The Writings of Samuel Adams, volume II (1770 1773)

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ARTICLE SIGNED "VINDEX."

[Boston Gazette, November 30, I772.1]

MR. A--N D-----s.

SIR,

The weakness of an adversary with a man of understanding will
frequently disarm him of his resentment: Who would chuse to enter the
lists, when even victory is attended with disgrace? A--n D--s as a
Hockster of small Wares, within the Bar-room; or laudably vending Milk
and Water, might have grubbed on unnoticed, and not superlatively
contemptible; but when he so far mistakes his proper department, as to
blunder into the field of politicks, and assume a dictatorial and
offensive part, we are compelled with reluctance to scourge the
insect, tho' convinced 'tis but an insect still. We are informed by
your fellow townsman, whom we presume must know you well, that you are
destitute of feeling; your unexampled effrontery in the publick
transaction which has unhappily brought you into notice, added to the
consummate assurance evidenced in the stupid composition to which you
have tacked your name, are strong circumstances in favour of this
position But is your modesty truly impregnable? cannot the weapon of
stern rebuke arouse your sensibility? must honest indignation mourn a
defeat? I intend to try the doubtful experiment, tho' you should
analize a satyr to be a proof of your general consequence, and extract
incense to your vanity from the blackest records of your shame.

In your courageous zeal for the cause of christianity, and the
Virgin Mary, permit me to question your sincerity: It is evident
from your notable performance, that you have been acquainted with
the religious principles and immoral practices of the gentleman so
very exceptionable to you; for some years past: That he was then
as thorough-paced an infidel as virulent an opposer of our holy
religion, as he is now: That he was doing discredit to the Bible
then, or to adopt your own phrase, was undeceiving mankind as
actively as at any time since: That you was acquainted with the
open profanity of his conversation, and if we may take your word
for it, was an earwitness of his oaths and execrations: Why did
you not commence a champion in the cause of christianity some
months earlier? it would have had a better appearance, if in your
ebullient zeal you had endeavoured to prevent his disseminating
such mischievous principles, and seasonably entered your caveat
against the pernicious effects of his example. But the cause of
christianity abstracted from political concerns, was not
sufficient to awaken your resentment: Will not this my dear sir!
occasion suspicions, that all your flaming professions of
patriotism will neither discredit nor remove?

Doctor Young (I dare you to contradict me) has ever been an
unwearied assertor of the rights of his countrymen: has taken the
post of hazard, and acted vigorously in the cause of American
freedom: Such endeavours and exertions, have justly entitled him
to the notice, to the confidence of the people; they, from a
thorough conviction of his political integrity have united him
with several gentlemen, against whom we presume you can have no
just exception, to explain their rights and state their
grievances; was not your conscience so delicately offensible, I
would ask such an immaculate christian, whether your ideas of
reprobation extended not only to the whole committee, but to every
transaction in which they could possibly be employed? If not, are
you not ashamed of your capricious folly, in rejecting a cause
which you profess to have at heart, for the sake of an individual,
against whom, your spotless purity has matter of objection.

Shall I be arraigned for want of charity, if I here express my
doubt of your veracity in this matter? The cloak of christianity
is the threadbare garb of hypocrisy; and novel cover for political
apostates: I suspect 't is the cause that renders the man obnoxious;
the infidel might have perverted the world, and your zeal been
smothered in its native bosom of sanctity: in short, had not the
cause of liberty found a busy advocate in the man you brand with
irreligion, your abhorrence would probably never have found a tongue.

You do not chuse to have any thing to do with measures wherein you
must follow the lead of such men as Dr. Young: I apprehend you
confine yourself here to political matters; if so, what must those
rejected measures be? if just, right and reasonable, the man must
be an incorrigible blockhead to reject them, let them originate
where they will: if on the contrary, they are improper and
exceptionable; you might have discountenanced the measure, without
villifying the man.

