truth.  In 
the  mean  time  I  will  proceed  to  the  subject  of  this  writ. 

"  In  the  first  place,  may  it  please  your  Honors,  I  will  admit  that  writs  of  one 
kind  may  be  legal ;  that  is,  special  writs,  directed  to  special  officers,  and  to 
search  certain  houses,  &c.  specially  set  forth  in  the  writ,  may  be  granted  by  the 
Court  of  Exchequer  at  home,  upon  oath  made  before  the  Lord  Treasurer  by 
the  person  who  asks  it,  that  he  suspects  such  goods  to  be  concealed  in  those 
very  places  he  desires  to  search.  The  act  of  14  Charles  II.  which  Mr.  Grid- 
ley  mentions,  proves  this.  And  in  this  light  the  writ  appears  like  a  warrant 
from  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  to  search  for  stolen  goods.  Your  Honors  will  find 
in  the  old  books  concerning  the  office  of  a  Justice  of  the  Peace,  precedents  of 
general  warrants  to  search  suspected  houses.  But  in  more  modern  books  you 
will  find  only  special  warrants  to  search  such  and  such  houses  specially  named, 
in  which  the  complainant  has  before  sworn  that  he  suspects  his  goods  are  con- 
cealed ;  and  you  will  find  it  adjudged  that  special  warrants  only  are  legal._  In 
the  same  manner  I  rely  on  it,  that  the  writ  prayed  for  in  this  petition,  being 
general,  is  illegal.  It  is  a  power,  that  places  the  liberty  of  every  man  in  the 
hands  of  every  petty  officer.  I  say  I  admit  that  special  writs  of  assistance,  to 
search  special  places,  may  be  granted  to  certain  persons  on  oath ;  but  I  deny 
that  the  writ  now  prayed  for  can  be  granted,  for  I  beg  leave  to  make  some 
observations  on  the  writ  itself,  before  I  proceed  to  other  acts  of  Parliament. 
In  the  first  place,  the  writ  is  universal,  being  directed  '  to  all  and  singular  Jus- 
tices, Sheriffs,  Constables,  and  all  other  officers  and  subjects ; '  so,  that,  in  short, 
it  is  directed  to  every  subject  in  the  King's  dominions.  Every  one  with  this 
writ  may  be  a  tyrant ;  if  this  commission  be  legal,  a  tyrant  in  a  legal  manner 
also  may  control,  imprison,  or  murder  any  one  within  the  realm.  In  the  next 
place,  it  is  perpetual ;  there  is  no  return.  A  man  is  accountable  to  no  person 
for  his  doings.  Every  man  may  reign  secure  in  his  petty  tyranny,  and  spread 
terror  and  desolation  around  him.  In  the  third  place,  a  person  with  this  writ, 
in  the  daytime,  may  enter  all  houses,  shops,  &c.  at  will,  and  command  all  to 
assist  him.  Fourthly,  by  this  writ  not  only  deputies,  &c,  but  even  their  menial 
servants,  are  allowed  to  lord  it  over  us.  Now  one  of  the  most  essential  branches 
of  English  liberty  is  the  freedom  of  one's  house.  A  man's  house  is  his  castle  ; 
and  whilst  he  is  quiet,  he  is  as  well  guarded  as  a  prince  in  his  castle.  This 
writ,  if  it  should  be  declared  legal,  would  totally  annihilate  this  privilege.  Cus- 
tom-house officers  may  enter  our  houses,  when  they  please  ;  we  are  commanded 
to  permit  their  entry.  Their  menial  servants  may  enter,  may  break  locks, 
bars,  and  every  thing  in  their  way ;  and  whether  they  break  through  malice  or 
revenge,  no  man,  no  court,  can  inquire.  Bare  suspicion  without  oath  is  suffi- 
cient. This  wanton  exercise  of  this  power  is  not  a  chimerical  suggestion  of  a 
heated  brain.     I  will  mention  some  facts.     Mr.  Pew  had  one  of  these  writs,  and 


1761.]  APPENDIX.  525 

when  Mr.  Ware  succeeded  bim,  he  endorsed  this  writ  over  to  Mr.  Ware ;  so 
that  these  writs  are  negotiable  from  one  officer  to  another ;  and  so  your  Honors 
have  no  opportunity  of  judging  the  persons  to  whom  this  vast  power  is  delega- 
ted. Another  instance  is  this :  Mr.  Justice  Walley  had  called  this  same  Mr. 
Ware  before  him,  by  a  constable,  to  answer  for  a  breach  of  Sabbath-day  acts, 
or  that  of  profane  swearing.  As  soon  as  he  had  finished,  Mr.  Ware  asked  him 
if  he  had  done.  He  replied,  Yes.  Well  then,  said  Mr.  Ware,  I  will  show  you 
a  little  of  my  power.  I  command  you  to  permit  me  to  search  your  house  for 
uncustomed  goods.  And  went  on  to  search  his  house  from  the  garret  to  the 
cellar ;  and  then  served  the  constable  in  the  same  manner.  But  to  show  another 
absurdity  in  this  writ ;  if  it  should  be  established,  I  insist  upon  it,  every  person 
by  the  14  Charles  H.  has  this  power  as  well  as  custom-house  officers.  The 
words  are,  '  It  shall  be  lawful  for  any  person  or  persons  authorized,'  &c.  What 
a  scene  does  this  open  !  Every  man,  prompted  by  revenge,  ill  humor,  or  wan- 
tonness, to  inspect  the  inside  of  his  neighbor's  house,  may  get  a  writ  of  assistance. 
Others  will  ask  it  from  self-defence  ;  one  arbitrary  exertion  will  provoke  another, 
until  society  be  involved  in  tumidt  and  in  blood. 

"  Again,  these  writs  are  not  returned.  Writs  in  their  nature  are  temporary 
things.  When  the  purposes  for  which  they  are  issued  are  answered,  they  exist 
no  more  ;  but  these  live  forever ;  no  one  can  be  called  to  account.  Thus  reason 
and  the  constitution  are  both  against  this  writ.  Let  us  see  what  authority  there 
is  for  it.  Not  more  than  one  instance  can  be  found  of  it  in  all  our  law-books ; 
and  that  was  in  the  zenith  of  arbitrary  power,  namely,  in  the  rei<m  of  Charles 
n.,  when  star-chamber  powers  were  pushed  to  extremity  by  some  ignorant  clerk 
of  the  exchequer.  But  had  this  writ  been  in  any  book  whatever,  it  would  have 
been  illegal.  All  precedents  are  under  the  control  of  the  principles  of  law. 
Lord  Talbot  says  it  is  better  to  observe  these  than  any  precedents,  though  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  the  last  resort  of  the  subject.  No  Acts  of  Parliament  can 
establish  such  a  writ ;  though  it  should  be  made  in  the  very  words  of  the  peti- 
tion, it  would  be  void.  An  act  against  the  constitution  is  void.  (vid.  Viner.) 
But  these  prove  no  more  than  what  I  before  observed,  that  special  writs  may 
be  granted  on  oath  and  probable  suspicion.  The  act  of  7  &  8  William  III. 
that  the  officers  of  the  plantations  shall  have  the  same  powers,  &c.  is  confined  to 
this  sense  ;  that  an  officer  should  show  probable  ground ;  should  take  his  oath  of 
it ;  should  do  this  before  a  magistrate  ;  and  that  such  magistrate,  if  he  think  pro- 
per, should  issue  a  special  warrant  to  a  constable  to  search  the  places.  That  of 
6  Anne  can  prove  no  more." 


526  APPENDIX.  [1769. 


B. 

(page  226.) 

The  following  abstract,  taken  from  one  of  Mr.  Adams's  note  books,  in  addition 
to  the  interest  attaching  to  the  cause  itself,  may  serve  as  a  specimen  of  his  man- 
ner of  getting  up  his  cases  for  argument :  — 

Case  of  Michael  Corbet  and  others,  charged  with  the  murder  of  Lieutenant  Panton, 

on  the  high  seas. 

28  Hen.  VIII.  c.  15.  "  For  Pirates."  "  Where  traitors,  pirates,  thieves,  rob- 
bers, murderers  and  confederates  upon  the  sea,  many  times  escaped  unpunished, 
because  the  trial  of  their  offences  hath  heretofore  been  ordered,  judged,  and 
determined  before  the  Admiral,  or  his  Lieutenant  or  Commissary,  after  the  course 
of  the  civil  laws,  the  nature  whereof  is,  that  before  any  judgment  of  death  can 
be  given  against  the  offenders,  either  they  must  plainly  confess  their  offences, 
(which  they  will  never  do  without  torture  or  pains,)  or  else  their  offences  be  so 
plainly  and  directly  proved  by  witness  indifferent,  such  as  saw  their  offences 
committed,  &c.  for  reformation  whereof,  be  it  enacted,  That  all  treasons,  felo- 
nies, robberies,  murders  and  confederacies  hereafter  to  be  committed  in  or  upon 
the  sea,  or  in  any  other  haven,  river,  creek,  or  place,  where  the  Admiral  or 
Admirals  have  or  pretend  to  have  the  jurisdiction,  authority,  or  power,  shall  be 
inquired,  tried,  heard,  determined,  and  judged,  in  such  shires  and  places  in  the 
realm  as  shall  be  limited  by  the  King's  commission,  &c,  as  if  the  offence  had 
been  done  upon  the  land,  &c.  after  the  common  course  of  the  laws  of  this  realm." 

