Quincy, June 9, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
I HAVE promised you hints of the heads of Mr. Otis's oration, argument, speech, call it what you will, against the acts of trade, as revenue laws, and against writs of assistants, as tyrannical instruments to carry them into execution.
But I enter on the performance of my promise to you, not without fear and trembling; because I am in the situation of a lady, whom you knew first as my client, the widow of Dr. Ames, of Dedham, and afterwards, as the mother of your pupil, the late brilliant orator, Fisher Ames, of Dedham. This lady died last year, at 95 or 96 years of age. In one of her last years she said, "She was in an awkward situation; for if she related any fact of an old date, any body might contradict her, for she could find no witness to keep her in countenance."
Mr. Otis, after rapidly running over the history of the continual terrors, vexations, and irritations, which our ancestors endured from the British government, from 1620, under James 1st. and Charles 1st.; and acknowledging the tranquility under the parliament and Cromwell, from 1648, to the restoration, in 1660, produced the navigation act, as the first fruit of the blessed restoration of a Stuart's reign.
This act is in the 12th year of Charles 2d. chapter 18, "An act for the encouraging and increasing of shipping and navigation."
"For the increase of shipping, and encouragement of the navigation of this nation, wherein, under the good providence and protection of God, the wealth, safety, and strength of this kingdom, is so much concerned, be it enacted, that from and after the first day of December, 1660, and from thence forward, no goods, or commodities, whatsoever, shall be imported into, or exported out of, any lands, islands, plantations, or territories, to his majesty belonging or in his possession, or which may hereafter belong unto or be in the possession of his majesty, his heirs and successors, in Asia, Africa, or America, in any other ship or ships, vessel or vessels, whatsoever, but in such ships or vessels, as do truly and without fraud, belong only to the people of England or Ireland, dominion of Wales, or town of Berwick upon Tweed, or are of the built of, and belonging to, any of the said lands, islands, plantations or territories, as the proprietors and right owners thereof, and whereof the master, and three fourths of the mariners, at least, are English; under the penalty of the forfeiture, and loss of all the goods and commodities which shall be imported into, or exported out of any of the aforesaid places, in any other ship or vessel, as also of the ship or vessel, with all its guns, furniture, tackle, ammunition, and apparel: one third part thereof to his majesty, his heirs and successors: one third part to the governor of such land, plantation, island, or territory, where such default shall be committed, in case the said ship or goods be there seized; or otherwise, that third part also to his majesty, his heirs and successors; and the other third part to him or them who shall seize, inform, or sue for the same in any court of record, by bill, information, plaint, or other action, wherein no essoin, protection, or wager of law shall be allowed: and all admirals and other commanders at sea, of any of the ships of war or other ships, having commission from his majesty, or from his heirs or successors, are hereby authorized, and strictly required to seize and bring in as prize, all such ships or vessels as shall have offended, contrary hereunto, and deliver them to the court of admiralty, there to be proceeded against; and in case of condemnation, one moiety of such forfeitures shall be to the use of such admirals or commanders, and their companies, to be divided and proportioned among them, according to the rules and orders of the sea, in case of ships taken prize; and the other moiety to the use of his majesty, his heirs and successors."
Section second enacts, all governors shall take a solemn oath to do their utmost, that every clause shall be punctually obeyed. See the statute at large.
See also section third of this statute, which I wish I could transcribe.
Section fourth enacts, that no goods of foreign growth, production or manufacture, shall be brought, even in English shipping, from any other countries, but only from those of the said growth, production or manufacture, under all the foregoing penalties.