Inconsiderable and weak as I esteem you, you have still an
interest in the constitutional claims of an English subject, equal
to a nobleman, equal to an intelligent being: these you have no
right to sacrifice even to your own predominant folly. You assert
that you are, and ever have been as steady a friend to the rights
and privileges of your country, as any man whatsoever, &c. what
then is that exact point of difference, that chaste line of
decorum, to which your love of your country will carry you, and no
further? all those concerned in consulting and labouring for the
redemption of their country, must be very exemplary christians, or
your patriotism hangs so loosely about you, that your country may
perish rather than you will unite for its salvation, with a man
not compleatly orthodox: For no political measures can possibly be
reasonable or just, which are not dictated by men of piety and
real christianity: The truth of this observation will appear with
peculiar lustre, when we consider what a paultry figure, those
antient heathenish states of Greece and Rome made in the primitive
ages. You elsewhere shrewdly remark, that it has always been
astonishing to the world, how any important trusts came to be
committed to Doctor Young; the best account that can be given for
it, YOU BELIEVE is, that he has appeared ready to lead in such
bold and exceptional measures, as rather savoured of faction, than
boded any good to the public: which is in plain English, that because
the measures he proposed, were dangerous and exceptionable, Therefore
the town approved and confided in him. To wave the illiberal slander
upon the town; I question, most christian sir! whether any article of
Doctor Young's CREED will shock decency and common sense more than
this.

The present crisis is truly an alarming one to your country; the
few friends of the people have abundant necessity to have their
hands strengthened: the man who deserts now, is the worst enemy of
his country: You sir! have done this, with the aggravated guilt of
endeavouring to load with obloquy the cause you abandon - I scorn
to keep terms with a man I esteem so base - You have provided
yourself a Retreat, being assured of the smiles of power; nay
more, you are entitled to their favour, for the rank injury you
meant to the oppressed people; and we shall probably see such
baseness distinguished in the commissioned scroll of SCOUNDRELLS
and RESCINDERS.

VINDEX.

1 The following note by the publishers is printed with this article:
“Dr. Young's Letter to Mr. Aaron Davis, Jun. should have had a
Place in this Day's Paper had we not been pre engaged with the
following."

TO ARTHUR LEE.

[R. H. Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, vol. ii., pp. 196, 197.]

BOSTON, Nov. 31st, 1772.

MY DEAR SIR, - My last letter to you was of the 3d inst. I now
enclose the proceedings of this town at a meeting appointed to
receive the report of the committee, which is attested by the
town-clerk, and published by order of the town.

Our enemies are taking all imaginable pains to disparage the
proceedings, and prevent their having any effect in the country.
They are particularly endeavouring to have it believed, that the
vote was carried at a very thin meeting; and in the Court Gazette
of last week have had the assurance to say, that there were not
more than twenty persons present, and that not ten voted for it;
whereas it was much such a meeting, or rather fuller than the
last. The town of Roxbury, adjacent to this, have met, and against
the efforts of the whole cabal have raised a committee of nine
persons to take our proceedings into consideration, and report at
an adjournment; having before voted the independency of the
judges, "a most dangerous innovation." Plymouth, another large
town, forty miles distant, has also met, but we have not yet heard
what has been done there;1 from the spirit of the petitions to
their selectmen for a meeting, among the enclosed papers, I hope
to send you an agreeable account. Other towns are in motion of
their accord, for our pamphlet is not yet sent into the country towns,
Roxbury excepted. The conspirators are very sensible that if our
design succeeds, there will be an apparent union of sentiments among
the people of this province, which may spread through the continent.
You cannot then wonder that their utmost skill is employed to oppose
it.

I intended to have sent my last by Capt. Scott, but having failed
in that design, I herewith enclose it. I am disappointed if I do
not receive a letter from you by every vessel that arrives here.
Be assured that I am with great esteem sir, your humble servant,

1 See below, page 394.

TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.

[J. T. Austin, Life of Elbridge Gerry, vol. 1., pp. 22, 23.]

