John Adams

351 Pages·2001·1.84 MB·English

The Revolutionary Writings of
John Adams
The Revolutionary Writings of
John Adams
Selected and with a Foreword by C. Bradley Thompson
Liberty Fund
Indianapolis
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PublicationData
Adams,John,1735–1826.
TherevolutionarywritingsofJohnAdams/selectedandwithaforewordby
C.BradleyThompson.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-86597-284-2(alk.paper)—ISBN0-86597-285-0(pbk.:alk.paper)
1. United States—Politics and government—1775–1783. 2. Massachusetts—
Politicsandgovernment—1775–1783. I.Thompson,C.Bradley. II.Title.
E302.A2622000
973.4(cid:2)4(cid:2)092—dc21 99-046495
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Fiat Justitia ruat Coelum
[Let justice be done though the heavens should fall]
John Adams to Elbridge Gerry
December 6, 1777
To Henry, Samuel, and Islay
Contents
Foreword
ix
Acknowledgments
xvii
Editor’s Note
xviii
1.
Essays and Controversial Papers of the Revolution
1
2.
A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law
19
3.
Instructions of the Town of Braintree
to Their Representative, 1765
37
4.
The Earl of Clarendon to William Pym,
Nos. i, ii, and iii
43
5.
Governor Winthrop to Governor Bradford,
Nos. i and ii
57
Contents
6.
The Independence of the Judiciary;
A Controversy Between William Brattle and John Adams
73
7.
Two Replies of the
Massachusetts House of Representatives
to Governor Hutchinson
117
8.
Novanglus;
or, A History of the Dispute with America,
from Its Origin, in 1754, to the Present Time
147
9.
Thoughts on Government:
Applicable to the Present State
of the American Colonies
285
10.
The Report of a Constitution,
or Form of Government,
for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
295
Index
323
Foreword
ModernscholarsoftheAmericanRevolutionhavepublishedcountlessbooks
on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin
Franklin, and George Washington. Surprisingly, John Adams has not fared
so well. On the whole, historians have neglected Adams’s Revolutionary
thought, and a one-volume collection of his political writings has not been
available for several decades. This anomaly in the scholarly literature is cu-
rious because Adams is often regarded as the most learned and penetrating
thinker of the founding generation, and his central role in the American
Revolution is universally recognized. Benjamin Rush thought there was a
consensus among the generation of 1776 thatAdams possessed“morelearn-
ing probably, both ancient and modern, than any man who subscribed the
Declaration of Independence.” Another contemporary is reported to have
said that “The man to whom the country is most indebted for the great
measure of independence is Mr. John Adams. ... I call him the Atlas of
American independence.”1
JohnAdamswitnessedtheAmericanRevolutionfrombeginningtoend:
he assisted James Otis in the Writs of Assistance case in 1761, and he par-
ticipated in negotiating the peace treaty with Britain in 1783. As a Revolu-
tionary statesman, he will always be remembered as an important leader of
theradicalpoliticalmovementinBostonandasoneoftheearliestandmost
principled voices for independence in the Continental Congress. Likewise,
as apublic intellectual, Adamswrotesomeofthemostimportantandinflu-
entialessays,constitutions,andtreatisesoftheRevolutionaryperiod.IfSam-
uelAdamsandPatrickHenryrepresentthespiritoftheindependencemove-
ment, John Adams exemplifies the mind of the American Revolution.
Despite his extraordinary achievements, Adams has always posedagen-
uine problem for historians. From the moment he entered public life, he
always seemed to travel the road not taken. Americans have rarely seen a
political leader of such fierce independence and unyielding integrity. In de-
1.BenjaminRushquotedinJosephJ.Ellis,ThePassionateSage:TheCharacterandLegacyof
JohnAdams(NewYork:W.W.Norton,1994),29;RichardStocktonquotedinTheWorksof
JohnAdams,SecondPresidentoftheUnitedStates,ed.CharlesFrancisAdams,10vols.(Boston:
Little,BrownandCo.,1850–56),3:56.
ix
Foreword
batehewasintrepidtothevergeoftemerity,andhispoliticalwritingsreveal
an utter contempt for the art of dissimulation. Unable to meet falsehoods
halfway and unwilling to stop short of the truth, Adams was in constant
battle withthe accepted, theconventional,thefashionable,andthepopular.
HewouldcompromiseneitherwithGovernorThomasHutchinsonnorwith
theBostonmob.FromhisdefenseofEnglishsoldiersattheBostonMassacre
trial to his treaty with the French in 1800, he had a way of shocking both
his most ardentsupportersandhismostpartisanopponents.Tosome,how-
ever,thecomplexityofthemanandhisthoughtaretheveryreasonswhyhe
is worth studying.
