231. The committee which reported this letter was appointed March 12,
and consisted of James Bowdoin, Joseph Warren, Samuel Pemberton,
Richard Dana and Adams. Boston Record Commissioners' Report, vol.
xviii., p. 46.
Franklin wrote to Bowdoin, January 13, 1772: "In Ireland, among the
Patriots, I dined with Dr. Lucas." J. Bigelow, Complete Works of
Benjamin Franklin, vol. iv., p. 439.
TO ARTHUR LEE.
[Ms., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]
BOSTON April 19 1771.
SIR
Your Letter of the 31 Decr which I receivd by Cap Scott a few days
past affords me great Satisfaction; especially as it promises a
Correspondence which I dare say will be carried on with an Openness &
Sincerity becoming those who are anxiously concernd for the publick
Liberty at so alarming a Crisis.1 Perhaps there never was a time when
the political Affairs of America were in a more dangerous State; Such
is the Indolence of Men in general, or their Inattention to the real
Importance of things, that a steady & animated perseverance in the
rugged path of Virtue at the hazard of trifles is hardly to be
expected. The Generality are necessarily engagd in Application to
private Business for the Support of their own families and when at a
lucky Season the publick are awakened to a Sense of Danger, & a manly
resentment is enkindled, it is difficult, for so many separate
Communities as there are in all the Colonies, to agree in one
consistent plan of Opposition while those who are the appointed
Instruments of Oppression, have all the Means put into their hands, of
applying to the passions of Men & availing themselves of the
Necessities of some, the Vanity of others & the timidity of all.
I have long thought that a Design has been on foot to render
ineffectual the Democratical part of this Government, even before the
province was cursd with the Appointment of Bernard, and so unguarded
have the people been in former times, so careless in the Choice of
their representatives as to send too many who either through Ignorance
or Wickedness have favord that Design. Of late the lower house of
Assembly have been more sensible of this Danger & supported in some
Measure their own Weight, which has alarmd the Conspirators and been
in my opinion the true Source of Bernards Complaint against them as
having set up a faction against the Kings Authority. The 4 Judges of
the Supreme Court, the Secretary & the Kings Attourny who had been
Councellors were left out at the annual Election in 1766; this gave
great offence to the Govr, and was followd with two Speeches to both
Houses perhaps as infamous & irritating as ever came from a Stuart to
the English parliamt.2 Happy indeed it was for the Province that such
a Man was at the Head of it, for it occasiond such a Jealousy &
Watchfulness in the people as prevented their immediate & total Ruin.
The plan however is still carried on tho in a Manner some what
different; and that is by making the Governor altogether independent
of the People for his Support; this is depriving the House of
Representatives of the only Check they have upon him & must
consequently render them the Objects of the Contempt of a Corrupt
Administration. Thus the peoples Money being first taken from them
without their Consent, is appropriated for the Maintenance of a
Governor at the Discretion of one in the Kingdom of Great Britain upon
whom he absolutely depends for his Support. If this be not a Tyranny I
am at a Loss to conceive what a Tyranny is. The House of
Representatives did a few days since, grant the Govr the usual Sum for
his Support and it is expected that this Matter will be made certain
upon his refusal of it. The Govr of New York was explicit at the late
Session of their Assembly, upon the like Occasion: But I confess I
should not be surprisd if our good Govr, should accept the Grant &
discount it out of what he is to receive out of the Kings Chest;
thinking it will be conceivd by the Minister as highly meritorious in
him, in thus artfully concealing his Independency (for the
Apprehension of it is alarming to the people) & saving 1000 Pounds
sterling of the revenue at the same time.
While the Representative Body of the people is thus renderd a mere
Name, it is . . . considerd that the other Branch of the Legislative
tho annually elective, is at the same time subject to the Governors
Negative: A Consideration which I doubt not has its full Weight in the
minds of some of them at least, whenever any Matter comes before them
which they can possibly think will affect the Measures of
Administration. You will easily conjecture how far this may tend to
annihilate that Branch or produce Effects more fatal.
