Adams Papers

1773. July 16. Fryday.
[from the Diary of John Adams]

1773. July 16. Fryday.

Mr. F. Dana came to me with a Message from Mr. Henry Merchant [Marchant] of Rhode Island—And to ask my Opinion, concerning the Measures they are about to take with Rome’s and Moffats Letters.1 They want the originals that they may be prosecuted as Libells, by their Attorney General, and Grand Jury. I told him, I thought they could not proceed without the originals, nor with them if there was any material obliteration or Erasure, ’tho I had not examined and was not certain of this Point, nor did I remember whether there was any Obliteration on Romes and Moffats Letters.

Mr. Dana says the Falshoods and Misrepresentations in Romes Letter are innumerable, and very flagrant.

Spent the Evening with Cushing, Adams, Pemberton and Swift at Wheelwrights—no body very chatty but Pemberton.

1. Thomas Moffatt, a Scottish physician, and George Rome, a loyalist, both of Newport, R.I. Letters written by each of them were among those transmitted by Franklin to Cushing (note by CFA in JA, 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 , 2:321; Hutchinson, Massachusetts Bay, ed. Mayo description begins Thomas Hutchinson, The History of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts-Bay, ed. Lawrence Shaw Mayo, Cambridge, 1936; 3 vols. description ends , 3:283 and note).

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    Adams Papers
    Title
    1773. July 16. Fryday.
    Author
    Adams, John
    Date
    16 July 1773

    Reference

    Cite as
    “1773. July 16. Fryday.,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/01-02-02-0003-0006-0002. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, vol. 2, 1771–1781, ed. L. H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1961, p. 84.]