Mr. Otis commented on this statute in all its parts, especially on the foregoing section, with great severity. He expatiated on its narrow, contracted, selfish, and exclusive spirit. Yet he could not and would not deny its policy, or controvert the necessity of it, for England, in that age, surrounded as she was by France, Spain, Holland, and other jealous rivals; nor would he dispute the prudence of governor Leverett, and the Massachusetts legislature, in adopting it, in 1675, after it had laid dormant for fifteen years; though the adoption of it was infinitely prejudicial to the interests, the growth, the increase, the prosperity of the colonies in general, of New England in particular; and most of all, to the town of Boston. It was an immense sacrifice to what was called the mother country. Mr. Otis thought, that this statute ought to have been sufficient to satisfy the ambition, the avarice, the cupidity of any nation, but especially of one who boasted of being a tender mother of her children colonies; and when those children had always been so fondly disposed to acknowledge the condescending tenderness of their dear indulgent mother.
This statute, however, Mr. Otis said, was wholly prohibitory. It abounded, indeed, with penalties and forfeitures, and with bribes to governors and informers, and custom house officers, and naval officers and commanders; but it imposed no taxes. Taxes were laid in abundance by subsequent acts of trade; but this act laid none. Nevertheless, this was one of the acts that were to be carried into strict execution by these writs of assistance. Houses were to be broken open, and if a piece of Dutch linen could be found, from the cellar to the cock loft, it was to be seized and become the prey of governors, informers, and majesty.
When Mr. Otis had extended his observations on this act of navigation, much farther than I dare to attempt to repeat, he proceeded to the subsequent acts of trade. These, he contended, imposed taxes, and enormous taxes, burthensome taxes, oppressive, ruinous, intolerable taxes. And here he gave the reins to his genius, in declamation, invective, philippic, call it which you will, against the tyranny of taxation, without representation.
But Mr. Otis's observations on those acts of trade, must be postponed for another letter.
Let me, however, say, in my own name, if any man wishes to investigate thoroughly, the causes, feelings, and principles of the revolution, he must study this act of navigation and the acts of trade, as a philosopher, a politician, and a philanthropist.
JOHN ADAMS.
Quincy, June 17, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
THE next statute produced and commented by Mr. Otis was the 15th of Charles the second, i. e. 1663, ch. 7. "An act for the encouragement of trade."
Sec. 5.—"And in regard his majesty's plantations, beyond the seas are inhabited and peopled by his subjects of this his kingdom of England, for the maintaining a greater correspondence and kindness between them, and keeping them in a firmer dependance upon it, and rendering them yet more beneficial and advantageous unto it, in the further employment and increase of English shipping and seamen, vent of English woolen and other manufactures and commodities, rendering the navigation to and from the same, more cheap and safe, and making this kingdom a staple, not only of the commodities of those plantations, but also of the commodities of other countries and places, for the supplying of them; and it being the usage of other nations to keep their plantations trades to themselves."
Sec. 6.—"Be it enacted, &c. that no commodity of the growth, production or manufacture of Europe, shall be imported into any land, island, plantation, colony, territory or place, to his majesty belonging, or which shall hereafter belong unto or be in possession of his majesty, his heirs and successors, in Asia, Africa or America, (Tangier only excepted) but what shall be bona fide, and without fraud, laden and shipped in England, Wales, or the town of Berwick upon Tweed, and in English built shipping, or which were bona fide bought before the 1st of October, 1662, and had such certificate thereof as is directed in one act passed the last session of the present parliament, entitled "An act for preventing frauds and regulating abuses in his majesty's customs;" and whereof the master, and three fourths of the mariners at least are English, and which shall be carried directly thence, to the said lands, islands, plantations, colonies, territories or places, and from no other place or places whatsoever; any law, statute or usage to the contrary notwithstanding; under the penalty of the loss of all such commodities of the growth, production or manufacture of Europe, as shall be imported into any of them, from any other place whatsoever, by land or water; and if by water, of the ship or vessel also, in which they were imported, with all her guns, tackle, furniture, ammunition and apparel; one third part to his majesty, his heirs and successors; one third part to the governor of such land, island, plantation, colony, territory or place, into which such goods were imported, if the said ship, vessel or goods be there seized or informed against and sued for; or otherwise, that third part also to his majesty, his heirs and successors; and the other third part to him or them who shall seize, inform, or sue for the same in any of his majesty's courts in such of the said lands, islands, colonies, plantations, territories or places where the offence was committed, or in any court of record in England, by bill, information, plaint, or other action, wherein no essoin protection or wager of law shall be allowed."