It seems then that we are in effect to be under the absolute Governm'
of one Man - ostensively the Governor of the province but in Reality
some other person residing in Great Britain, whose Instructions the
Govr must punctually observe upon pain of forfeiting his place. So
that any little advantage that might now & then arise from his
happening to form Connections with wise Men in the province are
totally lost. As Matters are now circumstancd he must associate with
Pensioners, Commissioners of the Customs Officers of the Army & Navy,
Tools Sycophants &c who together with him are to make such
representations as to them shall seem meet, & joyntly if Occasion
shall require it, execute such Orders as they shall from time to time
receive. Such is to be the happy Government of free British Subjects
in America. I will however do Govr Hutchinson the Justice to say that
tho he may 3 . . yet he has a very natural Connection with some of the
principal Gentlemen Inhabitants of the province for his Excellencys
own Brother is a Justice of the Superior Court, & also a Judge of the
probate of Wills & he has also a Brother by marriage upon the same
superior Bench. Moreover the Lt Govr is his Brother by marriage who
has an own Brother & a Brother by marriage who are justices of the
Superior Court. As these Gentlemen are Natives of the province it is
hoped the Channells of Justice will remain unpolluted notwithstanding
his Excellencys other Connections.
1 On January 10, 1771, Lee wrote to Adams: Our friend Mr. Sayre has
done me the favour of communicating to me your very obliging
invitation to a correspondence."-R. H. Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, vol.
i., p. 249.
2 See Vol. I., pages 79, 83.
3 At this point the words "mar a State of Absolute Independency in
both Houses of Assembly" are erased in the draft.
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF MASSACHUSETTS TO THE GOVERNOR.
[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library; a text, with modifications,
is in Massachusetts State Papers, pp. 296, 297; a text is also in
Journal of the House of Representatives, 1770-1771, pp. 241, 242.]
In the House of Representatives April 24 1771
Orderd that Mr Hancock Mr Adams Mr Ingersol of Great Barrington Capt
Brown & Capt Darby be a Committee to wait on his Excellency the
Governor with the following Answer to his Speech to both Houses at the
Opening of this Session.
May it please your Excellency.
The House of Representatives have given all due Attention to your
Speech to both Houses at the Opening of this Session.
The violent proceedings of the Spanish Governor of Buenos Ayres in
dispossessing his Majestys Subjects of their Settlement at Port
Egmont, has raisd the Indignation of all, who have a just Concern for
the Honor of the British Crown. Such an Act of Hostility, we conceive
could not but be followd with the most spirited Resolution on the part
of the British Administration, to obtain a Satisfaction fully adequate
to the Insult offerd to his Majesty, & the Injuries his Subjects there
have sustaind. Your Excellency tells us that it is probable
Satisfaction may have been made; for this Hostile act of the
Spaniards: If it is so, the publick Tranquility of his Majestys
Dominions so far as it has been disturbd, by this unwarrantable
Proceeding, is again restored; and therefore it seems to us reasonable
to suppose, that the proposd Plan of Augmentation of Troops on the
British Establishment is already receded from ; which renders any
Consideration upon that Subject on our part unnecessary.
We owe our Gratitude to his Majesty for his repeated Assurances
expressd to your Excellency by his Secretary of State, that the
Security of his Dominions in America, will be a principal Object of
his most gracious Care & Attention. This Province has frequently in
times past expended much Blood & Treasure for the Enlargement as well
as the Support of those Dominions: And when our natural &
constitutional Rights & Liberties, without which no Blessing can be
secure to us, shall be fully restord & establishd upon a firm
Foundation, as we shall then have the same Reasons and Motives
therefor as heretofore, we shall not fail to continue those Exertions
with the utmost Chearfulness & to the Extent of our Ability.
