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

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There is in the same Evening Post, as well as the Boston Post-Boy &
Advertiser,2 & also in the Gazette of Thursday last, an Advertisement
wherein the same Notice is taken of this Assault and Battery of mine
upon the Scholarship of the Lieutenant Governor of this Province--I am
sorry that my poor Publication, which seems after all to be of no more
Significancy in their Opinion than "a Man of Straw" has given so great
Uneasiness to some of his Honor's Friends--This Advertiser indirectly
chargeth me with Indecency in "undertaking to answer a Governor's
Message." Now I did not undertake to anwer a Governor's Message; and
to speak plain, I did not think it worth while to undertake it--I
believe I am not alone in the Opinion, that some messages might easily
be answered, & possibly each in "one Day only": But if I had
undertaken it, where in the Name of common sense would have been the
Indecency of it? I know very well that it has been handed as a
political Creed of late, that the Reasoning of the People without
Doors is not to be regarded--But every "transient Person" has a Right
publickly to animadvert upon whatever is publickly advanc'd by any
Man, and I am resolv'd to exercise that Right, when I please, without
asking any Man's Leave--And moreover, I am free to say, that if ever a
Governor's Message should happen to be below the Attention of a
Scholar, no Person can more aptly take Notice of it, that I know of,
than

A CHATTERER.

1The Boston Evening Post, published by T. & J. Fleet.
2The Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy Advertiser, published
by Mills and Hicks.

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF MASSACHUSETTS TO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.1

[Boston Gazette, July 22, 1771: a text is printed in Papers Relating
to Public Events in Massachusetts, Philadelphia, 1856, 169-177.]

PROVINCE OF MASSACHUSETTS-BAY
NOV. 6, 1770.

SIR,

The House of Representatives of this his Majesty's province, having
made choice of you to appear for them at the court of Great Britain,
as there may be occasion; it is necessary that you be well informed of
the state and circumstances of the province, and the grievances we
labor under, the redress of which will require your utmost attention
and application.

You are sensible that the British parliament have of late years
thought proper to raise a revenue in America without our consent, by
divers acts made expressly for that purpose; The reasons and grounds
of our complaints against those acts, are so well known and understood
by you, that it is needless for us to mention them at this time.

The measures that have been taken by the American assemblies, to
obtain the repeal of these acts, tho' altogether consistent with the
constitution, and clearly within the bounds of the Subjects Rights,
have been nevertheless disgustful to administration; to whom we have
been constantly represented by the servants of the crown and others on
this side the water, in the most disagreeable and odious light.

Whether this province has been considered as having a lead among the
other colonies, which they have never affected, or whether it is
because Governor Bernard, the Commissioners of the Customs and others,
who have discovered themselves peculiarly inimical to the Colonies,
have had their residences here, certain it is, that the resentment of
government at home has been particularly pointed against this
province: For it is notorious that we have been charged with taking
inflammatory measures, tending to create unwarrantable combinations,
to excite an unjustifiable opposition to parliament, and revive
unhappy divisions among the Colonies; and we have frequently been
censured as disobedient to government for parts of conduct which have
been in no wise dissimular to those which have been taken by other
colonies without the least censure or observation.

While administration appeared to have conceived undue prejudices
against us, our enemies have not failed to take every measure to
increase those prejudices; and particularly by representing to the
King's ministers, that a spirit of faction had so greatly and
universally prevailed among us, as that government could not be
supported, and it was unsafe for the officers of the crown to live in
the province and execute their trusts, without the protection of a
military force: Such a force they at length obtained; the consequence
of which was a scene of confusion & distress for the space of
seventeen months, which ended in the blood and slaughter of his
Majesty's good subjects.