"  Sect.  2.  To  inquire  by  the  oaths  of  twelve  good  and  lawful  men,  &c.  in  the 
shire  limited  in  the  commission." 

11  &  12  William  III.  c.  7.  An  Act  for  the  more  effectual  suppression  of 
piracy. 

"  All  piracies,  felonies,  and  robberies,  committed  in  or  upon  the  sea,  or  in  any 
haven,  river,  creek,  or  place,  where  the  Admiral  or  Admirals  have  power, 
authority,  or  jurisdiction,  may  be  examined,  inquired  of,  tried,  heard,  deter- 
mined, and  adjudged,  in  any  place  at  sea,  or  upon  the  land,  in  any  of  his 
Majesty's  Islands,  Plantations,  Colonies,  dominions,  forts,  or  factories,  to  be 
appointed  for  that  purpose  by  the  King's  commission,  &c.  under  the  great  seal 
of  England,  or  the  seal  of  the  Admiralty  of  England,  directed  to  all  or  any  of 
the  Admirals,  Vice- Admirals,  Rear- Admirals,  Judges  of  Vice- Admiralties,  or 
commanders  of  any  of  his  Majesty's  ships  of  war,  and  also  to  all  or  any  such 
person  or  persons  as  his  majesty  shall  please  to  appoint,  &c.  which  said  commis- 
sioners shall  have  full  power,  jointly  or  severally,  by  warrant  under  the  hand 
and  seal  of  them,  or  any  one  of  them,  to  commit  to  safe  custody  any  person,  &c. 
against  whom  information  of  piracy,  robbery,  or  felony,  upon  the  sea,  shall  be 
given  upon  oath,  &c.  and  to  call  and  assemble  a  Court  of  Admiralty,  on  ship- 
board, or  upon  the  land,  &c.  and  such  persons  so  assembled  shall  have  full 
authority,  according  to  the  course  of  the  admiralty,  to  issue  warrants  for  bringing 


1769.]  APPENDIX.  527 

any  persons  accused  of  piracy  or  robbery,  before  thern  to  be  tried,  &c.  to  summon 
and  examine  witnesses,  &c.  and  to  do  all  things  necessary  for  the  hearing  and 
final  determination  of  any  case  of  piracy,  robbery,  and  felony ;  and  to  give  sen- 
tence and  judgment  of  death,  and  to  award  execution,  according  to  the  civil  law 
and  the  methods  and  rules  of  the  admiralty." 

This  statute  is  the  foundation  of  the  special  commission,  and  of  the  present 
proceedings,  and  upon  it  a  question  has  been  made  by  Mr.  Otis,  whether  the 
prisoners  have  not  a  right  to  a  jury  ?  He  says  that  Magna  Charta,  in  a  case  of 
life  at  least,  must  be  expressly  repealed,  not  by  implication  or  construction  only  ; 
and  that  in  England  a  jury  is  summoned  every  day  for  the  trial  of  such  offences 
committed  at  sea.  But  I  think  that  the  statute  of  28  Henry  VHI.  before  cited, 
explains  this  difficulty ;  and  this  case  seems  to  be  but  one  instance  among  many 
others  of  the  partial  distinctions  made  between  British  subjects  at  home  and 
abroad.  The  civil  law,  the  course  of  the  admiralty,  and  the  methods  and  rides  of 
the  admiralty,  will  be  construed,  to  take  away  the  benefit  of  a  jury. 

['  Mr.  Otis,  from  his  first  retainer  in  the  cause,  has  been  very  sanguine  to 
move  for  a  jury.  He  has  mentioned  his  resolution  in  all  companies,  and  last 
week,  at  Plymouth,  he  mentioned  it  to  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  and  the  rest 
of  the  judges.  Mr.  Fitch,  happening  to  hear  of  our  design  to  move  for  a  jury, 
went  to  rummaging  up  Acts  of  Parliament,  to  satisfy  himself,  and  found  the  4 
of  George,  c.  1 1  :  An  act  for  the  further  preventing  of  robbery,  &c.  and  for 
declaring  the  law  upon  some  points  relating  to  pirates.  In  the  seventh  section 
of  this  statute,  "  It  is  hereby  declared,  that  all  and  every  person  and  persons, 
who  have  committed  or  shall  commit  any  offence  or  offences,  for  which  they 
ought  to  be  adjudged,  deemed,  and  taken  to  be  pirates,  felons,  or  robbers,  by  an 
act  made  in  the  Parliament  holden  in  the  11  &  12  years  of  William  in.  intitul- 
ed '  An  Act  for  the  more  effectual  suppression  of  piracy,'  may  be  tried  and 
judged  for  every  such  offence,  in  such  manner  and  form  as  in  and  by  an  act 
28  Henry  VHI.  is  directed  and  appointed  for  the  trial  of  pirates."  This  statute, 
Fitch  discovered  to  Sewall,  and  Sewall  showed  it  to  the  Governor  and  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor and  the  rest  of  the  court,  the  first  morning  of  the  court's  sitting, 
in  the  council  chamber.  They  were  all  struck  and  surprized,  and  the  Lieuten- 
ant-Governor observed  that  this  statute  cleared  up  what  had  always  to  him 
appeared  a  mystery.  In  the  State  trials,  vol.  6,  156,  the  trial  of  Stede  Bonnet, 
before  Judge  Trott,  at  Carolina,  1718,  5  George  I.,  it  being  the  next  year  after 
the  statute,  Bonnet  had  a  grand  and  petit  jury. 

In  the  council  chamber,  the  court,  however,  agreed  that  they  would  go  into 
the  Court  House,  and  take  the  oaths,  &c.  and  then  the  court  would  publicly 
propose  a  jury.  This  was  done,  and  the  Statutes  28  Henry  VIH.  11  &  12 
William  III.  and  4  George  I.  were  read,  and  then  the  commission,  &c. ;  and  then 
the  Governor  proposed  to  adjourn  the  court  to  Thursday,  and  to  hear  counsel 
this  afternoon,  in  the  council  chamber,  upon  the  subject  of  a  jury. 

In  the  afternoon  we  accordingly  attended,  and  a  difficulty  was  started  by  the 
Lieutenant-Governor  about  the  venires,  whether  they  should  be  directed  to  the 
sheriff,  to  summon  a  jury,  as  in  England,  or  whether  the  venires  should  issue  in 
any  manner  analogous  to  the  laws  of  this  Province  relative  to  this  subject  ?     In 

1  This  portion  of  narrative,  marked  in  brackets  seems  to  have  been  afterwards  appended,  by  way 
of  note  to  the  proceedings  in  the  case. 


528  APPENDIX.  [1769. 

the  afternoon  we  had  the  argument,  and  the  whole  court  seemed  convinced  that 
a  jury  must  be  had.  The  Governor,  indeed,  talked  that  they  might  be  sent  to 
England  for  trial,  &c. 

But  the  next  morning,  when  Mr.  Otis  was  to  have  prepared  and  produced  a 
venire  facias  to  the  sheriff  to  return  a  jury,  we  found  all  aback.  The  whole 
court,  advocate-general  Mr.  Sewall,  and  Mr.  Fitch,  all  of  opinion  that  we  had 
been  all  wrong,  and  that  a  jury  could  not  be  had.  The  Lieutenant-Governor 
had,  in  the  course  of  his  lucubrations,  discovered  this  great  secret,  that,  by  law, 
two  ways  of  trial  are  pointed  out  and  provided,  one  by  28  Henry  VIII.,  the  other 
by  11  &  12  of  William  HI.,  and  that  his  Majesty  may  grant  a  commission  in  pur- 
suance of  either.  That  this  commission  was  expressly  limited  to  11  &  12  William 
HI.,  and  therefore  could  not  proceed  according  to  28  Henry  VHL] 

