1769. Septr. 2. Saturday Night.
[from the Diary of John Adams]

1769. Septr. 2. Saturday Night.

Tho this Book has been in my Pocket, this fortnight, I have been too slothfull, to make Use of it.

Dined at Mr. Smiths. 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 6 O Clock at the British Coffee House. The Cause, and End of these Conferences, are Subjects of much Speculation in Town.1

1. If intended to prevent violence, the conferences failed, for on 5 Sept. Commissioner John Robinson, aided by others, assaulted James Otis at the British Coffee House, leading to a long lawsuit in which JA acted as one of Otis’ counsel. See Boston Gazette, 11 Sept. 1769; Tudor, James Otis description begins William Tudor, The Life of James Otis, of Massachusetts, Boston, 1823. description ends , p. 360–366, 503–506; entries of 25–27 July 1771, below. The most recent and authoritative discussion of the Robinson-Otis affair is in Mr. Shipton’s biography of Otis, Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates description begins John Langdon Sibley and Clifford K. Shipton, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Boston, 1873– . description ends , 11:247–287.

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: 1769. Septr. 2. Saturday Night.
Author: Adams, John
Date: 2 September 1769

Reference

Cite as: “1769. Septr. 2. Saturday Night.,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/01-01-02-0013-0002-0001. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, vol. 1, 1755–1770, ed. L. H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1961, p. 342.]