knew no bounds but truth. I speak from personal knowledge. For,
from 1758 to 1765, I attended every superior and inferior court in
Boston, and recollect not one, in which he did not invite me home
to spend evenings with him, when he made me converse with him as
well as I could, on all subjects of religion, morals, law, politics,
history, philosophy, belles lettres, theology, mythology, cosmogony,
metaphysics,--Lock, Clark, Leibnits, Bolingbroke, Berckley,--the
pre-established harmony of the universe, the nature of matter and of
spirit, and the eternal establishment of coincidences between their
operations, fate, foreknowledge, absolute; and we reasoned on such
unfathomable subjects as high as Milton's gentry in pandemonium; and
we understood them as well as they did, and no better. To such mighty
mysteries he added the news of the day, and the tittle tattle of
the town. But his favourite subject was politics, and the impending
threatening system of parliamentary taxation and universal government
over the colonies. On this subject he was so anxious and agitated
that I have no doubt it occasioned his premature death. From the
time when he argued the question of writs of assistance, to his
death he considered the king, ministry, parliament and nation of G.
B. as determined to new model the colonies from the foundation; to
annul all their charters, to constitute them all royal governments;
to raise a revenue in America by parliamentary taxation; to apply
that revenue to pay the salaries of governours, judges and all other
crown officers; and, after all this, to raise as large a revenue as
they pleased, to be applied to national purposes at the exchequer
in England; and further to establish bishops and the whole system
of the church of England, tythes and all, throughout all British
America. This system, he said, if it was suffered to prevail, would
extinguish the flame of liberty all over the world; that America
would be employed as an engine to batter down all the miserable
remains of liberty in Great Britain and Ireland, where only any
semblance of it was left in the world. To this system he considered
Hutchinson, the Olivers and all their connections, dependants,
adherents, shoelickers, &c. entirely devoted. He asserted that they
were all engaged with all the crown officers in America and the
understrappers of the ministry in England, in a deep and treasonable
conspiracy to betray the liberties of their country, for their own
private, personal and family aggrandizement. His philippicks against
the unprincipled ambition and avarice of all of them, but especially
of Hutchinson, were unbridled; not only in private, confidential
conversations, but in all companies and on all occasions. He gave
Hutchinson the sobriquet of "Summa Potestatis," and rarely mentioned
him but by the name of "Summa." His liberties of speech were no
secrets to his enemies. I have sometimes wondered that they did not
throw him over the bar, as they did soon afterwards major Hawley.
For they hated him worse than they did James Otis, or Samuel Adams,
and they feared him more, because they had no revenge for a father's
disappointment of a seat on the superior bench to impute to him, as
they did to Otis; and Thatcher's character through life had been so
modest, decent, unassuming; his morals so pure, and his religion
so venerated, that they dared not attack him. In his office were
educated to the bar, two eminent characters, the late judge Lowell,
and Josiah Quincy, aptly called the Boston Cicero. Mr. Thatcher's
frame was slender, his constitution delicate; whether his physicians
overstrained his vessels with mercury, when he had the small pox by
inoculation at the castle, or whether he was overplied by public
anxieties and exertions, the small pox left him in a decline from
which he never recovered. Not long before his death he sent for me
to commit to my care some of his business at the bar. I asked him
whether he had seen the Virginia resolves: "Oh yes--they are men!
they are noble spirits! It kills me to think of the lethargy and
stupidity that prevails here. I long to be out. I will go out. I will
go out. I will go into court, and make a speech which shall be read
after my death, as my dying testimony against this infernal tyranny
which they are bringing upon us." Seeing the violent agitation into
which it threw him, I changed the subject as soon as possible, and
retired. He had been confined for some time. Had he been abroad
among the people, he would not have complained so pathetically of
the "lethargy and stupidity that prevailed," for town and country
were all alive; and in August became active enough, and some of the
people proceeded to unwarrantable excesses, which were more lamented
by the patriots than by their enemies. Mr. Thatcher soon died, deeply
lamented by all the friends of their country.