But  the  first  question  that  is  to  be  made,  according  to  my  opinion,  is,  whether 
impresses  in  any  cases  are  legal '?  For  if  impresses  are  always  illegal,  and 
Lieutenant  Panton  acted  as  an  impress  officer,  Michael  Corbet  and  his  associates 
had  a  right  to  resist  him,  and,  if  they  could  not  otherwise  preserve  their  liberty, 
to  take  away  his  life.  His  blood  must  lie  at  his  own  door,  and  they  be  held 
guiltless.  Nay,  I  think  that  impresses  may  be  allowed  to  be  legal,  and  yet 
Corbet  might  have  a  right  to  resist.  To  be  more  particular,  when  I  say 
impresses  may  be  legal,  I  mean  that  the  Lieutenant  or  other  officer  who 
impresses,  may  not  be  liable  to  any  action  of  false  imprisonment,  at  the  suit  of 
the  party,  or  to  any  indictment,  at  the  suit  of  the  Crown,  for  an  assault  or  riot ; 
the  custom  may  be  admitted  to  extend  so  far,  and  yet  it  will  not  follow  that  the 
seaman  has  not  a  right  to  resist,  and  keep  himself  out  of  the  officer's  power,  if 
he  can.  And  whatever  may  be  said  of  the  antiquity  of  the  custom,  &c.  it  is  very 
remarkable  that  no  statute  has  ever  been  made  to  establish  or  even  to  approve 
it,  and  no  single  judgment  of  any  court  of  law  can  be  found  in  favor  of  it.  It  is 
found  in  the  commissions  of  the  admiralty,  and  in  warrants  from  the  admiralty, 
but  nowhere  else.  However  the  general  question  concerning  the  legality  of 
impresses  may  be  determined,  I  humbly  conceive  it  clear  that  in  America  they 
are  illegal,  and  that  by  a  particular  statute.  I  mean  6  Anne,  c.  37,  s.  9.  "No 
mariner  or  other  person,  who  shall  serve  on  board,  or  be  retained  to  serve  on 
board  any  privateer  or  trading  ship  or  vessel,  that  shall  be  employed  in  any  part 
of  America,  nor  any  mariner  or  other  person  being  on  shore  in  any  part  thereof, 
shall  be  liable  to  be  impressed  or  taken  away,  or  shall  be  impressed  or  taken 
away,  by  any  officer  or  officers,  of  or  belonging  to  any  of  her  Majesty's  ships  of 
war,  empowered  by  the  Lord-High- Admiral,  or  any  other  person  whatsoever, 
unless  such  mariner  shall  have  deserted,  &c.  upon  pain  that  any  officer  or  officers 
so  impressing  or  taking  away,  or  causing  to  be  impressed  or  taken  away,  any 
mariner  or  other  person,  contrary  to  the  tenor  and  true  meaning  of  this  act,  shall 
forfeit,  to  the  master  or  owner  or  owners,  of  any  such  ship  or  vessel,  twenty 
pounds  for  every  man  he  or  they  shall  so  impress  or  take,  to  be  recovered,  with 
full  costs  of  suit,  in  any  court  within  any  part  of  her  Majesty's  dominions." 

This  statute  is  clear  and  decisive,  and  if  it  is  now  in  force,  it  places  the 
illegality  of  all  impresses  in  America  beyond  controversy.  No  mariner,  on 
board  any  trading  vessel,  in  any  part  of  America,  shall  be  liable  to  be  impressed, 
or  shall  be  impressed,  by  any  officer,  empowered  by  the  Lord-Admiral  or  any  other 
j)erson.    If,  therefore,  this  statute  is  now  in  force,  all  that  Lieutenant  Panton 


1769.]  APPENDIX.  529 

did  on  board  the  vessel  was  tortious  and  illegal;  he  was  a  trespasser  from  I  In- 
beginning;  a  trespasser  in  coming  on  board,  and  in  every  act  that  he  did,  until 
he  received  the  mortal,  fatal  wound.  He  was  a  trespasser  in  going  down  below, 
but  especially  in  firing  a  pistol  among  the  men  in  the  fore  peak.  It  is  said  that 
the  Lieutenant  with  his  own  hand  discharged  this  pistol  directly  at  Michael 
Corbet,  but  the  ball  missed  him,  and  wounded  the  man,  who  was  next  him,  in 
the  arm.  This,  therefore,  was  a  direct  commencement  of  hostilities;  it  was  an 
open  act  of  piracy,  and  Coi'bet  and  his  associates  had  a  right,  and  it  was  their 
duty,  to  defend  themselves.  It  was  a  direct  attempt  upon  their  lives,  and  surely 
these  unhappy  persons  had  a  right  to  defend  their  lives.  No  custom-house  officer, 
no  impress-officer,  has  a  right  to  attempt  life.  But  it  seems  that  a  second  pistol 
was  discharged,  and  wounded  Corbet  in  his  cheek,  with  powder,  before  the  fatal 
blow  was  struck.  What  could  Corbet  expect  ?  Should  he  stand  still  and  be 
shot,  or  should  he  have  surrendered  to  a  pirate  ?  Should  he  have  surrendered 
to  the  impress  ? 

But  it  has  been  made  a  question,  whether  this  statute  of  6  Anne  is  now  in 
force  '?  It  has  been  reported,  as  the  opinion  of  Sir  Dudley  Rider  and  Sir  John 
Strange,  that  this  statute  expired  with  the  war  of  Queen  Anne.  These  are  ven- 
erable names ;  but  their  opinions  are  opinions  only  of  private  men,  and  there  has 
been  no  judicial  decision  to  this  purpose  in  any  court  of  law,  and  I  trust  never 
will  be.  Their  opinions  were  expressed  so  very  concisely,  that  there  is  great  room 
to  question  whether  they  were  given  upon  the  whole  act,  or  only  on  some  par- 
ticular clause  in  it.  Supposing  these  opinions  to  extend  to  the  whole  act,  I  have 
taken  pains  to  discover  what  reasons  can  be  produced  in  support  of  them,  and  I 
confess  I  can  think  of  none.  There  is  not  the  least  color  for  such  an  opinion. 
On  the  contrary,  there  is  every  argument  for  supposing  the  act  perpetual. 

1.  It  is  a  good  rule  to  consider  the  title  of  an  act,  in  order  to  ascertain  its 
construction  and  operation  in  all  respects.  The  title  of  this  is,  "  An  act  for  the 
encouragement  of  the  trade  to  America."  Encouragement  of  the  trade  to 
America,  is  the  professed  object,  end,  and  design  of  this  law.  Is  this  trade  only 
valuable  in  time  of  war  ?  If  the  trade  to  America  existed  and  was  carried  on 
only  in  time  of  war,  the  act  made  for  the  encouragement  of  it  must  expire  when 
the  trade  expired,  at  the  end  of  the  war.  But  the  trade  did  not  expire  with  the 
war,  but  continued  after  it,  and  therefore  the  encouragement  given  it  by  this 
act  continued  and  survived  too.  This  is  of  equal  importance  in  peace  as  in  war, 
and  there  is  stronger  reason  why  it  should  be  encouraged,  by  exempting  seamen 
from  impresses,  in  peace  than  in  war,  because  there  is  not  the  same  necessity  for 
impressing  seamen  in  peace  as  there  is  in  war. 

2.  The  preamble  furnishes  another  argument  to  prove  the  act  perpetual. 
"  For  advancement  of  the  trade  of  her  Majesty's  kingdom  of  Great  Britain,  to 
and  in  the  several  parts  of  America."  This  is  one  end  of  this  law.  Is  not  this 
end  as  beneficial  and  important  in  peace  as  in  war  ?  Has  there  been  a  year,  a 
day,  an  hour,  since  1707,  when  this  act  was  made,  when  the  trade  of  Great  Bri- 
tain to  and  in  the  several  parts  of  America  was  of  less  consequence  to  the  nation 
than  it  was  at  that  time  ?  Surely  the  advancement  of  the  British  American  trade 
is  a  perpetual  object.  It  is  no  temporary  object  or  expedient ;  it  has  lasted  these 
sixty  years,  and  I  hope  will  last  a  thousand  longer. 

3.  For  the  increase  of  shipping  and  of  seamen,  for  the  purposes  mentioned 

VOL.   II.  45  II 2 


530  APPENDIX.  [1769. 

before  in  the  preamble,  is  another  end  of  this  law.  Now  shipping  and  seamen 
are  useful  and  necessary  to  a  commercial  nation,  in  times  of  peace  as  well  as 
war. 

4.  Some  clauses  in  this  statute  are  in  their  nature  temporary,  and  limited  to 
the  duration  of  the  war.  Sections  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  &c. ;  others  are  expressly  lim- 
ited to  the  continuance  of  war,  as  s.  14,  "during  the  continuance  of  the  present 
war,"  and  s.  19,  "during  the  continuance  thereof,"  and  s.  21.  But  s.  9  and  s. 
20  are  not,  by  the  nature  of  them,  limited  to  war ;  they  are  not  expressly  and 
in  terms  limited  to  years  or  to  war. 

5.  If  it  be  not  now  in  force,  why  is  it  bound  up  in  the  statute  book,  and  why 
was  not  the  whole  act  limited  to  years  or  to  war  ? 

