RC (MHi); endorsed by TJ as a letter from “Spreyce Jos E.” received 24 July 1823 and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: Timothy Pickering, Col. Pickering’s Observations introductory to reading the Declaration of Independence, at Salem, July 4, 1823 (Salem, Mass., 1823), in which Pickering chose to preface his reading of the Declaration of Independence at an anniversary celebration with “a concise history of that transaction, with a few remarks on the character of the Declaration itself” (p. 4); reviewed how the Continental Congress postponed its vote on independence until a committee could be formed to draft a resolution, to which TJ, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston were named; explained that he had corresponded with John Adams in 1822 seeking details on the passage of the declaration by the Continental Congress, and provided a detailed description of Adams’s 6 Aug. 1822 reply: “Mr. Adams says, ‘Mr. Jefferson came into Congress in June 1775, and brought with him a reputation for literature, science, and a happy talent at composition. Writings of his were handed about, remarkable for the peculiar felicity of expression. Though a silent member in Congress, he was so prompt, frank, explicit and decisive, upon committees—not even Samuel Adams was more so—that he seized on my heart; and upon this occasion I gave him my vote, and did all in my power to procure the votes of others. I think he had one vote more than any other, and that placed him at the head of the committee. I had the next highest number, and that placed me the second. The committee met, discussed the subject, and then appointed Mr. Jefferson and me to make the draught.’ Mr. Adams then mentions the meeting of the sub-committee, and their amicable contention, which of the two should draught the declaration—each urging the task on the other; Mr. Adams insisting on Mr. Jefferson’s doing it, and the latter yielding his assent. The draught being made, the sub-committee met, ‘and conned the paper over. I was delighted (continues Mr. Adams) with its high tone, and the flights of oratory with which it abounded, especially that concerning Negro Slavery, which though I knew his Southern brethren would never suffer to pass in Congress, I certainly never would oppose. There were other expressions which I would not have inserted if I had drawn it up; particularly that which called the King a Tyrant. I thought it too personal, for I never believed George to be a Tyrant in disposition and in nature; I always believed him to be deceived by his courtiers on both sides the Atlantic; and in his official capacity only cruel. I thought the expression too passionate, and too much like scolding, for so grave and solemn a document; but as Franklin and Sherman were to inspect it afterwards, I thought it would not become me to strike it out. I consented to report it, and do not now remember that I made or suggested a single alteration. We reported it to the committee of five. It was read, and I do not remember that Franklin or Sherman criticised any thing. We were all in haste; Congress was impatient; and the instrument was reported, as I believe, in Jefferson’s hand-writing, as he first drew it. Congress cut off about a quarter part of it, as I expected they would; but they obliterated some of the best of it, and left all that was exceptionable, if any thing in it was.’ Then referring to a remark of mine on the declaration, ‘that it did not contain many new ideas,’ Mr. Adams says—‘As you justly observe, there is not an idea in it, but what had been hackneyed in Congress for two years before. The substance of it is contained in the declaration of rights, and the violation of those rights, in the journals of Congress in 1774. Indeed the essence of it is contained in a pamphlet voted and printed by the town of Boston before the first Congress met, composed by James Otis, as I suppose, in one of his lucid intervals, and pruned and polished by Samuel Adams’” (pp. 8–10); commented of the Declaration of Independence that “by the few passages introduced and others altered in Congress, the instrument was manifestly improved” (p. 10); opined that “the ‘high tone’ of the Declaration, then so pleasing to Mr. Adams, was in unison with the warm feelings of the time” (p. 10); quoted from the Treaty of Paris of 1783 on the inclination of the United States and Great Britain “to forget all past misunderstandings and differences that have unhappily interrupted the good correspondence and friendship which they mutually wish to restore” (p. 11); and asserted that such sentiments towards Great Britain “should never be forgotten; and the duties it enjoins should especially be borne in mind on every celebration of this anniversary” (p. 12).