Another gentleman, who had great influence in the commencement of
the revolution, was doctor Jonathan Mayhew, a descendant of the
ancient governor of Martha's Vineyard. This divine had raised a great
reputation both in Europe and America, by the publication of a volume
of seven sermons in the reign of king George the second, 1749, and by
many other writings, particularly a sermon in 1750, on the thirtieth
of January, on the subject of passive obedience and non-resistance;
in which the saintship and martyrdom of king Charles the first are
considered, seasoned with wit and satire superior to any in Swift or
Franklin. It was read by every body; celebrated by friends and abused
by enemies. During the reigns of king George the first and king
George the second, the reigns of the Stuarts, the two Jameses and the
two Charleses, were in general disgrace in England. In America they
had always been held in abhorrence. The persecutions and cruelties
suffered by their ancestors under those reigns, had been transmitted
by history and tradition, and Mayhew seemed to be raised up to revive
all their animosities against tyranny, in church and state, and at
the same time to destroy their bigotry, fanaticism and inconsistency.
David Hume's plausible, elegant, fascinating and fallacious apology,
in which he varnished over the crimes of the Stuarts, had not then
appeared. To draw the character of Mayhew would be to transcribe a
dozen volumes. This transcendant genius threw all the weight of his
great fame into the scale of his country in 1761, and maintained it
there with zeal and ardor till his death in 1766. In 1763 appeared
the controversy between him and Mr. Apthorp, Mr. Caner, Dr. Johnson
and archbishop Secker, on the charter and conduct of the society for
propagating the gospel in foreign parts. To form a judgment of this
debate I beg leave to refer to a review of the whole, printed at the
time and written by Samuel Adams, though by some, very absurdly
and erroneously, ascribed to Mr. Apthorp. If I am not mistaken, it
will be found a model of candor, sagacity, impartiality, and close,
correct reasoning.
If any gentleman supposes this controversy to be nothing to the
present purpose, he is grossly mistaken. It spread an universal alarm
against the authority of parliament. It excited a general and just
apprehension, that bishops and diocesses and churches, and priests,
and tythes, were to be imposed on us by parliament. It was known,
that neither king, nor ministry, nor archbishops, could appoint
bishops, in America, without an act of parliament, and if parliament
could tax us, they could establish the church of England, with all
its creeds, articles, tests, ceremonies, and tythes, and prohibit all
other churches, as conventicles, and schism shops.
Nor must Mr. Cushing be forgotten. His good sense and sound judgment,
the urbanity of his manners, his universal good character, his
numerous friends and connections, and his continual intercourse
with all sorts of people, added to his constant attachment to the
liberties of his country, gave him a great and salutary influence
from the beginning in 1760.
Let me recommend these hints to the consideration of Mr. Wirt, whose
life of Mr. Henry I have read with great delight. I think that after
mature investigation, he will be convinced, that Mr. Henry did not
"give the first impulse to the ball of independence," and that Otis,
Thatcher, Samuel Adams, Mayhew, Hancock, Cushing, and thousands of
others, were labouring for several years at the wheel, before the
name of Henry was heard beyond the limits of Virginia.
If you print this, I will endeavour to send you something concerning
Samuel Adams, who was destined to a longer career, and to act a more
conspicuous, and perhaps a more important part than any other man.
But his life would require a volume. If you decline printing this
letter, I pray you to return it as soon as possible to,
Sir, Your humble servant,
JOHN ADAMS.
TO MR. WIRT.
_Quincy_, _January_ 5, 1818.
SIR,
Your sketches of the life of Mr. Henry have given me a rich
entertainment. I will not compare them to the Sybil, conducting Æneas
to see the ghosts of departed sages and heroes in the region below,
but to an angel, convoying me to the abodes of the blessed on high,
to converse with the spirits of just men made perfect. The names of
Henry, Lee, Bland, Pendleton, Washington, Rutledge, Dickinson, Wythe,
and many others, will ever thrill through my veins with an agreeable
sensation. I am not about to make any critical remarks upon your
works, at present. But, sir,
Erant heroes ante Agamemnona multi.
Or, not to garble Horace,
Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona
Multi: sed omnes illacrimabiles
Urgentur, ignotique longa
Nocte, carent quia vate sacro.