It was particularly mortifying to us to see the whole system of civil
authority in the province, yielding to this most dangerous power; and
at the very time when the interposition of the civil magistrate was of
the most pressing necessity, to check the wanton and bloody career of
the military, the Lieutenant-Governor himself declared, as Governor
Bernard had before, that "he had no authority over the King's troops
in the province," and his Majesty's representative in Council became
an humble supplicant for their removal out of the town of Boston! What
would be the feelings of our fellow-subjects in Britain, if contrary
to their Bill of Rights, and indeed to every principle of civil
government, soldiers were posted even in their captial, without the
consent of their Parliament? And yet the subjects of the same Prince
in America who are entitled to the same freedom, are compelled to
submit to as great a military power as administration shall please to
order to be posted among them in a time of profound peace, without the
consent of their assemblies! And this military power is allowed to
trample upon the laws of the land, the common security, without
restraint! Such an instance of absolute uncontroul'd military tyranny
must needs be alarming, to those who have before in some measure
enjoy'd, and are still entitled to the blessings of a free government,
having never forfeited the character of loyal subjects.--After the
fatal tragedy of the fifth of March, the regiments under the command
of Lieut. Colonel Dalrymple were removed from the Town of Boston to
the Barracks on Castle Island, in consequence of a petition from the
town to the Lieutenant Governor and his Prayer to the Colonel; since
which, in pursuance of Instruction to the Lieut. Governor, the
garrison there in the pay of the province, is withdrawn, and a
garrison of his Majesty's regular troops placed in their stead. And
although this exchange is made ostensively by the immediate order of
the lieutenant-governor, yet it appears by the inclosed depositions,
that Col. Dalrymple in reality took the custody and government of the
fortress by order of general Gage; and therefore the lieutenant
governor has no longer that command, which he is vested with by the
royal charter.

We cannot help observing upon this occasion, that the instructions
which have of late been given to the governor, some of them at least,
directly militate, as in the present instance, with the charter of the
province; And these instructions are not always adapted to promote his
Majesty's service, or the good of the people within this province, but
often appear to be solely calculated to further and execute the
measures, and enforce the laws of a different state; by which means
his Majesty's colonies may be entirely subjected to the absolute will
of his other subjects in Great Britain, for which there can be no
pretence of right, but what is founded in mere force.--By virtue of
their positive instructions, the general assembly of the province has
been remov'd from its ancient establish'd and only convenient seat in
Boston, and is still obliged to hold its session at Harvard College in
Cambridge, to the great inconvenience of the members and injury of the
people, as well as detriment of that seminary of learning, without any
reason that can be assigned but will and pleasure: And thus the
prerogative of the King, which is a trust reposed in him to be
improved only for the welfare of his subjects, is perverted to their
manifest injury.

And what is still more grievous is, that the Governor of the province
is absolutely inhibited, as we are told, from laying before the
assembly any instruction, which he receives, even such as carry in
them the evident marks of his Majesty's displeasure: By which means
the House of Representatives cannot have it in their power to obtain
here, that precise knowledge of the grounds of our Sovereign's
displeasure, which we are in reason and justice entitled to, nor can
the ministry be made responsible for any measures they may advise to
in order to introduce and establish an illegal and arbitray government
over his Majesty's subjects in the colonies.--We have an instance of
this kind now before us; the Lt. Governor of the province having in
his speech at the opening of this session, given a dark intimation of
something intended against the province, and when the House of
Representatives earnestly desired him to explain it, that they might
have a clear understanding of what was inteded therein, he declared as
he had before done in other like cases, that he was not at liberty to
make public or to communicate by speech or message an order from his
Majesty in council which he had received, although in consequence
thereof the state of the province was to be laid before parliament. By
such conduct in the ministry it appears that we may be again accus'd
and censur'd by parliament as we have heretofore been, and perhaps
suffer the greatest injury without knowing our accusers or the matters
that may be alleg'd against us.

At the same time, by an order of parliament that the names of persons
giving intelligence to the ministry which may at any time be laid
before parliament, shall be made secret even to the members
themselves, the greatest encouragement is given to persons inimical to
the province, to send home false relations of speeches and proceedings
in public assemblies, and elsewhere, containing injurious charges upon
individuals as well as publick bodies: Some of which have been
transmitted home under the seal of the province, without the least
notice given to those individuals, or any but the few in the secret to
attend and cross-examine such witnesses. Thus even parliament itself
may be misled into measures highly injurious and destructive to the
province, by the calumny and detraction of those who are not and
cannot be known, and whose falsehoods cannot therefore be
detected.--So wretched is the state of this province, not only to be
subjected to absolute instructions, given to the governor to be the
rule of his administration, whereby some of the most essential clauses
of our charter, vesting in him powers to be exercis'd for the good of
the people are totally rescinded, which in reality is a state of
despotism; but also, to a standing army, which being uncontroul'd by
any authority within the province, must soon tear up the very,
foundations of civil government.