John Adams was born on October 19,1735,inBraintree,Massachusetts.
Hisfather,DeaconJohnAdams,wasafifth-generationMassachusettsfarmer,
and his mother, the former Susanna Boylston, descended from another old
New England family. The young man’s sense of life and moral virtues were
shaped early by the manners and mores of a Puritan culture that honored
sobriety, industry, thrift, simplicity, and diligence.
After graduating from Harvard College, Adams taught school for three
years and began reading for a career in the law. To that end, he adopted a
strict daily regimen of hard work and Spartan-like austerity. In his diary,he
implored himself to “Let no trifling Diversion or amuzement or Company
decoy you from your Books, i.e., let no Girl, no Gun, no cards, no flutes,
noViolins,noDress,noTobacco,noLaziness,decoyfromyourBooks.”He
was always demanding of himself that he return to his study to tackle the
great treatises and casebooks of the law.
LabourtogetIdeasofLaw,Right,Wrong,Justice,Equity.Searchforthem
inyourownmind,inRoman,grecian,french,EnglishTreatisesofnatural,
civil, common, Statute Law. Aim at an exact Knowledge of the Nature,
End, and Means of Government. Compare the different forms of it with
eachotherandeachofthemwiththeirEffectsonPublicandprivateHap-
piness. Study Seneca, Cicero, and all other good moral Writers. Study
Montesque,Bolingbroke[Vinnius?],&c.andallothergood,civilWriters,
&c.2
Adams was admitted to the Boston bar in 1758 and soon settled into a
successful career in the law. In 1764 he married Abigail Smith to whom he
wasdevotedforfifty-fouryears.Despitemanyyearsofseparationbecauseof
2.TheDiaryandAutobiographyofJohnAdams,ed.L.H.Butterfieldetal.4vols.(Cambridge,
Mass.:TheBelknapPressofHarvardUniversityPress,1961),1:72–73.
x
Foreword
hisdutiestotheAmericancauseathomeandabroad,theirswasalovestory
of almost fictional quality. Together they had five children.
ThepassageoftheStampActin1765thrustAdamsintothepublicaffairs
ofcolonyandempire.Inthatyear,hepublishedhisfirstmajorpoliticalessay,
A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, and he also composed the
influential “Braintree Instructions.” Both pieces attacked the Stamp Act for
depriving the American colonists of two basic rights guaranteed to all En-
glishmen by Magna Carta: the rights to be taxed only by consent and to be
tried only by a jury of one’s peers.
Adams’s understanding of the Patriot cause is revealed in two decisions
that he made during the early years ofthe imperialcrisis.In1768herefused
a request from Governor Bernard to accept the post of advocate general of
the court of admiralty. Despite the lucrative salary and “Royal Favour and
promotion” associated with the position, he declined to accept on the
grounds that he could not lay himself “under any restraints, or Obligations
of Gratitude to the Government for any of their favours.” Nor would he
sanction a government that persisted “in a System, whollyinconsistentwith
all my Ideas of Right, Justice and Policy.” Two years later, Adams risked
fallingoutoffavorwiththePatriotmovementbyacceptingthelegaldefense
of Captain Preston in the Boston Massacre trial. He took the case in order
to defend the rule of law and because “Council ought to be the very last
thing that an accused Person should want in a free Country.” Every lawyer,
he wrote, must be “responsible not only to his Country, but to the highest
andmostinfallibleofallTrybunals.”3Inwordanddeed,Adamsalwayschose
toactinwaysthathethoughtrightandjust,regardlessofrewardorpunish-
ment.
Between1765and1776,Adams’sinvolvementinradicalpoliticsranapace
with the escalation of events. In 1770, he was elected to the Massachusetts
House of Representatives, and he later served as chief legal counsel to the
Patriot faction and wrote several important resolutions for the lower house
in its running battle with Governor Thomas Hutchinson. He also wrote a
penetrating essay on the need for an independent judiciary, and hisNovan-
gluslettersaregenerallyregardedasthebestexpressionoftheAmericancase
against parliamentary sovereignty. By the mid-1770s, Adams had distin-
guished himself as one of America’s foremost constitutionalscholars.
The year 1774 was critical in British-American relations, and it proved
to be a momentous year for John Adams. With Parliament’s passage of the
Coercive Acts, Adams realized that the time had come for the Americansto
3.Ibid.,3:287,292.
xi