If I could go back to the age of thirty five, Mr. Wirt, I would
endeavour to become your rival; not in elegance of composition, but
in a simple narration of facts, supported by records, histories,
and testimonies, of irrefragable authority. I would adopt, in all
its modesty, your title, "Sketches of the life and writings of
James Otis, of Boston." And, in imitation of your example, I would
introduce portraits of a long catalogue of illustrious men, who were
agents in the revolution, in favor of it or against it.
Jeremiah Gridley, the father of the bar in Boston, and the preceptor
of Pratt, Otis, Thatcher, Cushing, and many others; Benjamin Pratt,
chief justice of New-York; colonel John Tynge, James Otis, of Boston,
the hero of the biography; Oxenbridge Thatcher, Jonathan Sewall,
attorney general and judge of admiralty; Samuel Quincy, solicitor
general; Daniel Leonard, now chief justice of Bermuda; Josiah Quincy,
the Boston Cicero; Richard Dana and Francis Dana, his son, first
minister to Russia, and afterwards chief justice; Jonathan Mayhew, D.
D. Samuel Cooper, D. D. Charles Chauncey, D. D. James Warren and his
wife; Joseph Warren, of Bunker's Hill; John Winthrop, professor at
Harvard college, and a member of council; Samuel Dexter, the father;
John Worthington, of Springfield; Joseph Hawley, of Northampton,
and James Lovel, of Boston; governors Shirley, Pownal, Bernard,
Hutchinson, Hancock, Bowdoin, Adams, Sullivan, and Gerry; lieutenant
governor Oliver, chief justice Oliver, judge Edmund Trowbridge, judge
William Cushing, and Timothy Ruggles, ought not to be omitted. The
military characters, Ward, Lincoln, Warren, Knox, Brooks, Heath, &c.
must come in of course. Nor should Benjamin Kent, Samuel Swift, or
John Reed, be forgotten.
I envy none of the well merited glories of Virginia, or any of her
sages or heroes. But, sir, I am jealous, very jealous, of the honour
of Massachusetts.
The resistance to the British system, for subjugating the colonies,
began in 1760, and in the month of February, 1761, James Otis
electrified the town of Boston, the province of Massachusetts bay,
and the whole continent, more than Patrick Henry ever did in the
whole course of his life. If we must have panegyrics and hyperboles,
I must say, that if Mr. Henry was Demosthenes, and Mr. Richard Henry
Lee, Cicero, James Otis was Isaiah and Ezekiel UNITED.
I hope, sir, that some young gentleman, of the ancient and honourable
family of "The Searchers," will hereafter do impartial justice, both
to Virginia and Massachusetts.
After all this freedom, I assure you, sir, it is no flattery, when I
congratulate the nation on the acquisition of an attorney general of
such talents and industry as your "Sketches" demonstrate.
With great esteem, I am, Sir,
Your friend and humble servant,
JOHN ADAMS.
_Mr._ WIRT, _Attorney General of the United States._
TO THE SAME.
_Quincy_, _January_ 23, 1819.
SIR,
I thank you for your kind letter of the 12th of this month. As I
esteem the character of Mr. Henry, an honour to our country, and your
volume a masterly delineation of it, I gave orders to purchase it as
soon as I heard of it, but was told it was not to be had in Boston.
I have seen it only by great favour on a short loan. A copy from the
author would be worth many by purchase. It may be sent to me by the
mail.
From a personal acquaintance, perhaps I might say a friendship,
with Mr. Henry, of more than forty years, and from all that I have
heard or read of him, I have always considered him as a gentleman of
deep reflection, keen sagacity, clear foresight, daring enterprise,
inflexible intrepidity, and untainted integrity; with an ardent zeal
for the liberties, the honour, and felicity of his country, and his
species. All this, you justly as I believe, represent him to have
been. There are, however, remarks to be made upon your work, which,
if I had the eyes and hands, I would, in the spirit of friendship,
attempt. But my hands, and eyes, and life, are but for a moment.
When congress had finished their business, as they thought, in the
autumn of 1774, I had, with Mr. Henry, before we took leave of each
other, some familiar conversation, in which I expressed a full
conviction, that our resolves, declarations of rights, enumeration of
wrongs, petitions, remonstrances, and addresses, associations, and
non-importation agreements, however they might be expected [Errata:
respected] in America, and however necessary to cement the union of
the colonies, would be but waste water in England. Mr. Henry said,
they might make some impression among the people of England, but
agreed with me that they would be totally lost upon the government.