BOSTON, Dec. 7, 1772.

MY DEAR SIR,

I have just received your's of the 26th November,1 and take the
earliest opportunity to acknowledge it. I shall lay it before our
committee as soon as may be. Hope you have had a happy meeting
this day, and rest with esteem,

Sir, your friend,
Monday, 10 o'clock evening.

1 J. T. Austin, Life of Elbridge Gerry, vol. i., pp. 21, 22.

TO WILLIAM CHECKLEY.1

[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]

BOSTON Decr 14 1772

MY DEAR SR

I am at a Loss to determine in my own Mind whether a Letter from
me will be agreable to you, as I have not receivd a Line from you
since I wrote my last several Months ago. If any Consideration has
brot you to a Resolution no longer to keep up an Epistolary
Conversation with me, I must on my part cease; but while I remember
former Connections, I shall never forget the only surviving Branch of
a Family I loved, and shall make my self as happy as possible, in
silently wishing the best Welfare of him whose Regards I think I have
not forfeited.

It is not an easy thing at this time of my Life, to put me out of the
possession of my self. I have been used to the alternate Frowns &
Smiles of many who call themselves, & some of them in truth are my
Friends. I bear it all with OEquanimity, infinitely better pleasd with
the Approbation of my own mind, than I should be with the flatteries
of the Great, & in the Sunshine of power. Those who love this Country,
I have the Vanity to think are in Reality, my friends; for they must
be convincd that the small Share of Ability which Gracious Heaven has
been pleasd to bestow on me, has ever been employd for its Happiness.
If I have mistaken its true Happiness (which by the Way I think I have
not) it belongs to the Candid to overlook it; the Opinion of others I
very little regard, & have a thorough Contempt for all men, be their
Names Characters & Stations what they may, who appear to be the
irreclaimable Enemies of Religion & Liberty. Had I not thought it
would have been rather an Inconvenience to you, I should have sent
you the last Week the Votes & proceedings of your native town; If I
can be informd by you that it will not be disagreable, I will send you
a printed Copy by the next post.

Altho I have already transgressd the Bounds of a Letter to so great a
Stranger, yet having a warm friendship for Mrs Checkley, I cannot help
desiring you to make mention of my own & my family regards to her.
Having said this I must beg you to believe, whatever others may have
whisperd to the Contrary, that I am Yours affectionately,

1 Addressed, "in the Customs, Providence." Cf. Literary Diary of
Ezra Stiles, vol. i., p. 58.

ARTICLE SIGNED "CANDIDUS."

[Boston Gazette, December 14, 1772.]

To the PRINTERS,

NOTWITHSTANDING the ministerial Tools have so often puff'd upon
the Impartiality of the Court Gazette, we have had a second
Instance of the Necessity the Selectmen of this Town have thought
themselves under to vindicate the Cause of Liberty & Truth, from
the gross Misrepresentation of well known Facts that have been
made in that immaculate Paper. If Mr. Draper had had the least
Inclination to have ascertained the Falsehood of the Paragraph
inserted in his Paper of the 26th of November, it was so
notorious, that without giving the Selectmen the Trouble of it, he
might have done it himself, by enquiring of perhaps the first
honest Man he had met in the Street: But it was calculated to
mislead the Reader into a Belief, that "not ten Persons voted for
sending the Letter of Correspondence" into the Country, and
therefore it must, to answer so good a Purpose, be inserted in that
"circulating" Gazette, whether true or false; and the Publisher, very
demurely, by Way of Atonement, after the Falsehood is detected,
promises the injur'd Publick " to enquire into the Foundation
of it."-!!!

