The Writings of Samuel Adams Volume III Part 1

The Writings of Samuel Adams.

VOL 3.

Collected and edited by Harry Alonzo Cushing.

TO JAMES OTIS.

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

BOSTON, March 19th 1773

SIR

I have the honor of joining with my brethren the Committee of Correspondence for the town in a letter to you, which the bearer of this is chargd with & will deliver to you.

The occasion is somewhat singular. Our Brother Mr William Molineux, a few days ago receiv'd an ANONYMOUS letter dated Barnstable &.c, in which mention is made of some rude Aspersions cast upon the characters of himself and several others of our Committee by your Representative Mr Bacon in a public meeting of your Town. As the intelligence was thus uncertain the Committee would fain hope that it was impossible for one of Mr Bacon's station in life to act so unjustifiable a part; especially after the handsome things which he had the credit of saying of every one of Committee upon a late occasion in the House of Representatives. Admitting however, that this might be the case, they thought it prudent to address you, as the Moderator of your meeting, and it is their desire, if you judge there is a proper foundation for this letter AND NOT OTHERWISE, to obtain the consent of the Town that it should be openly read in the meeting at the ensuing adjournment. This the Committee refer to your known discretion, as they cannot place a full dependence upon an anonymous letter, although there are some circ.u.mstances that may seem to corroborate it.

As there is no measure which tends more to disconcert the Designs of the enemies of the public liberty, than the raising Committees of Correspondence in the several towns throughout the Province, it is not to be wondered at that the whole strength of their opposition is aim'd against it. Whether Mr B. is of this character is a question in which his Const.i.tuents ought certainly to satisfy themselves beyond a reasonable doubt. A man's professions may be as he pleases; but I honestly confess I cannot easily believe him to be a sincere friend to his Country, who can upon any consideration be prevail'd upon to a.s.sociate with so detestable an enemy to it as I take a BOSTON BORN (I cannot say educated) Commissioner of Customs to be.

I am with great regard for your family and conexions in B[arnstable.]

Sir your a.s.sured Friend & most humble servant

P. S. If there is not foundation for what is a.s.serted in the anonymous letter, we desire that you will not only not read our letter in your meeting but also not let the original or a copy of it go out of your hands, but return it by the first opportunity.

ut supra

REPORT TO THE TOWN OF BOSTON, MARCH 23, 1773.

[MS., Boston Public Library; the text, with slight variations, was printed in the Boston Gazette, March 29, 1773, in the Ma.s.sachusetts Spy, March 25, 1773, and in Boston Record Commissioner's Report, vol. xviii., pp. 120-125.]

At a legal Meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, at Faneuil-Hall on Monday the 8th of March 1773, and continued by Adjournment to the 23d instant.

Mr. Samuel Adams acquainted the Moderator, that he was directed by a Committee (of which he was Chairman) to make a report; and the same was read as follows, viz.1

The Committee appointed "to consider what is proper to be done, to vindicate the Town from the gross Misrepresentations & groundless Charges in his Excellencys Message to both Houses" of the General a.s.sembly "respecting the Proceedings of the Town at their last Meeting", beg Leave to report.

That having carefully looked over the several Speeches of the Governor of the Province, to the Council and House of Representatives, in the last Session of the General a.s.sembly, they find that his Excellency has plainly insinuated;

First, that the said Meeting of the Town was illegal in itself.

Secondly, that the Points therein determind were such, as the Law gives the Inhabitants of Towns in their Corporate Capacity no Power to act upon; and therefore that the Proceedings of said Meeting were against Law. And,

Thirdly, that the Inhabitants thus a.s.sembled advanced and afterwards publishd to the World, such Principles as have a direct Tendency to alienate the Affections of the People from their Sovereign: And he plainly a.s.serts, that they "denied in the most express terms the Supremacy of Parliament, and invited every other Town & District in the Province to adopt the same Principles."

We have therefore thought it necessary to recur to the Methods taken for calling said Meeting. And they find that three Pet.i.tions were prefer'd to the Select Men, signd by 198 respectable Freeholders and Inhabitants, making Mention of a Report that then prevaild, & which since appears to have been well grounded, that Salaries were allowd to be paid to the Justices of the Superior Court of the Province by Order of the Crown; whereby they were to be made totally independent of the General a.s.sembly and absolutely dependent on the Crown; and setting forth their Apprehensions that such an Establishment would give a finishing Stroke to the System of Tyranny already begun, and compleat the Ruin of the Liberties of the People. And therefore earnestly requesting the Selectmen to call a Meeting, that this Matter might be duly considerd by the Town, and such Measures taken as the Necessity and Importance thereof required.

Whereupon the Selectmen issued a Warrant for calling a Meeting accordingly. All which was strictly agreable to the Laws of this Province, and the Practice of this and other Towns from the earliest times.