If  it  be  once  established  as  a  fact  that  Lieutenant  Panton  acted  in  the 
character  of  an  impress-officer,  not  in  that  of  an  officer  of  the  customs  ;  and  if  it 
be  also  established  as  law,  that  no  officer  has  a  legal  right  to  impress  a  seaman, 
our  next  inquiry  must  be,  what  the  rules  of  the  civil  law  are  relative  to  homicide 
in  cases  of  self-defence.  Self-preservation  is  the  first  law  of  nature.  Self-love 
is  the  strongest  principle  in  our  breasts,  and  self-preservation  not  only  our  ina- 
lienable right,  but  our  clearest  duty,  by  the  law  of  nature.  This  right  and  duty 
are  both  confirmed  by  the  municipal  laws  of  every  civilized  society. 

2  Domat,  638,  s.  6.  "  He  who  is  attacked  by  robbers,  or  by  other  persons,  that 
are  armed  in  such  a  manner  as  to  put  him  in  danger  of  his  life,  in  case  he  does 
not  defend  himself,  may  kill  the  robber  or  the  aggressor,  without  any  fear  of 
being  punished  as  a  murderer." 

Wood's  Inst,  civil  law,  270.  "  Necessary  homicide  is  when  one,  for  the  defence 
of  his  own  life,  kills  the  aggressor.  This  may  be  done  without  expecting  the  first 
blow,  for  that  may  make  him  incapable  to  defend  himself  at  all.  But  this  ought 
not  to  exceed  the  bounds  of  self-defence.  The  manner  of  self-defence  directs 
that  you  should  not  kill,  if  you  can  by  any  means  escape,  &c." 

Cod.  lib.  9,  tit.  16.  "  2.  De  eo,  qui  salutem  suam  defendit.  Is  qui  aggressorem 
vel  quemcunque  alium  in  dubio  vitae  discrimine  constitutes  occiderit,  nullam  ob 
id  factum  calumniam  metuere  debet.  3.  Si  quis  percussorem  ad  se  venientem, 
gladio  repulerit ;  non  ut  homicida  tenetur :  quia  defensor  propriae  salutis  in  nullo 
peccasse  videtur.  4.  Si  (ut  allegas)  latrocinantem  peremisti :  dubium  non  est, 
eum,  qui  inferendae  casdis  voluntate  praecesserat,  jure  caesura  videri." 

"  Liceat  cuilibet  aggressorem  nocturnum  in  agris,  vel  obsidentem  vias,  atque 
insidiantem  praetereuntibus,  impune  occidere,  etiam  si  miles  sit :  melius  namque 
est  his  occurrere  et  mederi,  quani  injuria  recepta  vindictam  perquirere." 

Note  4c.  "  Homicida  non  est,  qui  aggressorem  in  vitae  discrimine  constitutus 
interficit,  nee  primum  ictum  quis  expectare  debet,  quia  irreparabilis  esse  potest." 

Gaill.  page  509.  Poena  homicidii  corporalis  nunquam  habet  locum,  nisi  in 
homicidio  voluntario,  quando  homicidium,  ex  proposito,  destinata  voluntate,  et 
quidem  dolo  malo  commissum  est.  Debet  enim  verus  et  expressus  intervenire 
dolus,  etc. ;  et  hoc  usque  adeo  verum  est,  ut  etiam  lata  culpa  non  asquiparetur  dolo, 
etc.  Dolus  autem  non  praesumitur  regulariter,  etc. ;  —  quapropter  dolum  allegans, 
eum  probare  debet,  etc.  Natura  enim  bona  est  a  suis  principiis,  etc.  Ex  hac 
principali  regula,  quod  videlicet  poena  ordinaria  in  homicidio  requirat  dolum, 
multa  singularia  et  quotidie  usu  venientia  inferri  possunt.  Et  primo,  quod 
homicidium.  cum  moderamine  inculpatae  tutelae  commissum,  non  sit  punibile  : 


1769.]  APPENDIX.  531 

puta,  si  quia  provocates  se  cum  moderamine  inculpate  tutelae  dcfendat,  et 
aggressorem  occidat ;  talis  enim  homicida  non  puniri,  sed  plene  absolvi  debet, 
idque  triplici  ratione  confirmatur.  Primo,  quod  defensio  sit  juris  naturalis,  ab 
omni  jure  permissa,  etc.  Deinde,  quod  aggressor,  sive  provocans,  non  ab  alio,  sed 
a  se  ipso  occidi  videatur  et  per  consequens,  quod  provocatus  non  censeatur  esse 
in  dolo.  Tertio,  quia  occidens  ad  sui  defensionem,  non  committit  maleficium, 
cum  vim  vi  repellere  liceat,  et  ubi  non  est  delictum,  ibi  poena  abesse  debet. 

Et  regulanter  ex  communi  opinione,  aggressus  praesumitur  omnia  facere 
ad  sui  defensionem,  non  autem  ad  vindictam.  Necessitas  doli  praesumptionem 
excludit,  etc.  etc.  Ratio,  quia  necessaria  defensio  omni  jure,  etiam  divino 
permissa,  et  sine  peccato  est.  Defensio  autem  moderata,  sive  cum  moderamine 
ineulpata?  tutelae  dicitur,  quando  quis  non  potuit  alitor  se  ab  offensione  tueri,  etc. 

Praesumitur  autem  in  discrimine  vitae  quis  constitutus,  eo  ipso  quod  ab  alio, 
armata  manu,  et  gladio  evaginato  aggreditur,  terror  We  armorum  aliquem  in 
vitas  discrimen  adducit,  etc. 

Sed  quid  si  provocatus  modum  inculpates  tutelce  excedat,  et  aggressorem  in 
fuga  occidat,  an  poena  ordinaria  legis  Cornelias,  etc.,  plectendus  sit  ?  Minime, 
sed  extra  ordinem,  judicis  arbitrio,  ratione  excessus  puniri  debet,  etc.  Ratio, 
quia,  ut  paulo  ante  dictum,  in  provocato  non  praesumitur  dolus,  et  animus 
occidendi,  aut  vindictae  studium,  sed  potius  defensionis  necessitas.  Nee  etiam 
fugere  tenetur,  si  fuga  ei  periculum  vitae  adferret ;  provocatus  enim  tanquam 
intenso  dolore  commotus,  non  est  in  plenitudine  intellectus :  metus  improvisus 
instantis  periculi  tollit  rectum  judicium  et  consilium  deliberandi,  et  ideo  dicunt 
DD.  quod  provocatus  non  habeat  stateram  in  manu,  ut  possit  dare  ictus  et 
vulnera  ad  mensuram,  etc.  Puniendus  igitur  provocatus  pro  isto  excessu,  non 
ut  dolosus,  quia  provocatio  praecedens  a  dolo  excusat ;  sed  ut  culpabilis,  etc. 

Adeo  autem  defensio  favorabilis  est,  ut  etiam  tertius,  puta  amicus  provocati, 
si  intercedendo  aggressorem  occidat,  excusetur  a  poena,  ordinaria. 

Page  515.  Sexto  infertur,  quod  homicidium  calore  iracundiae  perpetratum 
non  puniatur  poena  ordinaria  :  quod  est  intelligendum  de  iracundia  lacessita, 
quando  quis  ab  alio  verbis  injuriosis  ad  iram  provocatur ;  nam  eo  casu  ira  excusat 
a  poena  ordinaria,  etc.  Quo  pertinet,  quod  supra  dictum  est,  hominem  intenso 
dolore  permotum,  non  esse  in  plenitudine  intellectus,  etc. 

Maranta,  page  49,  pars  4,  dist.  1,  77.  Hoc  patet;  quia  homicidium  com- 
missum  per  culpam,  dicitur  crimen  extraordinarium,  et  punitur  poena  arbitraria, 
etc.  Ubi  si  maritus  occidit  uxorem  deprehensam  in  adulterio,  non  punitur 
poena,  mortis  sed  alia  poena  corporali  mitiori ;  et  ratio  est ;  quia  tale  homicidium 
dicitur  culposum,  et  non  dolosum  ;  ex  quo  difficile  fuit  temperare  justum  dolorem : 
cum  ergo  ex  praedictis  appareat,  quod  homicidium  culpa  commissum  puniatur 
poena  arbitraria  et  extraordinaria,  sequitur  de  necessitate,  quod  non  potest  judex 
imponere  poenam  mortis,  quae  est  poena  ordinaria,  etc. 

So  much  for  the  distinction  between  homicide  with  deliberation  and  without 
deliberation,  according  to  the  civil  law,  which  is  analogous  to  that  of  the  common 
law,  between  murder  and  manslaughter.  But  the  case  of  these  prisoners  does 
not  require  this  distinction.  I  am  not  contending  for  the  sentence  of  man- 
slaughter against  my  clients ;  I  think  they  are  entitled  to  an  honorable  acquittal. 
They  have  committed  no  crime  whatever,  but  they  have  behaved  with  all  that 
prudence  and  moderation,  and  at  the  same  time  with  that  fortitude  and  firmness, 
that  the  law  requires  and  approves. 