In his last Gazette he informs his Readers that he had accordingly
apply'd to his Author; who, he says, "does not deny the Number
present" at the Meeting "as declared by the Selectmen when the
first Vote pass'd." Now the Selectmen declare, "that a respectable
Number of the Inhabitants attended the Meeting through the Day,
and when the Letter, after being twice read and amended in the
Meeting was voted, and accepted to be sent, it appeared to them,
and they are well satisfied, that there was not less than three
Hundred Inhabitants present, and in the Opinion of others the
Number was much larger"; which is undoubtedly the Fact. But Mr.
Draper's Author of the Note (if he had any) had said that "when
the Votes pass'd for sending the letter, there was not twenty Men
present besides the Gentlemen Selectmen & some of the Committee".
The Contradiction appear'd so glaring even in Mr. Draper's eyes,
as well as others, that after he had publish'd it to the World, he
thought his own Reputation concern'd, as indeed it was, to enquire
into the Foundation of the Report, which he ought to have done
before. The Man of Verity his Author, makes a shift to tell him,
that truly "it was a Vote that pass'd half an Hour after Nine
o'Clock that he meant in his Note, when most of the Inhabitants
had withdrawn"; but he does not now say what Vote he meant in his
Note, though when he reported it "with some Confidence" he plumply
said it was the Vote for sending the Letter. The Man who is
resolv'd to serve a Party at the expence of Truth, should have the
best of Memories; the want of which has render'd the Court Writers
oftentimes inconsistent with themselves and with each other. But
what else are we to expect from Champions of a Cause which has
only the feeble Props of Misrepresentation and low Artifice to
support it! As this Author reported according to Draper with some
Confidence, he ought to have inform'd himself of a known Fact,
that the question debated at half an Hour after Nine o'Clock, as
he now says, or at about Ten as he had asserted in his Note, was
not whether the Letter should be sent to the Selectmen of the
Towns in the Country; - That had been determin'd by a full Vote
Nem. Con. before "most of the Inhabitants had withdrawn ". It was
after this Vote had pass'd, and when it is allow'd the Meeting was
thin, a Question of much less Importance than the other was
debated, viz. In what Manner the Letter should be sent; upon which
it was agreed that the Town-Clerk should sign and forward it by
the Direction of the Committee.1 Accordingly, I am well assured,
it has been forwarded to four fifths of the Gentlemen Selectmen in
the Country, the representatives of the several Towns, the Members
of his Majesty's Council and others of Note, by the Direction of
the Committee, in Pursuance of the Vote of the Town, with less
Expence for Carriage than two Dollars. I have a better Opinion of
the good Sense of the People of this Country, than to believe they
will be diverted from an Attention to Matters which essentially
concern their own and their Childrens best Birthrights, and which
every Day become more serious and alarming, by the Trifles that
are every Week thrown out perhaps with that very Design in the
Court Gazette more especially. The Ax is laid at the Root of our
happy civil Constitution: Our religious Rights are threatned:
These important Matters are the Subjects of the Letter of this
Town to our Friends and Fellow Sufferers in the Country. Whether
there were present at the Meeting three Hundred or three Thousand,
it was a legal Meeting: As legal as a Meeting of the General
Assembly convened by the King's Writ or a Meeting of his Majesty's
Council summoned by his Excellency the Governor: This I say with
due respect to those great Assemblies. The Selectmen, among whom
is the honorable Gentleman who was Moderator2 of the Meeting, have
condescended to publish it under their Hands, that "a very
respectable Number attended the Meeting through the Day":-If it
had been as thin a Meeting as Mr. Draper's Writers would fain have
the Country think it was, still, being a legal Meeting, their
proceedings according to the Warrant for calling it, would have
been as legal as those of his Majesty's Council when seven
Gentlemen only (which Number by the Charter constitutes a Quorum)
out of their whole Number, Twenty-Eight, happen to be present. If
the Generality of my Countrymen shall think those Proceedings to
be of any Importance to them, and shall act upon them with their
own good Sense and Understanding, I care not who concern themselves
in adjusting the private, moral or religious Characters of Dr. Young
and the Lieutenant Governor. The part which each of these Gentlemen
has acted upon the political Stage is well known.

