11II. The Earl of Clarendon to William Pym, 20 January 1766 (Adams Papers)
You and I have changed Sides. As I told you in my last, I can account for your Tergiversation, only on the Supposition of the Insincerity, Baseness and Depravity of your Heart. For my own Part, as the Change in me is not so great, neither is it so unaccountable. My Education was, in the Law, the Grounds of which were so riveted in me, that no Temptation could induce me, knowingly, to swerve...
12III. The Earl of Clarendon to William Pym, 27 January 1766 (Adams Papers)
You are pleased to charge the Colonists with ignorance of the British constitution—But let me tell you there is not even a Son of Liberty among them who has not manifested a deeper knowledge of it, and a warmer attachment to it, than appears in any of your late writings. They know the true constitution and all the resources of liberty in it, as well as in the law of nature which is one...
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...
14IV. Humphrey Ploughjogger to the Boston Gazette, 19 January 1767 (Adams Papers)
I Did flatter myself, as I had got so much Credit by my Writings upon Hemp, and Stamp-Act, &c. &c. that the learned Phylanthrop would just have taken some small Notice of me. * I have enquired about the Reason why he did not. Some tell me, the poor Man’s Council is always despised by the great and larned. Some say that it would be below the Dignity of Government, to take Notice of such a Man...
15VII. 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,...
16X. Governor Winthrop to Governor Bradford, 9 February 1767 (Adams Papers)
You have my promise of another letter, concerning the maxims, arts, and positions of Philanthrop; whose performances of the last week I shall proceed to consider, without any formal apology for departing from the plan I proposed at first. The art employed by this writer, in the introduction to his account of the Concord anecdote, is worth observation; before we undertake an examination of the...
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...
18Sui Juris to the Boston Gazette, 23 May 1768 (Adams Papers)
Not many Years ago, were transmitted to the Public, thro’ the Channel of the Boston-Gazette, a few desultory Essays, on the Spirit of the Canon and Feudal Law: in some of which were expressed Apprehensions of the future Mischiefs, that might be caused in America by the Efforts and Exertions of those expiring and detested systems. That those apprehensions were too well founded, Time has,...
After the repeal of the late American Stamp Act, we were happy in the pleasing prospect of a restoration of that tranquility and unanimity among ourselves, and that harmony and affection between our parent country and us, which had generally subsisted before that detestable Act. But with the utmost grief and concern, we find that we flatter’d ourselves too soon, and that the root of bitterness...
20Petition 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...