532  APPENDIX.  [1769. 

Mr.  Panton  and  his  associates  and  attendants  had  no  authority  for  what  they 
did.  They  were  trespassers  and  rioters.  The  evidence  must  be  carefully 
recapitulated ;  their  arms,  swords,  pistols,  &c. ;  their  threats  and  menaces.  Pan- 
ton's  orders  for  more  men,  his  orders  to  break  down  the  bulkhead,  their  execu- 
tion of  these  orders,  their  fetching  the  adze  and  the  crow,  but  above  all  their 
discharge  of  a  pistol  right  in  the  face  of  Corbet,  which,  though  loaded  only  with 
powder,  wounded  him  so  badly  in  his  lip  —  these  circumstances  are  abundantly 
sufficient  to  show  who  was  the  first  aggressor,  and  to  show  that  the  lives  of  the 
present  prisoners  were  in  danger.  What  could  Corbet  think,  when  a  pistol  had 
been  presented  at  his  mouth,  and  discharged,  loaded,  he  knew  not  with  what  ? 
It  had  wounded  him,  he  knew  not  how  badly.  He  saw  a  desperate  gang  of 
armed  sailors  before  him,  other  pistols  cocked  and  presented  at  him  and  his 
companions,  their  heads  and  breasts,  drawn  swords  in  the  hands  of  some,  contin- 
ued threats  to  blow  their  brains  out ;  could  he  expect  any  thing  but  death  ?  In 
these  circumstances,  what  could  he  do  but  defend  himself  as  he  did  ?  In  these 
circumstances,  what  was  his  duty  ?  He  had  an  undoubted  right,  not  merely  to 
make  a  push  at  Lieutenant  Panton,  but  to  have  darted  an  harpoon,  a  dagger, 
through  the  heart  of  every  man  in  the  whole  gang. 

If  Mr.  Panton  came  as  a  custom-house  officer,  and  it  may  be  true  that  he  came 
in  part  to  search  the  ship  for  uncustomed  goods,  he  had  a  fair  opportunity  to  do 
it.  He  asked  and  was  told  that  the  hatchways  were  open ;  he  ordered  the 
lazaretto  open,  and  it  was  done,  and  after  this,  instead  of  searching  for  uncus- 
tomed goods,  he  proceeds  directly  to  search  for  seamen. 

The  killing  of  Lieutenant  Panton  was  justifiable  homicide ;  homicide  se 
defendendo. 

1  Hawkins,  71,  s.  4,  middle.  "  The  killing  of  dangerous  rioters  by  any  private 
persons,  who  cannot  otherwise  suppress  them  or  defend  themselves  from  them, 
inasmuch  as  every  private  person  seems  to  be  authorized  by  the  law  to  arm 
himself  for  the  purposes  aforesaid." 

Same  page,  s.  21.  A  woman  kills  one  who  attempts  to  ravish  her,  may  be 
justified.  Page  72,  s.  23.  towards  the  end.  "  It  seems  that  a  private  person, 
and  a  fortiori,  an  officer  of  justice,  who  happens  unavoidably  to  kill  another  in 
endeavoring  to  defend  himself  from,  or  to  suppress  dangerous  rioters,  may  justify 
the  fact,  inasmuch  as  he  only  does  his  duty  in  aid  of  the  public  justice."  s.  24. 
"  I  can  see  no  reason  why  a  person,  who,  without  provocation,  is  assaulted  by 
another  in  any  place  whatever,  in  such  a  manner  as  plainly  shows  an  intent  to 
murder  him,  as  by  discharging  a  pistol,  or  pushing  at  him  with  a  drawn  sword, 
may  not  justify  killing  such  an  assailant."  Page  75,  s.  14.  "  Not  only  he  who  on 
an  assault  retreats  to  a  wall  or  some  such  strait;  beyond  which  he  can  go  no 
further,  before  he  kills  the  other,  is  judged  by  the  law  to  act  upon  unavoidable 
necessity ;  but  also  he  who  being  assaulted  in  such  a  manner  and  such  a  place, 
that  he  cannot  go  back  without  manifestly  endangering  his  life,  kills  the  other 
without  retreating  at  all." 

Kelyng,  page  1 28,  bottom.  "  It  is  not  reasonable  for  any  man  that  is  danger- 
ously assaulted,  and  when  he  perceives  his  life  in  danger  from  his  adversary,  but 
to  have  liberty  for  the  security  of  his  own  life,  to  pursue  him  who  maliciously 
assaulted  him  ;  for  he  that  hath  manifested  that  he  hath  malice  against  another, 
is  not  fit  to  be  trusted  with  a  dangerous  weapon  in  his  hand." 


1769.]  APPENDIX.  533 

Kelyng,  page  136,  top.  Buckners  case.  Imprisoned  injuriously,  without 
process  of  law,  &c.  Page  136,  bottom.  "  3.  If  a  man  perceives  another  by  force 
to  be  injuriously  treated,  pressed,  and  restrained  of  his  liberty,  though  the  person 
abused  doth  not  complain,  &c.  &c,  others,  out  of  compassion,  shall  come  to  his 
rescue,  and  kill  any  of  those  that  shall  so  restrain  him,  that  is  manslaughter." 

Kelyng,  59.  Ilopkin  Hugget's  case,  who  killed  a  man  in  attempting  to 
rescue  a  seaman  impressed  without  warrant. 

2  Ld.  Raym.,  Queen  vs.  Tooley,  &  als.  The  case  of  the  reforming  constables. 
Holt,  484,  485.     Mawgridge's  case. 

Foster,  312,  316.  Vid.  Foster,  292.  The  smart,  &c.  for  manslaughter. 
Also  296. 

A  question  has  been  started  by  Sir  Francis  Barnard,  whether,  (as  there  is  no 
distinction  between  murder  and  manslaughter,  in  the  civil  law,)  the  court  can 
allow  clergy,  if  they  find  the  prisoners  guilty  of  manslaughter ;  that  is,  whether 
the  court  can  do  any  thing  but  pass  sentence  of  death,  and  respite  execution, 
and  recommend  them  to  mercy  ?  He  said  he  had  formerly  attended  at  the 
admiralty  sessions  in  England,  and  had  heard  it  said,  by  the  court,  that  clergy 
was  expressly  taken  away  by  these  statutes  from  manslaughter,  and  the  court 
could  not  grant  it.     But  see  a  paragraph  in  Foster  to  the  contrary,  288. 

In  this  case  I  shall  not  make  a  question  whether  Corbet  and  others  are  guilty 
of  murder  or  of  manslaughter.  I  am  clear  they  are  guilty  of  neither.  All  that 
they  did  was  justifiable  self-defence,  or  to  use  the  expressions  of  most  writers 
upon  Crown  law,  it  was  justifiable  and  necessary  homicide,  se  defendendo.  This 
will  be  fully  shown  by  a  particular  examination  of  the  law  and  of  the  evidence. 

But  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  consider  the  observation  of  Sir  Francis,  in  order  to 
remove  the  clouds  from  his  brain.  1 .  It  is  total  ignorance  to  say  there  is  no 
distinction  between  murder  and  manslaughter  in  civil  law,  as  appears  abundantly 
already.1  2.  I  say  that  clergy  is  not  expressly  taken  away  by  the  statutes  from 
manslaughter ;  by  the  28  Henry  VHL,  all  felonies  are  to  be  tried  according  to 
the  common  course  of  the  laws  of  this  land.  What  is  the  common  course  of  the 
laws  of  the  land,  relative  to  manslaughter,  which  is  a  felony?  It  has  its  clergy. 
It  is  true  the  word  manslaughter  is  once  mentioned  in  the  statutes  of  Henry  VIII. 
c.  15,  s.  2.  "  Every  indictment  found,  &c.  of  treasons,  felonies,  robberies,  murders, 
manslaughters,  or  such  other  offences,  &c.  that  then  such  order,  &c.  judgment  and 
execution  shall  be  had,  as  against  such  offences  upon  land."  What  is  the  judgment 
versus  manslaughter  upon  land  ?  They  have  their  clergy,  s.  3.  For  treasons, 
robberies,  felonies,  murders  and  confederacies  done  at  sea,  the  offenders  shall 
not  have  clergy.  Here  manslaughter  is  dropped,  so  that  clergy  is  not  taken 
from  manslaughter  by  this  act. 

By  11  &  12  William  III.  Piracies,  felonies,  and  robberies,  are  mentioned, 
but  manslaughter  is  not.  The  word  is  not  in  the  whole  statute.  It  was  needful 
to  mention  it  in  that  of  Henry  VIH.,  because  the  trial  was  to  be  by  the  law  of 
the  land,  and  it  clearly  has  its  clergy.  But,  by  this  statute,  the  trial  and  judg- 
ment and  sentence  were  to  be  all  by  the  civil  law,  where  the  offence  that  is  called 

l  Sed  vid.  Ld.  Raymond,  149fi.  And  especially  Barrington's  Observations  on  tlie  Statutes, 
p.  54,  bottom,  note.  '•  By  the  law  of  Scotland,  there  is  no  such  thing-  as  manslaughter,  nor 
by  the  civil  law;  and  then  a  criminal  indicted  for  murder,  under  the  statute  of  Henry  VIII.,  when 
the  Judges  proceed  by  the  rules  of  the  civil  law,  must  either  be  found  guilty  of  the  murder  or 
acquitted  " 

45* 


534  APPENDIX.  [1769. 

manslaughter  by  the  common  law  is  never  punished  with  death.  But  it  is 
observable  that  clergy  is  not  taken  away  by  this  statute  from  any  crime. 