As your Excellency has no particular interior Business of the Province
to lay before us, it would have given us no uneasiness, if an End had
been put to the present Assembly, rather than to have been again
called to this Place: And we are unwilling to admit the Beliefe, that
when the Season for calling a new Assembly agreable to the Charter
shall arrive, your Excellency will continue an Indignity, & a
Grievance so flagrant & so repeatedly remonstrated by both Houses as
the Deforcement of the General Assembly of its ancient & Rightful
Seat.1
Your Excellency is pleasd to acquaint us in Form, that you have
receivd his Majestys Commission appointing you Captain General &
Commander in Chiefe in and over the Province. Your having had your
Birth & Education in this Province, and sustaind the highest Honors
which your Fellow Subjects could bestow, cannot fail to be the
strongest Motives with your Excellency to employ those Powers which
you are now vested with, for his Majestys real Service & the best
Interest of this People. The Duties of the Governor & Governed are
reciprocal: And by our happy Constitution their Dependence is mutual:
Nothing can more effectually produce & establish that Order and
Tranquility in the Province so often disturbd under the late
unfortunate Administration: Nothing will tend more to conciliate the
Affections of this People, & ensure to your Excellency those Aids
which you will constantly stand in Need of from their Representatives,
than, as a wise and faithful Administrator to make Use of the publick
Power, with a View only to the publick Welfare: And while your Excy
shall religiously regard the Constitution of this Province; while you
shall maintain its fundamental Laws, so necessary to secure the
publick Tranquility, you may be assured, that his Majestys faithful
Commons of this Province, will never be wanting in their utmost
Exertions to support you in all such measures, as shall be calculated
for the publick Good, & to render your Administration prosperous &
happy.
1 On April 3 the House had appointed a committee, and on April 4 two
committees, in connection with the requests to the Governor to remove
the General Court to Boston. Adams was a member of each of these
committees.
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF MASSACHUSETTS TO THE GOVERNOR.1
[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library; a text, with modifications,
is in Massachusetts State Papers, p. 298; a text is also in Journal of
the House of Representatives, 1770-1771, p. 246.]
In the House of Representatives April 25 1771
Orderd that Mr Saml Adams Brig Ruggles Mr Hersy Coll Bowers & Mr
Godfrey be a Committee to wait on his Excellency with the following
message.
May it please your Excellency.
The House of Representatives after Enquiry of the Secretary cannot be
made certain whether you have yet given your Assent to two Bills which
were laid before your Excellency early in this Session: The one for
granting the Sum of five hundred and Six pounds for your Services when
Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chiefe; and the other for
granting the usual Sum of Thirteen hundred Pounds to enable your
Excellency, as Governor, to carry on the Affairs of this Province.
And as your Excellency was not pleasd to give your Assent to another
Bill passd in the last Session of this Assembly, for granting the Sum
of three hundred & twenty five pounds for your Services, when in the
Chair, as Lieutenant Governor, the House are apprehensive that you are
under some Restraint; and they cannot account for it upon any other
Principle, but your having Provision for your Support, in some new and
unprecedented manner. If the Apprehensions of the House are not
groundless, they are sollicitous to be made certain of it, before an
End is put to the present Session;2 and think it their Duty to pray
your Excellency to inform them, whether any provision is made for your
Support, as Governor of this Province, independent of his Majestys
Commons in it.
1 On April 24, Adams moved that the House send a message to the
Governor asking whether provision had been made for his support
independently of the legislature. The motion was carried, and Adams
was named as the first member of the committee to prepare such a
message. On April 25, he was named as the first of a committee to
present the message to the Governor.
2 The General Court was dissolved on April 26.
ARTICLE SIGNED "CANDIDUS."
[Boston Gazette, June 10, 1771.]
