11From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 16 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
We cannot yet dismiss this precious statute of the 6th of George the second. Chapter 13. The second section I must abridge, for I cannot transcribe much more. It enacts that all the Duties imposed by the first section, shall be paid down in ready Money by the Importer, before landing. The third section must be transcribed by me or some other Person because it is the most arbitrary among...
12From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 11 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
The “Defence of the New England Charters” by Jer. “Dummer” is, both for Style and matter, one of our most classical American Productions. “The feelings, the manners and Principles which produced the Revolution,” appear in as vast Abundance in this Work, as in any, that I have read. This beautiful Composition, ought to be reprinted and read by every American who has learned to read. In pages 30...
13From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 6 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
“Mid the low murmurs of submissive fear and mingled rage my Hambden raised his Voice, & and to the Laws appealed.” Mr. Otis had reasoned like a Philosopher upon the Navigation Acts and upon all the tyranical Acts of Charles the Second but when he came to the Revenue Laws, the Orator blazed out Poor King William! If thy Spirit whether in Heaven of elswhere heard James Otis, it must have...
14From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 30 July 1818 (Adams Papers)
Another Passage, which Mr Otis read from Ashley gave Occasion, as I suppose, to another memorable and very curious Event, which your esteemed Pupil and my beloved Friend Judge Minot has recorded. The Passage is in the 42 page. “In fine, I would humbly propose that the duties, on foreign Sugar and Rum imposed by the before mentioned Act, of the 6th of King George the Second, remain as they are,...
15From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 27 July 1818 (Adams Papers)
Another Author produced by Mr Otis was “The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain considered” by Joshua Gee. “A new Edition, with many interesting Notes and Additions by a Merchant” printed in 1767. This new Edition which was printed no doubt to justify the Ministry in the System they were then pursuing, could not be the Edition that Mr Otis produced in Feb.1761. The Advertisement of the...
16From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 26 July 1818 (Adams Papers)
Another Auther produced by Mr Otis was “The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain considered by Joshua Gee. A new Edition with many interesting Notes and Additions by a Merchant” printed in 1767. This new Edition which was printed no doubt to justify the Ministry in the System which was they were then pursuing, could not be the Edition that Mr Otis produced in February 1761. The Advertisement...
17From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 17 July 1818 (Adams Papers)
Mr Otis proceeded to page 198 of this great Work of the great Knight Sir Josiah Child Proposition Eleventh “That New England is the most prejudicial Plantation to this Kingdom.” “I am now to write of a people whose frugality, industry, and temperance, and the happiness of whose laws and institutio ns do promise to themselves long life, with a wonderful increase of people, riches and power: and...
18From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 14 July 1818 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Otis, to Show the Spirit of the Acts of Trade, those I have already quoted as well as those I Shall hereafter quote And as the best Commentaries upon them; produced a Number of Authors upon Trade, and read Passages from them, which I Shall recite, without pretending to remember the Order in which he read them. Sir Josiah Child “A new discourse of Trade” Let me recommend this Old Book to...
19From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 9 July 1818 (Adams Papers)
In the Search for Something, in the History and Statutes of England, in any degree resembling this Monstrum horrondum ingens the Writt of Assistance, the following Examples were found. In the Statute of the first Year of King James the Second Chapter third “An Act for granting to his Majesty an imposition upon all Wines and Vinegar &c ” ; Section 8, it is enacted “That the Officers of his...
20From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 24 June 1818 (Adams Papers)
Mr Otis Said Such a “Writt of Assistance” might become the Reign of Charles the Second in England, and he would not dispute the Taste of the Parliament of England, in passing Such an Act, nor of the People of England in submitting to it; but it was not calculated for the Meridian of America. The Court of Exchequer had no Jurisdiction here. Her Warrant, and her, Writts never were Seen here. Or...