I had but just received a short and hasty letter, written to me by
major Joseph Hawley, of Northampton, containing "a few broken hints,"
as he called them, of what he thought was proper to be done, and
concluding with these words, "_after all we must fight_." This letter
I read to Mr. Henry, who listened with great attention; and as soon
as I had pronounced the words, "after all we must fight," he raised
his head, and with an energy and vehemence that I can never forget,
broke out with "BY G--D, I AM OF THAT MAN'S MIND." I put
the letter into his hand, and when he had read it, he returned it to
me, with an equally solemn asseveration, that he agreed entirely in
opinion with the writer. I considered this as a sacred oath, upon a
very great occasion, and could have sworn it as religiously as he
did, and by no means inconsistent with what you say, in some part of
your book, that he never took the sacred name in vain.
As I knew the sentiments with which Mr. Henry left congress, in the
autumn of 1774, and knew the chapter and verse from which he had
borrowed the sublime expression, "we must fight," I was not at all
surprised at your history, in the 122d page, in the note, and in some
of the preceding and following pages. Mr. Henry only pursued, in
March, 1775, the views and vows of November, 1774.
The other delegates from Virginia returned to their state in full
confidence, that all our grievances would be redressed. The last
words that Mr. Richard Henry Lee said to me, when we parted, were,
"_we shall infallibly carry all our points. You will be completely
relieved; all the offensive acts will be repealed; the army and fleet
will be recalled, and Britain will give up her foolish project_."
Washington only was in doubt, He never spoke in public. In private
he joined with those who advocated a non-exportation, as well as a
non-importation agreement. With both he thought we should prevail;
without either, he thought it doubtful, Henry was clear in one
opinion, Richard Henry Lee in an opposite opinion, and Washington
doubted between the two. Henry, however, appeared in the end to be
exactly in the right.
Oratory, Mr. Wirt, as it consists in expressions of the countenance,
graces of attitude and motion, and intonation of voice, although
it is altogether superficial and ornamental, will always command
admiration, yet it deserves little veneration. Flashes of wit,
coruscations of imagination and gay pictures, what are they? Strict
truth, rapid reason and pure integrity are the only essential
ingredients in sound oratory. I flatter myself, that Demosthenes, by
his "action! action! action!" meant to express the same opinion. To
speak of American oratory, ancient or modern, would lead me too far,
and beyond my depth.
I must conclude with fresh assurances of the high esteem of your
humble servant,
JOHN ADAMS.
WILLIAM WIRT, Esq.
_Attorney General of the United States._
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
_Quincy_, _February_ 25, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
As Mr. Wirt has filled my head with James Otis, and as I am well
informed, that the honourable Mr. ******** *****, alias ********,
alias *** *****, &c. roundly asserts, that Mr. "Otis had no
patriotism," and that "he acted only from revenge of his father's
disappointment of a seat at the Superior Bench," I will tell you a
story which may make you laugh, if it should not happen to melt you
into tears.
Otis belonged to a club, who met on evenings, of which club William
Molineux, whose character you know very well, was a member. Molineux
had a petition before the legislature, which did not succeed to his
wishes, and he became for several evenings sour, and wearied the
company with his complaints of services, losses, sacrifices, &c. and
said, "that a man who has behaved as I have, should be treated as
I am, is intolerable," &c. Otis had said nothing, but the company
were disgusted and out of patience, when Otis rose from his seat,
and said, "come, come, Will, quit this subject, and let us enjoy
ourselves. I also have a list of grievances, will you hear it?" The
club expected some fun, and all cried out, "Aye! Aye! let us hear
your list."
"Well, then, Will; in the first place I resigned the office of
advocate general, which I held from the crown which produced me; how
much, do you think?" "A great deal, no doubt," said Molineux. "Shall
we say two hundred sterling a year?" "Aye, more I believe," said
Molineux. "Well, let it be 200; that for ten years is two thousand.
In the next place, I have been obliged to relinquish the greatest
part of my business at the bar. Will you set that at 200 more?" "Oh
I believe it much more than that." "Well let it be 200. This for
ten years makes two thousand. You allow, then, I have lost 4000_l._
sterling." "Aye, and more too," said Molineux.