By  4  George,  c.  11,  s.  7.  Any  pirate,  felon  or  robber,  within  the  11  &  12 
William,  may  be  tried  in  the  manner  and  form  of  28  Henry  VIII.,  and  shall  be 
excluded  clergy.  We  sec  that  whenever  the  trial  is  to  be  by  a  jury  and  the 
common  law,  clergy  is  excluded  from  such  crimes  as  were  not  entitled  to  it  upou 
land ;  and  the  reason  was,  because  it  is  a  known  rule  of  law,  that  when  the  legis- 
lature creates  any  new  felony,  it  shall  be  entitled  to  clergy,  if  not  expressly 
taken  away.  Doubts  might  arise,  whether  making  crimes  at  sea  felonies,  was 
not  creating  new  felonies,  and  so  they  would  be  entitled  to  clergy.  To  avoid 
this,  the  clause  was  inserted. 

Lord  Raymond,  1496.  "  From  these  cases  it  appears,  that,  though  the  law  of 
England  is  so  far  peculiarly  favorable  (I  use  the  word  peculiarly,  because  I 
know  no  other  law  that  makes  such  a  distinction  between  murder  and  man- 
slaughter) as  to  permit  the  excess  of  anger  and  passion,  (which  a  man  ought 
to  keep  under  and  govern,)  in  some  instances  to  extenuate  the  greatest  of 
private  injuries,  as  the  taking  away  a  man's  life  is ;  yet,  in  those  cases,  it  must 
be  such  a  passion,  as  for  the  time  deprived  him  of  his  reasoning  faculties." 

Foster,  288.  If  taking  general  verdicts  of  acquittal  in  plain  cases  of  death 
per  infortunium,  &c.  deserveth  the  name  of  a  deviation,  it  is  far  short  of  what 
is  constantly  practised  at  an  admiralty  sessions,  under  28  Henry  VIH.,  with 
regard  to  offences  not  ousted  of  clergy  by  particular  statutes,  which,  had  they 
been  committed  at  land,  would  have  been  entitled  to  clergy.  In  these  cases  the 
jury  is  constantly  directed  to  acquit  the  prisoner ;  because  the  marine  law  doth 
not  allow  of  clergy  in  any  case.  And  therefore  in  an  indictment  for  murder  on 
the  high  seas,  if  the  fact  cometh  out,  upon  evidence,  to  be  no  more  than  man- 
slaughter, supposing  it  to  have  been  committed  at  land,  the  prisoner  is  constantly 
acquitted." 

Observations  on  the  statutes  422,  note  (z.)  "  I  have  before  observed  that  by 
the  civil  law,  as  well  as  the  law  of  Scotland,  there  is  no  such  offence  as  what  is 
with  us  termed  manslaughter.  The  Scots,  therefore,  might  have  apprehended, 
that  if  not  convicted  of  murder  they  should  have  been  acquitted." 


1774.] 


APPENDIX. 


535 


C. 

Page  377. 

The  following  is  the  draught  of  the  articles  referred  to  in  connection  with  the 
declaration  of  rights  and  grievances  made  by  the  Congress  of  1774,  one  of  the 
most  important  papers  of  the  revolutionary  history.  In  order  to  facilitate  the 
comparison  of  the  two,  they  are  here  placed  in  parallel  columns.  The  verbal 
alterations  are  marked  in  italics. 


Heads  of  Grievances  and  Rights. 


DRAUGHT. 

Whereas,  since  the  accession  of  the 
present  King,  Parliament  has  claimed 
a  power  of  right  to  bind  the  people  of 
the  Colonies  in  North  America  by 
statutes  in  all  cases  whatsoever;  and 
for  carrying  the  said  power  into  execu- 
tion, has,  by  some  statutes,  expressly 
taxed  the  people  of  the  said  Colonies, 
and  by  divers  other  statutes  under  vari- 
ous pretences,  but  in  fact  for  the  pur- 
pose of  raising  a  revenue,  has  imposed 
"  rates  and  duties,"  payable  in  the  said 
Colonies,  established  a  Board  of  Com- 
missioners, and  extended  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  Courts  of  Admiralty  therein, 
for  the  collection  of  such  "  rates  and 
duties." 

And  whereas  some  of  the  said  stat- 
utes are  also  intended  to  render  all 
Judges  in  the  said  Colonies  dependent 
upon  the  Crown  only. 

And  whereas  since  the  said  accession, 
statutes  have  been  made  for  quartering 
and  supplying  troops  to  be  kept  in  the 
said  Colonies. 

And  whereas  since  the  conclusion 
of  the  last  war,  orders  have  been  issued 
by  the  King,  that  the  authority  of  the 
commander-in-chief,  and  under  him,  of 
the  Brigadier-General  in  the  Northern 
and  Southern  departments,  in  all  mili- 
tary affairs  shall  be  supreme,  and  must 


DECLARATION   AS   ADOPTED. 

"  Whereas,  since  the  close  of  the  last 
war,  the  British  Parliament,  claiming  a 
power,  of  right,  to  bind  the  people  of 
America  by  statutes  in  all  cases  what- 
soever, hath  in  some  acts  expressly 
imposed  taxes  on  them,  and  in  others, 
under  various  pretences,  but  in  fact  for 
the  purpose  of  raising  a  revenue,  hath 
imposed  rates  and  duties  payable  in 
these  Colonies,  established  a  Board  of 
Commissioners,  with  unconstitutional 
powers,  and  extended  the  jurisdiction 
of  Courts  of  Admiralty,  not  only  for 
collecting  the  said  duties,  but  for  the 
trial  of  causes  merely  arising  within  the 
body  of  a  county." 


And  whereas  in  consequence  of 
other  statutes,  judges,  who  before  held 
only  estates  at  will  in  their  offices,  have 
been  mad  3  dependent  on  the  Crown 
alone  for  their  salaries,  and  standing 
armies  kept  in  times  of  peace. 


536 


APPENDIX. 


[1774. 


DRAUGHT. 

be  obeyed  by  the  troops  as  such,  in  all 
the  civil  governments  in  America. 

And  whereas  a  statute  was  made  in 
the  seventh  year  of  this  reign  "  for 
suspending  the  proceedings  of  the 
Assembly  of  New  York,  &c."  and 
Assemblies  in  these  Colonies  have  of 
late  years  been  very  frequently  dis- 
solved. 

And  whereas,  during  the  present 
reign,  dutiful  and  reasonable  petitions 
to  the  Crown,  from  the  representatives 
of  the  people  in  these  Colonies,  have 
been  repeatedly  treated  with  contempt. 

And  whereas,  it  has  been  lately 
resolved  in  Parliament,  that,  by  force 
of  a  statute  made  in  the  thirty-fifth  year 
of  Henry  VIIL,  Colonists  may  be  car- 
ried to  England,  and  tried  there,  on 
accusations  for  offences  committed  in 
those  Colonies.  And  by  a  statute  made 
in  the  twelfth  year  of  this  reign  such 
trials  are  directed  in  the  cases  therein 
mentioned. 

And  whereas  in  the  last  session  of 
Parliament  three  statutes  were  made 
and  declared  to  have  force  within  the 
Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  one  of 
them  "  for  discontinuing,  &c.  the  land- 
ing, &c.  goods,  wares,  and  merchan- 
dises, at  the  town  and  within  the  harbor 
of  Boston,"  &c. ;  another,  "  for  the  bet- 
ter regulating  the  government,  &c. ;  " 
and  the  third,  "  for  the  impartial  ad- 
ministration of  justice,"  &c* 

And  whereas,  in  the  same  session, 
another  statute  was  made,  "  for.  making 
more  effectual  provision  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  Province  of  Quebec," 
&c. 


DECLARATION    A3    ADOPTED. 


And  whereas  it  has  lately  been 
resolved  in  Parliament,  that,  by  force 
of  a  statute  made  in  the  thirty-fifth 
year  of  the  reign  of  King  Henry  VIII. 
colonists  may  be  transported  to  Eng- 
land, and  tried  there  upon  accusations 
for  treasons  and  misprisions,  or  conceal- 
ment of  treasons,  committed  in  the  Col- 
onies, and  by  a  late  statute,  such  trials 
have  been  directed  in  cases  therein 
mentioned. 