By an Act of this Province made in the fourth year of William & Mary it is enacted, that "when and so often as there shall be Occasion of a Town Meeting for any Business of publick Concernment to the Town there to be done, the Constable or Constables of such Town, by Order of the Selectmen or major Part of them, or of the Town Clerk by their Order in each respective Town within this Province shall warn a Meeting of such Town" &c.2 And by another Act made in the 2 Geo. I. it is enacted that "When and so often as ten or more of the Freeholders of any Town shall signify under their hands to the Selectmen their desire to have any Matter or thing inserted into a Warrant for calling a Town Meeting, the Selectmen are hereby required to insert the same in the next Warrant they shall issue for the Calling a Town Meeting."3

But were there no such Laws of the Province or should our Enemies pervert these & other Laws made for the same Purpose, from their plain and obvious Intent and Meaning, still there is the great and perpetual Law of Self preservation to which every natural Person or corporate Body hath an inherent Right to recur. This being the Law of the Creator, no human Law can be of force against it: And indeed it is an Absurdity to suppose that any such Law could be made by Common Consent, which alone gives validity to human Laws. If then the "MATTER OR THING" viz the fixing Salaries to the Offices of the Judges of the Superior Court as aforesaid, was such as threatned the Lives, Liberties and Properties of the People, which we have the Authority of the greatest a.s.sembly of the Province to affirm, The Inhabitants of this or any other Town had certainly an uncontrovertable right to meet together, either in the Manner the Law has prescribed, or in any other orderly Manner, joyntly to consult the necessary Means of their own Preservation and Safety. The Pet.i.tioners wisely chose the Rule of the province Law, by applying to the Selectmen for a Meeting; and they, as it was their Dudty to do, followed the same Rule and called a Meeting accordingly. We are therefore not a little suprizd, that his Excellency, speaking of this and other princ.i.p.al Towns, should descend to such an artful Use of Words, that a "NUMBER of Inhabitants have a.s.sembled together, and having a.s.sUMED the Name of legal Town Meetings" &c. Thereby appearing to have a Design to lead an inattentive Reader to believe, that no Regard was had to the Laws of the Province in calling these Meetings, and consequently to consider them as illegal & disorderly.

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

This is the very language of Tyranny: And when such Objections are offerd, to prevent the Peoples meeting together in a Time of publick Danger, it affords of it self just Grounds of Jealousy that a Plan is laid for their Slavery.

The Town enterd upon an Inquiry into the Grounds of a Report, in which the common Safety was very greatly interested. They made their Application to the Governor, a fellow Citizen as well as the first Magistrate of the Province; but they were informd by his Excellency, that "it was by no means proper for him" "to acquaint them whether he had or had not receivd any Advices relating to the publick Affairs of the Government of the Province." Their next Determination was, to pet.i.tion the Governor, that the General a.s.sembly might be allowd to meet at the time to which it them stood prorogud: But his Excellency refused to grant this Request, lest it should be "encouraging the Inhabitants of other Towns to a.s.semble" "to consider of the Necessity or Expediency of a Session of the General a.s.sembly."

Hitherto the Town had determind upon no Point but only that of pet.i.tioning the Governor. And will his Excellency or any one else affirm, that the Inhabitants of this or any other Town, have not a Right in their corporate Capacity to pet.i.tion for a Session of the General a.s.sembly, merely because the Law of this Province, that authorizes Towns to a.s.semble, does not expressly make that the Business of a Town Meeting? It is the Declaration of the Bill of Rights, founded in5 Reason, that it is the Right of the Subjects to pet.i.tion the King: But it is apparent in his Excellencys Answer, that the Inhabitants of this Town were in Effect, denied, in one Instance at least, the Right of pet.i.tioning his Majestys Representative. Which was the more grievous to them, because the Prayer of their Pet.i.tion was nothing more, than that the General a.s.sembly might have the Opportunity of enquiring of the Governor into the Grounds of the Report of an intollerable Grievance, which his Excellency had before strongly intimated to them, it was not in his Power to inform THEM of, "consistent with Fidelity to the Trust which his Majesty had reposed in him."

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

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

His Excellency is pleasd to say in one of his Speeches, that the Town have "denied in the most express Terms the Supremacy of Parliament." It is fortunate for the town that they made Choice of the very Mode of Expression, which the present House of Representatives in their Wisdom made use of in stating the Matter of Controversy between the Governor & them: And after what they have advanced upon the Subject, it appears to us impossible to be shown that the Parliament of Great Britain can exercise "the Powers of Legislation for the Colonists in all Cases whatever"

consistently with the Rights which belong to the Colonists as Men as Christians & as Subjects, or without destroying the foundation of their own Const.i.tution.--If the a.s.sertion that the Parliament hath no right to exercise a Power in cases where it is plain they have no right, hath a direct Tendency to alienate the Affections of the People from their Sovereign, because He is a const.i.tuent part of that parliament, as seems to be his Excellencys Manner of reasoning, it follows as we conceive, that there must never be a complaint of any a.s.sumption of power in the Parliamt, or pet.i.tion for the repeal of any Law made repugnant to the Const.i.tution, lest it should tend to alienate the Affections of the People from their Sovereign; but we have a better Opinion of our fellow Subjects than to concede to such Conclusions. We are a.s.sured they can clearly see, that a Mistake in Principle may consist with Integrity of Heart; And for our parts we shall ever be inclined to attribute the Grievances of various Kinds which his Majestys American Subjects have so long sufferd, to the Weakness or Wickedness of his Ministers & Servants, and not to any Disposition in HIM to injure them. And we yet perswade our selves that could the Pet.i.tions of his much aggrievd Subjects be transmitted to his Majesty thro the Hands of an honest impartial Minister, we should not fail of ample redress.

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

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

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

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

Attest.

WILLIAM COOPER, Town-Clerk.

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1The preceding portion is in the Gazette, but not in the ma.n.u.script draft.

2Acts and Resolves of the Province of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, vol. i., pp. 64, 68.

3Ibid., p. 30.

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

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

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

TO JOHN d.i.c.kINSON.

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

BOSTON, March 27 1773