Messieurs EDES & GILL,
BENEVOLUS, in Mr. Draper's Gazette seems to have no doubts in his
mind, but that "a general air of satisfaction arising from the
accounts given in the last Monday's papers of the present state of our
publick affairs will shew itself universally thro' the province." I
have no inclination to disturb the sweet repose of this placid
gentleman; but I must confess I see no cause for such a general air of
satisfaction from those accounts, and I will venture to add, that
there is no appearance of it in this town - Does Benevolus think it
possible for the good people of this province to be satisfied, when
they are told by the Governor, as appears by the last Monday's papers,
that he is restrained from holding the court in its antient, usual and
most convenient place without his Majesty's express leave? Does not
the charter say that the Governor shall have the power of acting in
this matter "as he shall judge necessary"?
Is it not of great importance to the welfare of the province that the
Governor should be vested with such a power, and that he should
exercise it without restraint? While he is, or thinks himself
fetter'd, by an absolute instruction to hold the assembly out of the
town of Boston, to the inconvenience of the members. and the injury of
the people, as the present House of Representatives express it, can he
be said to have the free exercise of all the powers vested in him by
the charter, which is our social compact? Will it yield such a general
satisfaction to the people as Benevolus expects, to see their Governor
thus embarrass'd in his administration, and to hear him expressly
declaring, that he must ask leave, and be determin'd by the judgment
of another in the matter in which it is his indispensible duty to act
with freedom, and by the determination of his own judgment. - Is not
this power devolv'd upon him by the constitution of the province for
the good of the people? Is it not a beneficiary grant, and therefore a
right of the people? And if instructions may controul him in the
exercise of one charter right, may they not controul in the exercise
of any or every one? And yet Benevolus would fain have it thought that
there is a general satisfaction in the town of Boston arising from
this account, and doubts not but it will run thro' the province. Does
not the present House of Representatives in their Remonstrance to the
Governor against the holding the assembly at Cambridge, instead of
"departing from the principles" as Benevolus would insinuate, adopt
the remonstrances of the two houses of the last year as founded upon
just principles? Do they not tell his Excellency that the holding the
assembly at Cambridge "was consider'd as a GRIEVANCE by the people in
general in the province; and that while it is continued it will have a
tendency to prevent a restoration of that harmony, between the several
branches of the general assembly, which is so earnestly to be desired
by all good men"? And is it so pleasant a story to be told to the
people of the province, that the Governor either cannot, or will not,
remove a Grievance of so fatal a tendency, though expressly vested by
the charter with the power of doing it if he pleases, without asking
leave to do it? How then can Benevolus possibly entertain the least
hopes that a general air of satisfaction will run thro' the province?
Is not this Instruction a novelty? Was ever a Governor before thus
restrain'd? And is it not a mortifying circumstance that a gentleman
from whom the clergy of the province, (I mean the goodly number of
SEVENTEEN out of near four hundred in the province, full seven eighths
of whom never heard that an address was intended) have express'd the
most sanguine expectations as being born and educated among us, and
who we are told accepted the government with great reluctance, should
submit to be shackled with an instruction so grievous to the people
while it is obey'd: And if HE is as resolv'd as any other Governor
would be, to make Instructions the rule of his governing, and give
them the force of laws in this province, as he certainly appears to
be, what "distinguishing mark of favor" is it, or what satisfaction
can it afford the people in general, that "a native of the province is
appointed to preside over it"? - Surely Benevolus must either be
totally inadvertent to the accounts of the state of our publick
affairs as given to us in the last Mondays papers, or he must have
altogether confided in the accounts of a confused writer in the
Evening-Post, who in the old stile of the hackney'd writers in
Bernard's administration, tells us that FACTION is now at an end; and
with an awkward air of gravity insinuates, that the people, after
having nobly struggled for their freedom, are, under the benign
influence of the present administration, "returning to their right
senses ". A firm and manly opposition to the attempts that have
been made, and are still making, to enslave and ruin this continent,
has always been branded by writers of this stamp, with the name of a
FACTION. Governor Bernard used to tell his Lordship, that it was an
"expiring faction"; with as little reason it is now said to have given
up the ghost: Gladly would some, even of the Clergy, persuade this
people to be at ease; and for the sake of peace under the
administration of "a son of the province", to acquiesce in
unconstitutional revenue acts, arbitrary ministerial mandates, and
absolute despotic independent governors, &c. &c. But the time is not
yet come; and I am satisfied that, notwithstanding the address of a
few who took the opportunity to carry it through, while only the small
number of twenty-four were present, there is in that venerable order a
great majority, who will not go up to the house of Rimmon, or bow the
knee to Baal.