And  whereas  in  the  last  session  of 
Parliament  three  statutes  were  made  ; 
one  entitled  "  An  act  to  discontinue,  in 
such  manner  and  for  such  time  as  are 
therein  mentioned,  the  landing  and 
discharging,  lading  or  shipping  of  goods, 
wares,  and  merchandise,  at  the  town, 
and  within  the  harbor  of  Boston,  in 
the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay  in 
North  America ; "  another  entitled 
"  An  act  for  the  better  regulating  the 
government  of  the  Province  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  in  New  England;"  and 
another  entitled  "  An  act  for  the  im- 
partial administration  of  justice,  in  the 
cases  of  persons  questioned  for  any  act 
done  by  them  in  the  execution  of  the 
law,  or  for  the  suppression  of  riots  and 
tumults  in  the  Province  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  in  New  England;"  and 


*  Note  in  the  margin.    Q.  Which  of  these  two  last  Statutes  was  first  in  time  ? 


1774.] 


APPENDIX. 


537 


DRAUGHT. 


And  whereas  the  good  people  of 
these  Colonies,  justly  alarmed  by  the 
proceedings  of  Parliament  and  Admin- 
istration, have  duly  appointed  and 
directed  delegates  to  meet  and  sit  in 
General  Congress  at  Philadelphia,  in 
this  month  of  September,  1 774,  in  order 
to  such  establishment  as  that  their  reli- 
gion, laws,  and  liberties,  may  not  be 
subverted ;  upon  which  appointment 
and  direction,  the  said  delegates  being 
now  assembled  in  a  full  and  free  repre- 
sentative *  of  these  Colonies,  taking 
into  their  most  serious  consideration 
the  best  means  for  attaining  the  ends 
aforesaid,  do,  in  the  first  place,  (as  their 
ancestors  in  like  case  have  usually 
done,)  for  vindicating  and  asserting 
their  rights  and  liberties,  declare  — 


DECLARATION   AS    ADOPTED. 

another  statute  was  then  made,  "for 
making  more  effectual  provision  for 
the  government  of  the  Province  of 
Quebec,"  &c.  All  which  statutes  are 
impolitic,  unjust,  and  cruel,  as  well  as 
unconstitutional,  and  most  dangerous 
and  destructive  of  American  rights. 

And  whereas  Assemblies  have  been 
frequently  dissolved,  contrary  to  the 
rights  of  the  people,  when  they  attempted 
to  deliberate  on  grievances ;  and  their 
dutiful,  /nimble,  loyal,  and  reasonable 
petitions  to  the  Crown,  for  redress,  have 
been  repeatedly  treated  with  contempt  by 
his  Majesty's  Ministers  of  State. 

The  good  people  of  the  several  Col- 
onies of  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts 
Bay,  Rhode  Island  and  Providence 
Plantations,  Connecticut,  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Newcastle 
Kent  and  Sussex  on  Delaware,  Mary- 
land, Virginia,  North  Carolina,  and 
South  Carolina,  justly  alarmed  at  these 
arbitrary  proceedings  of  Parliament 
and  Administration,  have  severally 
elected,  constituted,  and  appointed  depu- 
ties, to  meet  and  sit  in  General  Con- 
gress, in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  in 
order  to  obtain  such  establishment,  as 
that  their  religion,  laws,  and  liberties, 
may  not  be  subverted.  Whereupon 
the  deputies  so  appointed,  being  now 
assembled,  in  a  full  and  free  repre- 
sentation of  these  Colonies,  taking  into 
their  most  serious  consideration  the  best 
means  of  attaining  the  ends  aforesaid, 
do  in  the  first  place,  as  Englishmen, 
their  ancestors,  in  like  cases  have  usu- 
ally done,  for  asserting  and  vindicating 
their  rights  and  liberties,  declare,  — 

That  the  inhabitants  of  the  English 
Colonies  in  North  America,  by  the 
immutable  laws  of  nature,  the  princi- 
ples of  the  English  Constitution,  and 
the  several  charters  or  compacts,  have 
the  following  rights  :  — 


*  Note  in  the  margin.     Q.  If  the  Colonies  should  not  he  named.' 


538 


APPENDIX. 


[1774. 


DRAUGHT. 

1.  That  the  power  of  making  laws 
for  ordering  or  regulating  the  internal 
polity  of  these  Colonies,  is,  within  the 
limits  of  each  Colony,  respectively  and 
exclusively  vested  in  the  Provincial 
Legislature  of  such  Colony ;  and  that 
all  statutes  for  ordering  or  regulating 
the  internal  polity  of  the  said  Colonies, 
or  any  of  them,  in  any  manner  or  in 
any  case  whatsoever,  are  illegal  and 
void. 

2.  That  all  statutes,  for  taxing  the 
people  of  the  said  Colonies,  are  illegal 
and  void. 


3.  That  all  the  statutes  before  men- 
tioned, for  the  purpose  of  raising  a 
revenue,  by  imposing  "  rates  and  du- 
ties "  payable  in  these  Colonies,  estab- 
lishing a  Board  of  Commissioners,  and 
extending  the  jurisdiction  of  Courts  of 
Admiralty,  for  the  collection  of  such 
"rates  and  duties,"  are  illegal  and 
void. 

4.  That  Judges,  within  these  Colo- 
nies, ought  not  to  be  dependent  on  the 
Crown  only ;  and  that  their  commis- 
sions ought  to  be  during  good  behav- 
ior. 


DECLARATION   AS    ADOPTED. 

Resolved,  N.  CD.  1.  That  they 
are  entitled  to  life,  liberty,  and  pro- 
perty, and  they  have  never  ceded  to 
any  sovereign  power  whatever  a  right 
to  dispose  of  either,  without  their  con- 
sent. 


2.  That  our  ancestors,  who  first 
settled  these  Colonies,  were,  at  the 
time  of  their  emigration  from  the 
mother  country,  entitled  to  all  the 
rights,  liberties,  and  immunities  of  free 
and  natural  born  subjects,  within  the 
realm  of  England. 

3.  That  by  such  emigration  they 
by  no  means  forfeited,  surrendered,  or 
lost  any  of  those  rights,  but  that  they 
were,  and  their  descendants  now  are, 
entitled  to  the  exercise  and  enjoyment 
of  all  such  of  them,  as  their  local  and 
other  circumstances  enable  them  to 
exercise  and  enjoy. 

4.  That  the  foundation  of  English 
liberty,  and  of  all  free  government,  is 
a  right  in  the  people  to  participate  in 
their  legislative  council ;  and  as  the 
English  colonists  are  not  represented, 
and  from  their  local  and  other  circum- 
stances cannot  be  properly  represented 
in  the  British  Parliament,  they  are  en- 
titled to  a  free  and  exclusive  power  of 
legislation  in  their  several  Provincial 
Legislatures,  where  their  right  of  repre- 
sentation can  alone  be  preserved,  in  all 
cases  of  taxation  and  internal  polity, 
subject  only  to  the  negative  of  their 
sovereign,  in  such  manner  as  has  been 
heretofore  used  and  accustomed.  But, 
from  the  necessity  of  the  case,  and  a 
regard  to  the  mutual  interest  of  both 
countries,  we  cheerfully  consent  to  the 
operation  of  such  acts  of  the  British 


1774.] 


APPENDIX. 


539 


DRAUGHT. 


5.  That  the  raising  or  keeping  a 
standing  army  within  these  Colonies 
in  time  of  peace,  unless  it  be  with  the 
consent  of  the  Provincial  Legislatures, 
is  illegal,  pernicious,  and  dangerous; 
and  that  every  statute  for  quartering 
or  supplying  troops  within  the  said 
Colonies  is  illegal  and  void. 

6.  That  the  orders  aforesaid  for 
rendering  the  authority  of  the  Com- 
mander-in-chief, and  under  him,  of  the 
Brigadiers-General,  supreme,  are  ille- 
gal and  void. 


7.  That  for  redress  of  all  grievances, 
and  for  the  amending,  strengthening, 
and  preserving  of  the  laws,  Assemblies 
ought  to  be  held  in  each  of  these  Colo- 
nies  frequently,  and  at  least  once  in 
every  year ;  that  such  Assemblies  ought 
not  to  be  prorogued  or  dissolved,  before 
they  have  had  sufficient  time  to  delib- 
erate, determine,  and  bring  to  conclu- 
sion their  counsels  on  public  affairs ; 
that  any  statute  for  suspending  the 
proceedings  of  any  such  Assembly,  is 
illegal  and  void ;  and  that  every  disso- 
lution of  an  Assembly  within  these  Col- 
onies, during  the  present  reign,  on 
pretence  of  misbehavior  in  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people,  has  been  arbi- 
trary and  oppressive. 

8.  That  it  is  the  right  of  the  subjects 
to  petition  the  King ;  and  that  a  con- 
temptuous treatment  of  such  petitions 
has  a  most  pernicious  tendency. 


DECLARATION   AS    ADOPTED. 

Parliament  as  are,  bona  fide,  restrained 
to  the  regulation  of  our  external  com- 
merce, for  the  purpose  of  securing  the 
commercial  advantages  of  the  whole 
empire  to  the  mother  country,  and  the 
commercial  benefits  of  its  respective 
members ;  excluding  every  idea  of 
taxation,  internal  or  external,  for  rais- 
ing a  revenue  on  the  subjects  in  Amer- 
ica, without  their  consent. 

