WE have been afraid to think. We have felt a reluctance to examining into the grounds of our privileges, and the extent in which we have an indisputable right to demand them against all the power and authority, on earth. And many who have not scrupled to examine for themselves, have yet for certain prudent reasons been cautious, and diffident of declaring the result of their enquiries. The...
12V. “U” to the Boston Gazette, 1 August 1763 (Adams Papers)
Man , is distinguished from other Animals, his Fellow-Inhabitants of this Planet, by a Capacity of acquiring Knowledge and Civility, more than by any Excellency, corporeal, or mental, with which, mere Nature, has furnished his Species.—His erect Figure, and sublime Countenance, would give him but little Elevation above the Bear, or the Tyger: nay, notwithstanding those Advantages, he would...
13Clarendon to the Boston Gazette, 12 May 1766 (Adams Papers)
Seeing a Piece in the New Hampshire Gazette of last Friday, mentioning the Composition that was made by Mr. Cockle and the G––––r some Time ago, it occur’d to me to enquire what was be come of the Money compounded for by them, for the Duties on those Cargoes of Molasses; I have heard that the G––––r received his third Part last September was twelve Months, that Mr. Cockle received his before...
14I. To the Boston Gazette, 11 January 1773 (Adams Papers)
GENERAL BRATTLE, by his rank, station and character, is intituled to politeness and respect, even when he condescends to harrangue in town-meeting, or to write in a news-paper: But the same causes require that his sentiments when erroneous and of dangerous tendency, should be considered, with entire freedom, and the examination be made as public, as the error. He cannot therefore take offence...
15From John Adams to the Freeholders and Other Inhabitants of the Towns and Districts of Massachusetts Bay, 10 December … (Adams Papers)
Cambridge,10 December 1774. printed : Mass. Provincial Congress, Jours. William Lincoln, ed., The Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts in 1774 and 1775, and of the Committee of Safety , Boston, 1838. , p. 69–72. Prepared by a committee appointed 12 October, originally composed of fifteen members: John Hancock, Joseph Hawley, Joseph Warren, Samuel Dexter, Artemas Ward, James...
16VII. Governor Winthrop to Governor Bradford, 26 January 1767 (Adams Papers)
Please to insert the following. We have often congratulated each other, with high satisfaction, on the glory we secured in both worlds, by our favourite enterprize of planting America. We were Englishmen. We were citizens of the world. We were christians. The history of nations and of mankind was familiar to us; and we considered the species chiefly in relation to the system of great nature,...
17XI. Governor Winthrop to Governor Bradford, 16 February 1767 (Adams Papers)
If we go back as far as the reign of Elizabeth, we find her, on one occasion, infringing on this priviledge, of the Commons, of judging solely, of their own elections and returns. This attempt was however so warmly resented by the Commons, that they instantly voted “That it was a most perilous precedent, when two knights of a county were duly elected, if any new writ should issue out, for a...
18Petition of the Boston Town Meeting to King George III, 4 April 1769 (Adams Papers)
Boston, 4 April 1769. MS not found. Printed Boston Gazette , 24 July 1769. At the town meeting of 13 March, the selectmen reported the “steps” they had taken “for vindicating the Character of the Inhabitants” against the charges which had led to Boston’s quasi-occupation by royal forces. The town then appointed a special committee to “consider what may be still necessary to be done for...
19V. To the Boston Gazette, 1 February 1773 (Adams Papers)
One Thing at one Time . De Witt. The question is, in the present state of the controversy, according to my apprehension of it, whether, by the common law of England, the judges of the King’s bench and common bench, had estates for life, in their offices, determinable on misbehaviour, and determinable also on the demise of the crown? General Brattle still thinks they had, I, cannot yet find...
“IGNORANCE and inconsideration are the two great causes of the ruin of mankind.” This is an observation of Dr. Tillotson , with relation to the interest of his fellow-men, in a future and immortal state: But it is of equal truth and importance, if applied to the happiness of men in society, on this side the grave. In the earliest ages of the world, absolute monarchy seems to have been the...