Moreover we have the highest reason to complain that since the late
parliamentary regulations of the colonies, the jurisdiction of the
court of admiralty has been extended to so enormous a length, as
itself to threaten the very being of the constitution: By the statute
4th Geo. 3 chap. 15, "All forfeitures and penalties inflicted by this
or any other act of parliament relating to the trade and plantations
in America which shall be incur'd there, may be prosecuted, sued for
and recovered in any court of admiralty in the said colonies." Thus a
single judge, independent of the people, and in a civil law court, is
to try these extraordinary forfeitures and penalties without a jury:
Whereas the same stature provides, that all penalties and forfeitures
which shall be incurred in Great Britain, shall be prosecuted, sued
for and recovered in any of his Majesty's courts of record, in
Westminster or in the court of exchequer in Scotland respectively.
Here is the most unreasonble and unjust distinction, made between the
subjects in Britain and America; as tho' it were designed to exclude
us from the least share in that clause of Magna-Charta, which has for
many centuries been the noblest bulwark of the English liberties, &
which cannot be too often repeated; "No freeman shall be taken or
imprison'd or disseiz'd of his freehold, or liberties, or free
customs, or be outlaw'd, or exil'd, or any otherwise destroyed, nor
will we pass upon him nor condemn him, but by the judgment of his
peers or the law of the land."

These are some of the insupportable grievances which this province has
long been laboring under, and which still remain altogether
unredressed: For although they have been set forth in the clearest
manner by humble petitions to the throne, yet such an ascendency over
us have the officers of the crown here in the minds of administration,
that our complaints are scarcely heard; our very petitions are deemed
factious, and instead of obtaining any relief, our oppressions have
been more aggravated, & we have reason to apprehend will be still
increased.

For by the best intelligence from England, we are under strong
apprehensions that by virtue of an act of parliament of the 7 Geo.3.2
which impowers his Majesty to appropriate a part of the revenue raised
in America, for the support of civil government, and the
administration of justice in such colonies where he shall judge it
necessary, administration is determined to bestow large salaries upon
the attorney-general, judges and governor of this province; whereby
they will be made not only altogether independent of the people, but
wholly dependent upon the ministry for their support. These
appointments will be justly obnoxious to the other colonies, and tend
to beget and keep up a perpetual discontent among them; for they will
deem it unjust as well as unnecessary to be oblig'd to bear a part of
the support of government in this province, and even in the courts of
law; especially if designs are also meditating to make other important
alterations in our Charter, by appointing the Council from home, &c.
whereby the executive will be rendered absolute, and the legislative
totally ineffectual to any valuable purpose. The assembly is in all
reason sufficiently dependent already upon the Crown: The one branch
annually for its being, as it is subject to the negative of the
Governor; and both the branches for every grant and appropriation of
their money, and also for their whole defence and security, as he is
Captain-General, and has by Charter the sole military command within
the province: All civil officers are either nominated and appointed by
him with the advice and consent of his Majesty's Council, or if
elected they are subject to his negative: And our laws, after being
consented to by his Majesty's Governor, are by the first opportunity
from the making thereof, to be transmitted to his Majesty for his
approbation or disallowance: Three years they are subject to the
revision of the crown lawyers in Britain, who my always be strangers
to our internal polity, & sometimes disaffected to us: And at any time
within the three years, His Majesty in his privy council may, if he
thinks proper, reject them, and then they become utterly void. Surely
the parliament of Great Britain cannot wish for greater checks, both
upon the legislative and executive of a colony, unless we are to be
considered as bastards and not Sons.--A step further will reduce us to
absolute subjection. If administration is resolved to continue such
measure of severity, the colonies will in time consider the
mother-state as utterly regardless of their welfare: Repeated acts of
unkindness on one side, may by degrees abate the warmth of affection
on the other, and a total alienation may succeed to that happy union,
harmony and confidence, which has subsisted, and we sincerely wish may
always subsist: If Great Britain, instead of treating us as their
fellow-subjects, shall aim at making us their vassals and slaves, the
consequence will be, that although our merchants have receded from
their non-importation agreement, yet the body of the people will
vigorously endeavor to become independent of the mother-country for
supplies, and sooner than she may be aware of it, will manufacture for
themselves. The colonists, like healthy young sons, have been
chearfully building up the parent state, and how far Great Britain
will be affected, if they should be rendered even barely useless to
her, is an object which we conceive is at this very juncture worth the
attention of a British Parliament.