5.  That  the  respective  Colonies 
are  entitled  to  the  common  law  of 
England,  and  more  especially  to  the 
great  and  inestimable  privilege  of 
being  tried  by  their  peers  of  the 
vicinage,  according  to  the  course  of 
that  law. 

6.  That  they  are  entitled  to  the 
benefit  of  such  of  the  English  statutes 
as  existed  at  the  time  of  their  coloniza- 
tion, and  which  they  have,  by  experi- 
ence, respectively  found  to  be  appli- 
cable to  their  several  local  and  other 
circumstances. 

7.  That  these,  his  Majesty's  Colo- 
nies, are  likewise  entitled  to  all  the 
immunities  and  privileges  granted  and 
confirmed  to  them  by  royal  charters, 
or  secured  by  their  several  codes  of 
provincial  laws. 


8.  That  they  have  a  right  peaceably 
to  assemble,  consider  of  their  griev- 
ances, and  petition  the  King ;  and  that 
all  prosecutions,  prohibitory  proclama- 


510 


APPENDIX. 


[177.1. 


DRAUGHT. 


9.  That  the  resolution  in  Parliament 
on  the  statute  made  in  the  thirty-fifth 
year  of  Henry  VIII.,  was  arbitrary 
and  erroneous ;  and  that  any  statute 
directing  the  trials  of  Colonists  to  be 
had  in  England  or  elsewhere,  on  accu- 
sation for  offences  committed  in  the 
Colonics,  is  illegal  and  void. 

10.  That  the  three  statutes  made  in 
the  last  session  of  Parliament,  and 
declared  to  have  force  within  the  Pro- 
vince of  Massachusetts  Bay,  are  op- 
pressive to  the  people  of  that  Province, 
dangerous  to  the  liberties  of  these  Col- 
onies, illegal  and  void. 


11.  That  the  statute  made  in  the 
same  session,  "  for  making  more  effect- 
ual provision  for  the  government  of 
the  Province  of  Quebec,"  &c.  is  not 
only  unjust  to  the  people  in  that  Pro- 
vince, but  dangerous  to  the  interests 
of  the  Protestant  religion  and  of  these 
Colonies,  and  ought  to  be  repealed. 


12.  And  they  do  claim,  demand,  and 
insist,  on  all  and  singular  the  rights 
and  liberties  before  mentioned  as  indu- 
bitably belonging  to  them ;  and  no 
declarations,  judgments,  doings,  pro- 
ceedings, or  statutes,  to  the  prejudice 
of  the  people  in  any  of  the  premises, 
ought  in  any  wise  to  be  drawn  here- 
after into  consequence  or  example ; 
and  these,  their  undoubted  rights  and 
liberties,  with  the  blessing  of  Divine 
Providence,  which  they  humbly  and 
ardently  implore  in  favor  of  their  just 
exertions  to  preserve  the  freedom  of 
rendering  to  their  Creator  the  worship 
they  judge   most   acceptable   to   him, 


DECLARATION   AS   ADOPTED. 

tions,  and  commitments  for  the  same, 
are  illegal. 

9.  That  the  keeping  a  standing  army 
in  these  Colonies,  in  times  of  peace, 
without  the  consent  of  the  Legislature 
of  that  Colony  in  which  such  army  is 
kept,  is  against  law. 


10.  It  is  indispensably  necessary  to 
good  government,  and  rendered  essen- 
tial by  the  English  Constitution,  that 
the  constituent  branches  of  the  Legis- 
lature  be  independent  of  each  other ; 
that  therefore  the  exercise  of  legisla- 
tive power  in  several  Colonies,  by  a 
Council  appointed  during  pleasure  by 
the  Crown,  is  unconstitutional,  danger- 
ous, and  destructive  to  the  freedom  of 
American  legislation. 

All  and  each  of  which  the  aforesaid 
deputies,  in  behalf  of  themselves  and 
their  constituents,  do  claim,  demand, 
and  insist  on,  as  their  indubitable  rights 
and  liberties ;  which  cannot  be  legally 
taken  from  them,  altered  or  abridged, 
by  any  power  whatever,  without  their 
own  consent,  by  their  representatives 
in  their  several  Provincial  Legisla- 
tures. 

In  the  course  of  our  inquiry,  we  find 
many  infringements  and  violations  of 
the  foregoing  rights,  which,  from  an 
ardent  desire  that  harmony  and  mutual 
intercourse  of  affection  and  interest 
may  be  restored,  we  pass  over  for  the 
present,  and  proceed  to  state  such  acts 
and  measures  as  have  been  adopted 
since  the  last  war,  which  demonstrate 
a  system  formed  to  enslave  America. 

Resolved,  N.  C.  D.  That  the  follow- 
ing Acts  of  Parliament  are  infringe- 
ments and  violations  of  the  rights  of 
the  Colonists;  and  that  the  repeal  of 
them  is  essentially  necessary,  in  order 
to    restore    harmony  between    Great 


1774.] 


APPENDIX. 


541 


DRAUGHT. 

and  of  promoting  the  happiness  of  his 
creatures,  they  are  resolved,  to  the 
utmost  of  their  power,  to  maintain  and 
defend. 


DECLARATION   AS    ADOI*TED. 

Britain   and   the    American    Colonies, 
namely,  — 

The  several  acts  of  4  George  ILL 
c.  15  and  c.  34  ;  5  George  HI.  c.  25  ;  6 
George  III.  c.  52 ;  7  George  ILL  c.  41 
and  c.  46  ;  8  George  III.  c.  22,  which 
impose  duties  for  the  purpose  of  raising 
a  revenue  in  America,  extend  the 
power  of  the  Admiralty  courts  beyond 
their  ancient  limits,  deprive  the  Amer- 
ican subject  of  trial  by  jury,  authorize 
the  Judge's  certificate  to  indemnify  the 
prosecutor  from  damages  that  he  might 
otherwise  be  liable  to,  requiring  op- 
pressive security  from  a  claimant  of 
ships  and  goods  seized,  before  he  shall 
be  allowed  to  defend  his  property,  and 
are  subversive  of  American  rights. 

Also  12  George  III.  c.  24,  intituled 
"  An  act  for  the  better  securing  His 
Majesty's  dock-yards,  magazines,  ships, 
ammunition  and  stores,"  which  declares 
a  new  offence  in  America,  and  deprives 
the  American  subject  of  a  constitu- 
tional trial  by  jury  of  the  vicinage, 
by  authorizing  the  trial  of  any  person 
charged  with  the  committing  any 
offence  described  in  the  said  act,  out 
of  the  realm,  to  be  indicted  and  tried 
for  the  same  in  any  shire  or  county 
within  the  realm. 

Also  the  three  acts  passed  in  the 
last  session  of  Parliament,  for  stopping 
the  port  and  blocking  up  the  harbor 
of  Boston,  for  altering  the  charter  and 
government  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  and 
that  which  is  intituled  "  An  act  tor  the 
better  administration  of  justice,"  &e. 

Also  the  act  passed  in  the  same  ses- 
sion, for  establishing  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic religion  in  the  Province  of  Quebec, 
abolishing  the  equitable  system  of  Eng- 
lish laws,  and  erecting  a  tyranny  there, 
to  the  great  danger,  (from  so  total  a 
dissimilarity  of  religion,  law,  and  gov- 
ernment) of  the  neighboring  British 
Colonies,   by  the  assistance  of  whose 


VOL.    II. 


4G 


542  APPENDIX.  [1774. 

DECLARATION   AS   ADOPTED. 

blood  and  treasure  the  said  country 
"was  conquered  from  France. 

Also  the  act  passed  in  the  same  ses- 
sion for  the  better  providing  suitable 
quarters  for  officers  and  soldiers  in  his 
Majesty's  service  in  North  America. 

Also,  that  the  keeping  a  standing 
army  in  several  of  these  Colonies,  in 
time  of  peace,  without  the  consent  of 
the  Legislature  of  that  Colony  in  which 
such  army  is  kept,  is  against  law. 

To  these  grievous  acts  and  measures 
Americans  cannot  submit ;  but  in  hopes 
their  fellow  subjects  in  Great  Britain 
will,  on  a  revision  of  them,  restore  us 
to  that  state  in  which  both  countries 
found  happiness  and  prosperity,  we 
have,  for  the  present,  only  resolved  to 
pursue  the  following  peaceable  mea- 
sures. 

1.  To  enter  into  a  non-importation, 
non-consumption,  and  non-exportation 
agreement  or  association. 

2.  To  prepare  an  address  to  the 
people  of  Great  Britain,  and  a  memo- 
rial to  the  inhabitants  of  British  Amer- 
ica ;  and 

3.  To  prepare  a  loyal  address  to 
his  Majesty,  agreeable  to  resolutions 
already  entered  into. 


END    OF    VOLUME   II.