Adams Papers

Tuesday April 15th. 1766.
[from the Diary of John Adams]

Tuesday April 15th. 1766.

Went to Boston. The Superior Court adjourned again, for a fortnight. Hutchinson, Cushing and Oliver, present. What Insolence And Impudence, and Chickanery is this?

Fleet of Yesterday, gives us, a Piece from Lon[don] Gaz[ette] Jany. 8th. signed Vindex Patriae. The sole Q[uestion] he says is, if the Americans are represented in Parliament?

Colonists by Charters shall have same Priviledges, as if born in England, i.e. that England shall be reputed their natale solum. Massachusetts by Fiction supposed to lye in England.—Q. whether this Thought was not suggested by the B[raintree] Instructions? “a fiction of Law insensible in Theory and injurious in Practice?”1 All England is represented, then Massachusetts is.

1A not entirely accurate quotation from the Braintree Instructions written by JA; compare the text in his Works description begins The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols. description ends , 3:467.

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