The Revolutionary Writings of John Adams The Revolutionary Writings of John Adams Selected and with a Foreword by C. Bradley Thompson Liberty Fund Indianapolis This book is published by Liberty Fund, Inc., a foundationestablished to encourage study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. The cuneiform inscription that serves as our logo and as the design motif for our endpapers is the earliest-known written appearance of the word “freedom” (amagi), or “liberty.” It is taken from a clay document written about 2300 b.c. in the Sumerian city-state of Lagash. (cid:1) 2000 Liberty Fund, Inc. All rights reserved. Frontispiece from Corbis-Bettmann. Printed in the United States of America 04 03 02 01 00 c 5 4 3 2 1 04 03 02 01 00 p 5 4 3 2 1 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 Liberty Fund, Inc. 8335 Allison Pointe Trail, Suite 300 Indianapolis,Indiana 46250-1684 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