"In the next place, I have lost an hundred friends; among whom were
the men of the first rank, fortune and power in the province. At
what price will you estimate them?" "Damn them," said Molineux, "at
nothing. You are better without them than with them." A loud laugh.
"Be it so," said Otis.
"In the next place, I have made a thousand enemies; amongst whom are
the government of the province and the nation. What do you think of
this item?" "That is as it may happen," said Molineux.
"In the next place, you know I love pleasure. But I have renounced
all amusement for ten years. What is that worth to a man of
pleasure?" "No great matter," said Molineux, "you have made politics
your amusement." A hearty laugh.
"In the next place, I have ruined as fine health and as good
a constitution of body, as nature ever gave to man." "This is
melancholy indeed," said Molineux. "There is nothing to be said upon
that point."
"Once more," said Otis, holding his head down before Molineux, "look
upon this head!" (where was a scar in which a man might bury his
finger.) "What do you think of this? And what is worse, my friends
think I have a monstrous crack in my scull." This made all the
company very grave, and look very solemn. But Otis setting up a
laugh, and with a gay countenance, said to Molineux, "Now, Willy, my
advice to you is, to say no more about your grievances; for you and I
had better put up our accounts of profit and loss in our pockets, and
say no more about them, lest the world should laugh at us."
This whimsical dialogue put all the company, and Molineux himself
into good humour, and they passed the rest of the evening in joyous
conviviality.
It is provoking, and it is astonishing, and it is mortifying, and it
is humiliating to see, how calumny sticks, and is transmitted from
age to age. Mr. ****** is one of the last men I should have expected
to have swallowed that execrable lie, that Otis had no patriotism.
The father was refused an office worth 1200_l._ old tenor, or about
120_l._ sterling, and the refusal was no loss, for his practice
at the bar was worth much more; for Colonel Otis was a lawyer in
profitable practice, and his seat in the legislature gave him more
power and more honour; for this refusal the son resigned an office
which he held from the crown, worth twice the sum. The son must have
been a most dutiful and affectionate child to the father. Or rather,
most enthusiastically and frenzically affectionate.
I have been young, and now am old, and I solemnly say, I have never
known a man whose love of his country was more ardent or sincere;
never one, who suffered so much; never one, whose services for any
ten years of his life, were so important and essential to the cause
of his country, as those of Mr. Otis from 1760 to 1770.
The truth is, he was an honest man, and a thorough taught lawyer.
He was called upon in his official capacity as advocate general by
the custom house officers, to argue their cause in favour of writs
of assistants. These writs he knew to be illegal, unconstitutional,
destructive of the liberties of his country; a base instrument of
arbitrary power, and intended as an entering wedge to introduce
unlimited taxation and legislation by authority of parliament. He
therefore scorned to prostitute his honour and his conscience, by
becoming a tool. And he scorned to hold an office which could compel
him or tempt him to be one. He therefore resigned it. He foresaw as
every other enlightened man foresaw, a tremendous storm coming upon
his country, and determined to run all risques, and share the fate of
the ship, after exerting all his energies to save her, if possible.
At the solicitation of Boston and Salem, he accordingly embarked and
accepted the command.
To attribute to such a character sinister or trivial motives is
ridiculous. You and Mr. Wirt have "brought the old man out," and I
fear he will never be driven in again, till he falls into the grave.
JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
_Quincy_, _March_ 29, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
Is your daughter, Mrs. ******, who I am credibly informed, is one
of the most accomplished ladies, a painter? Are you acquainted with
Miss ***** *****, who I am also credibly informed is one of the most
accomplished ladies, and a painter? Do you know Mr. Sargent? Do you
correspond with your old companion in arms, Col. John Trumbull? Do
you think Fisher will be an historical painter?
Whenever you shall find a painter, male or female, I pray you to
suggest a scene and subject.
The scene is the council chamber of the old town house in Boston. The
date is the month of February, 1761, nine years before you came to me
in Cole lane. As this is five years before you entered college, you
must have been in the second form of master Lovell's school.
That council chamber was as respectable an apartment, and more so
too, in proportion, than the house of lords or house of commons in
Great Britain, or that in Philadelphia in which the declaration of
independence was signed in 1776.