Your own acquaintance with this province, and your well known
attachment to it, will lead you to exert all your powers in its
defence: And as the Council have made choice of William Bollan, Esq;
for their agent, you will no doubt confer with him, and concert such
measures as will promote our common interest: Your abilities we
greatly confide in; but if you shall think it for the advantage of the
province to consult with and employ council learned in the law, the
importance of your agency will be a motive sufficient for us to
acquiesce in such expence on that account, as your own judgment shall
dictate to you to be necessary.

Included are the proceedings of his Majesty's Council of this
province, upon an affidavit of Mr. Secretary Oliver, which this House
apprehend has a tendency to make a very undue impression on the minds
of his Majesty's ministers and others, respecting the temper and
disposition of the people, previous to the tragical transaction of the
fifth of March last: You are therefore desired to make such use of
them as shall prevent such unhappy consequences from taking effect.

1Attributed to Adams by Governor Hutchinson. Hutchinson to Pownall;
Public Record Office, Domestic Geo. III., 11:25. Franklin's reply,
addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives under date of
December 24, 1770, is in J. Bigelow, Complete Works of Benjamin
Franklin vol. iv., pp. 371-373.
2Chap. 46.

TO STEPHEN SAYRE.1

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

BOSTON NOVr 16 1770

SIR,

I should before now have acknowledgd your favor of the 5 June,2 but my
being obligd to attend the Session of the General Court for 7 weeks3 &
other necessary Avocations prevented it. I return the Letters signd
Junius Americanus deliverd to me by Mr Cary,4 by your direction to be
a valueable present. The Author has servd the American Cause in a
manner in which I have long wishd some able pen would have undertaken
to do it by appealing to the good Sense of the Body of the Nation. I
believe the general Inclination there is to wish that we may preserve
our Liberties; and perhaps even the Ministry could for some Reasons
find it in their hearts to be willing that we shd be restord to the
State we were in before the passing of the Stamp Act, were it not that
a Set of detestable Men were continually writing from hence that we
shd carry our Claims still higher & there wd be no Bounds to our
Demands. I can venture to assure you that there is no Foundation for
such Assertions, nor do I think they are really believd by any. The
People here are indeed greatly tenacious of their just Rights & I hope
in God they will ever firmly maintain them. Every Attempt to enforce
the plan of Despotism will certainly irritate them; While they have a
Sense of freedom they will oppose the Efforts of Tyranny; and altho
the Mother Country may at present boast of her Superiority over them,
she may perhaps find the Want of that Superiority, when by repeated
provocations she shall have totally lost their Affections.--All Good
Men surely wish for a cordial Harmony between the two Countrys. Great
Britain can lose Nothing which she ought to retain by restoring the
Americans to their former State, & they I am satisfied will no further
contend; While the Struggle continues Manufactures will still increase
in America in spite of all Efforts to prevent it; & how far Britain
will be injurd by it, ought certainly to be well considerd on your
side the Atlantick.