CANDIDUS.
ARTICLE SIGNED "CANDIDUS."
[Boston Gazette, June 17, 1771.]
Messieurs EDES & GILL,
It is not very material whether the Address of the Convention of the
Clergy, as it is called by the Layman, in Mr. Draper's last Paper, was
the Act of seventeen or twenty three Gentlemen, or whether there were
only twenty-four or thirty present, when the Vote was procured. - Be
it as it may, it is a Question, why this Matter was bro't on and
finished so early, and when so small a Number as thirty, if so many,
were present. - It is said that after the Address was Voted, the
Number increased to Sixty; and upon a Proposal to reconsider the Vote,
"not above Ten of that Number voted for such Reconsideration."
Allowing this to be the Case, it appears, that not more than one in
seven of the Congregational Clergy of this Province were at the
Meeting, and in all Probability seven-eighths of that Denomination
never heard that an Address was intended; for I am told, that upon a
moderate Computation, their Number in the Province is at least upwards
of Four-Hundred. I should be glad therefore, if the Reverend Doctor
who presided at the Meeting, would inform us, with what Propriety the
World is told, that this was "the Address of the Congregational
Ministers of the Province."
For my own Part, I pay very little Regard to Addresses to Great Men:
Whenever they appear to be but the Breath of Flattery, they must be
offensive to the Ears of any Man who has the Feelings of Truth and
Sincerity in his own Breast. -There is no Question but the Clergy have
a Right to address whom they please; and it is not strange to find
some of them ready to make their Compliments to a Governor - It is in
Course: But of all Men, we are to expect from them, even upon such
Occasions, Examples of that Simplicity and godly Sincerity, which we
so often hear them inculcate from the Pulpit - I do not pretend to
charge them with a Failure in this Instance: But I cannot help
thinking, that rather more of those excellent Christian Graces would
have appeared in these Reverend Addressers, if they had ascertained
the Number present. This might have prevented a Mistake in many of the
distant Readers, who may possibly conceive that "so kind, so
affectionate an Address," contained the declared Sentiments of a
Majority at least of the "respectable and venerable" Body of the
Clergy of the Province; which cannot be true, if in Fact not more than
a seventh Part of them knew any Thing about it - I am with due
Veneration for "the Congregational Ministers of the Province."
CANDIDUS.
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF MASSACHUSETTS
TO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.1
[Boston Gazette, July 29, 1771; a text from the Bowdoin MS. is in
Proceedings of Massachusetts Historical Society, Ser. I., vol. viii.,
pp. 468-473.]
PROVINCE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY,
June 29, 1771.
SIR,
Your letter of the 5th of February2 has been laid before the House:
The contents are important and claim our fixed attention.
We cannot think the doctrine of the right of Parliament to tax us is
given up, while an act remains in force for that purpose, and is daily
put in execution; and the longer it remains the more danger there is
of the people's becoming so accustomed to arbitrary and
unconstitutional taxes, as to pay them without discontent; and then,
as you justly observe, no Minister will ever think of taking them off,
but will rather be encouraged to add others. - If ever the provincial
assemblies should be voluntarily silent, on the Parliament's taking
upon themselves a power thus to violate our constitutional and Charter
Rights, it might be considered as an approbation of it, or at least a
tacit consent, that such a power should be exercised at any future
time. It is therefore our duty to declare our Rights and our
determined Resolution at all times to maintain them: The time we know
will come, when they must be acknowledged, established and secured to
us and our posterity.