I would just observe to Mr. Draper, that the Name of the Gentleman
who furnish'd him with the Note before refer'd to, is perhaps not
so deep a Secret as he may imagine it to be. It may be, he had then no
thought that a Story inadvertently told, would have been immediately
work'd up by the Press: This however has been done, and the Publick
has been thereby abused: It should make one cautious not too suddenly
to communicate any Piece of Intelligence, especially of Importance,
and still more especially of political Importance, to one whose
Business it is to publish what he hears. Mr. Draper may flatter
himself that "the Credit of his Paper has not yet suffered": It is
sometimes not an easy thing, to perswade a Man to believe that to be
true, which he wishes may not be true: It must needs be difficult to
establish in the minds of impartial Men, the Reputation of a Paper,
the Publisher of which (to use the mild, very mild Expressions of the
Selectmen) "has suffered ", it may be said repeatedly, "what was so
different from the fact to be inserted," before he "had Opportunity to
be very particular in his Inquiries about it; especially as it was a
Matter, by his own Concession, so interesting to the People in the
Country, as that "they ought to be satisfied whether the Report be
true or false". This, we hope, by the Interposition of the Selectmen
is now done; and it was the more necessary, because the same Gentleman
who furnished Mr. Draper with the Note, as he calls it, had related
the story which is now detected, to a Person going, and since gone
into a distant Country in this Province.

Whether Mr. Draper in the Conclusion of what he inserted in his
last, sign'd the Printer, had an Intention obliquely to reflect on
the Honor of the Selectmen, those Gentlemen, if they please will
consider.

CANDIDUS.

1 Record commissioners' Report, vol. xviii., p. 94.
2 John Hancock, Esq;

TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.

[J. T. Austin, Life of Elbridge Gerry, vol. i., pp. 23-25.]

BOSTON, Dec. 23, 1772.

MY DEAR SIR,

The further proceedings of the truly patriotic town of Marblehead,
together with your own esteemed favours of the 16th and 21st
instant, came to my hand in due season, The proceedings I
immediately communicated to our chairman; and from your hint that
it was thought proper to suspend the publication, together with
assurances of letters from some other towns speedily, we agreed
also to suspend the calling a meeting of our committee, which
however will be done soon. Agreeably to the intimations in your
last I find in the Essex Gazette1 a, - what shall I call it? a
disapprobation, to use their own term, signed by a few men, of the
proceedings of a whole town. If "in fact there was but about twenty
persons who voted at the meeting" and all the rest were against the
measure, I wonder much that they did not follow the example of so
eminent a person as the single dissentient and outvote you when
they had it in their power. Or why could not the twenty-nine
disapprobators have attended the meeting the second time and prevented
your taking such measures from which they "are apprehensive the town
will incur a great deal of public censure"? This would indeed have
been meritorious. I am a stranger to most of the gentlemen who have
thus signalized themselves; Mr. Mansfield I once thought a zealous
whig, perhaps I was mistaken. After all, the whole seems to be but a
weak effort; their third reason appears to me so excessively puerile,
that I am surprised that gentlemen of character could deliberately set
their hands to it.

Your last proceedings sent to us in manuscript are attested by the
town clerk. I am sorry to observe that the printed copy in the Essex
Gazelle is without his attestation, because an advantage may be made
of it in our Court Gazette to lessen its credit and authority; to
prevent which I intend the next Monday's papers shall have it from the
manuscript unless (which I cannot much expect) I shall be otherwise
advised by you.

I was thinking that you might turn the tables upon your disapprobating
friends, by getting a much larger subscription from persons who were
not at the meeting and approve of the proceedings. Whether it be
prudent or worth while to try this method you must certainly be a
better judge than I am.

The tools of power, little and great, are taking unwearied pains to
prevent the meeting of the towns, but they do not succeed altogether
to their wishes. I cannot help entertaining some sanguine hopes that
the measures we have pursued will have a happy event.