Our Merchants have receded from their Nonimportation Agreement. They
held it much longer than I ever thought they would or could. It was a
grand Tryal which pressd hard upon their private Interest. But the
Landholders find it for their Interest to manufacture and it is their
happy Consideration that while they are most effectually serving their
Country they are adding to their private fortunes. The representatives
of the people have this day agreed to promote Manufactures in their
respective Towns, & the House have appointed a special Committee5 to
form a plan for the effectual Encouragement of Arts Agriculture
Manufactures & Commerce in this province; & even the Administration of
a Bernard could not tend more to sharpen the Edge of resentment which
will perpetually keep alive the Spirit of Manufactures than that which
we are now blessd with. Lt Governor Hutchinson, more plausible indeed
than Bernard, seems resolvd to push the same plan & the people plainly
see that a Change of Men is not likely to produce a Change of
Measures--so soon are the Words of the one verified when he said of
the other that he could rely upon him as he could on himself.

Our House of Representatives have been inducd to do Business this
Session, against their former remonstrances, principally from a
Necessity which they apprehended they were under of attending to what
mt be doing on your Side the Water. They accordingly chose an Agent. I
gave my Suffrage with about a third part of the House, for Dr Lee--but
Dr Franklin being personally known to many of the Members had the
preference--both the Gentlemen were highly spoken of in the House, &
afterwards Dr Lee was appointed to the Trust, by a very full vote in
Case of the Death or Absence of Dr Franklin.

Our State Tryals as we may call them have at length come on. Preston
is acquitted by a Jury!6 It is to be remarkd that the Baker of the
Regiment, who indeed wd have had himself excusd, and three others were
put on as Talesmen Preston having challengd Eighteen. One of the three
was a known Intimate of Prestons and another had declared before that
if he was to be of the Jury he wd sit till Doomsday before he wd
consent to a Verdict agt him. Evidence to prove that the Soldiers were
the Aggressors of which there was plenty was not admitted. The main
Question was whether he orderd the Men to fire--diverse persons swore
positively that he did, but they differing about the Circumstance of
his Dress, & others swearing, one that he was very near him & did not
hear him give the orders, & others that some other person unknown gave
them, operated in his favor. But no Weight that I can learn was given,
to full proof that he led the Soldiers armd with loaded Musquets &
Bayonets. This he had a Right, nay it was his Duty to do, because the
Centinel was in Danger & we must presume the People were the
Aggressors. This Principle I suppose will clear the Soldiers whose
Tryals begin on Tuesday next.7 Richardson who was convicted of the
Murder of young Snider so long ago as March, remains unhangd, the
Court not having yet determind upon his Motion for another Tryal. You
may easily observe that we have catchd the impartial Spirit of the
Kings friends, a synonimous term for friends of Govt here, from the
Mother Country. I had not the opportunity of attending Prestons Tryal,
but am in hopes of having a minute Accot of it from a sensible
Gentleman who was present--if I can obtain it I will write you more
precisely upon the Subject.

Before I conclude I must mention to you that the Minister has taken a
Method which in my Opinion has a direct tendency to set up a despotism
here, or rather is the thing it self--and that is by sending
Instructions to the Governor to be the rule of his Administration &
forbiding him as the Govr declares to make them known to us, the
Design of which may be to prevent his ever being made responsible for
any measures he may advise in order to introduce & establish arbitrary
power over the Colonies. Mr Hutchinson has pushd this point with all
the Vigour of Bernard, which has occasiond warm messages between him &
the Assembly as you may observe in the Boston Gazette for several
Weeks past. But of this I shall be more particular in my next.

I shall be proud of an epistolary Correspondence with you, and with Dr
Lee to whom tho personally unknown to him I beg you wd make my
Compliments. I am with strict truth.

1A resident of London, and at one time sheriff; his relations with the
colonists appear in the letters printed in this volume.
2A copy is in S. A. Wells, Samuel Adams and the American Revolution,
vol. i. pp. 293, 294.
3The session began September 26 and ended November 20.
4Probably Richard Cary, of Charlestown, Mass. Letters by him are in
Papers Relating to Public Events in Massachusetts, pp. 113, 122, 124.
5On November 16; Samuel Adams was a member of the committee.
6The stenographic report of Preston's trial was sent to England, but
never published in America. Works of John Adams, vol. ii., p. 236.
7The Trial of the British Soldiers of the 29th Regiment of Foot was
published at Boston in 1770, 1807 and 1824, and was reprinted in
History of the Boston Massacre, Albany, 1870, pp. 123-285.

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