1 Published at Salem, by S. and E. Hall.

TO DARIUS SESSIONS.1

[Ms., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]

BOSTON Decr 28 1772

SIR

This day I had the Honor of receiving a Letter signd by yourself and
other Gentlemen of Note in Providence. The Subject is weighty, &
requires more of my Attention than a few Hours, to give you my
digested Sentiments of it; neither have I yet had an Opportunity of
advising with the few among my Acquaintances, whom I would chuse to
consult upon a Matter, which in my Opinion may involve the Fate of
America. This, I intend soon to do; and shall then, I hope, be able
to communicate to you (before the Time you have set shall expire) such
Thoughts, as in your Judgment, may perhaps be wise and salutary on so
pressing an Occasion. Thus much however seems to me to be obvious at
first View; that the whole Act of Parliament so far as it relates to
the Colonies, & consequently the Commission which is founded upon it,
is against the first Principles of Government and the English
Constitution, Magna Charta & many other Acts of Parliament,
declaratory of the Rights of the Subject; & therefore the Guardians
of the Rights of the Subject will consider whether it be not their
Duty, so far from giving the least Countenance to the Execution of it,
to declare it, ipso Facto null & Void. This Commission seems to be
substituted in the Room of a Grand Jury, which is one of the greatest
Bulwarks of the Liberty of the Subject; instituted for the very
Purpose of preventing Mischeife being done by false Accusers. By the
Act of Parliament of the 25th of Ed. 3d (in the true Sense of the
Words the best of Kings) it is establishd, that none shall be taken by
Suggestion made to the King or his Council (which seems to me to be
the present Point) unless it be by Indictment or Presentment of good &
lawful People of the same Neighbourhood, where such Deeds be done -
And, "if any thing be done against the same it shall be redressd &
holden for none." But certain Persons proscribd in the Colony of Rhode
Island, are to be taken without such Indictment or Presentment, &
carried away from the Neighborhood where Deeds unlawful are suggested
to the King to have been committed, & there put to answer contrary to
that Law, which even so long ago was held to be the old Law of the
Land. - One Reason given in the Act for taking away that accursed
Court called the Star Chamber was, because all Matters examinable &
determinable before that Court might have their due Punishment and
Correction by the Common Law of the Land and in the ordinary Course of
Justice elsewhere. But here seems to be a stopping of the ordinary
Course of Justice; & by setting up a Court of Enquiry founded upon
a Suggestion of evil Deeds made to the King & of certain Persons
supposd to be concernd therein, Jurisdiction is given to others than
the constituted ordinary Courts of Justice, & in a Way other than the
ordinary Course of the Law, that is, an arbitrary Way to examine &
draw into Question Matters & things which, by the Act for regulating
the privy Council it is declared, that neither his Majesty nor his
privy Council have or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power or
Authority to do. In short, this Measure appears to me to be repugnant
to the first Principles of natural Justice. The interrested Servants
of the Crown, and some of them pensiond, perhaps byassd & corrupted
being the constituted Judges, whether this or that Subject shall be
put to answer for a supposd Offence against the Crown, & that in a
distant Country, to their great Detriment & Danger of Life & Fortune,
even if their Innocence shd be made to appear. What Man is safe from
the malicious Prosecution of such Persons, unless it be the cringing
Sycophant, and even he holds his Life and Property at their Mercy. It
should awaken the American Colonies, which have been too long dozing
upon the Brink of Ruin. It should again unite them in one Band. Had
that Union which once happily subsisted been preservd, the
Conspirators against our Common Rights would never have venturd such
bold Attempts. It has ever been my Opinion, that an Attack upon the
Liberties of one Colony is an Attack upon the Liberties of
all; and therefore in this Instance all should be ready to yield
Assistance to Rhode Island. But an Answer to the most material Part of
your Letter must be referd, for the Reasons I have given, to another
Opportunity. In the mean time I am with due Regards to the Gentlemen
who have honord me with their Letter

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