Sections 7. 8. 9. and 10. of this odious instrument of mischief and misery to mankind, all calculated to fortify by oaths and penalties, the tyrannical ordinances of the preceding sections.
Mr. Otis's observations on these statutes were numerous, and some of them appeared to me at the time, young as I was, bitter. But as I cannot pretend to recollect those observations with precision, I will recommend to you and others to make your own remarks upon them.
You must remember, Mr. Tudor, that you and I had much trouble with these statutes after you came into my office, in 1770; and I had been tormented with them for nine years before, i. e. from 1761.
I have no scruple in making a confession with all the simplicity of Jean Jac Rosseau, that I never turned over the leaves of these statutes, or any section of them, without pronouncing a hearty curse upon them.
I felt them, as an humiliation, a degradation a disgrace to my Country and to myself as a native of it.
Let me respectfully recommend to the future orators on the fourth of July, to peruse these statutes in pursuit of principles and feelings that produced the revolution.
Oh! Mr. Tudor, when will France, Spain, England and Holland renounce their selfish, contracted, exclusive systems of religion, government and commerce? I fear, never.
But they may depend upon it, their present systems of colonization cannot endure. Colonies universally, ardently breathe for independence. No man, who has a soul will ever live in a colony, under the present establishments, one moment longer than necessity compels him.
But I must return to Mr. Otis. The burthen of his song was "Writs of assistance." All these rigorous statutes were now to be carried into rigorous execution by the still more vigorous instruments of arbitrary power, "Writs of assistance."
Here arose a number of very important questions. What were writs of assistance? Where were they to be found? When, where, and by what authority had they been invented, created, and established? Nobody could answer any of these questions.—Neither chief justice Hutchinson, nor any one of his four associate judges, pretended to have ever read or seen in any book any such writ, or to know any thing about it. The court had ordered or requested the bar to search for precedents and authorities for it, but none were found. Otis pronounced boldly, that there were none, and neither judge nor lawyer, bench or bar, pretended to confute him. He asserted farther, that there was no colour of authority for it, but one produced by Mr. Gridley in a statute of the 13th and 14th of Charles the second, which Mr. Otis said was neither authority, precedent or colour of either, in America. Mr. Thatcher said he had diligently searched all the books, but could find no such writ. He had indeed found in Rastalls Entries, a thing which in some of its features resembling this, but so little like it in the whole, that it was not worth while to read it.
Mr. Gridley, who, no doubt, was furnished, upon this great and critical occasion, with all the information possessed by the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary, custom house officers, and all other crown officers, produced, the statute of the thirteenth and fourteenth of Charles the second, chapter eleventh, entitled, "An Act to prevent frauds, and regulating abuses in his majesty's customs." Section fifth, which I will quote verbatim. "And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that in case, after the clearing of any ship or vessel, by the person or persons which are or shall be appointed by his majesty for managing the customs or any their deputies, and discharging the watchmen and tidesmen from attendance thereupon, there shall be found on board such ship or vessel, any goods, wares or merchandizes, which have been concealed from the knowledge of the said person or persons, which are or shall be so appointed to manage the customs, and for which the custom, subsidy and other duties due upon the importation thereof have not been paid; then the master, purser, or other person taking charge of said ship or vessel, shall forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds: and it shall be lawful, to or for any person or persons authorized by writ of assistance under the seal of his majesty's court of exchequer, to take a constable, headborough, or other public officer, inhabiting near unto the place, and in the day time to enter, and go into any house, shop, cellar, warehouse or room, or other place; and in case of resistance, to break open doors, chests, trunks, and other package, there to seize, and from thence to bring any kind of goods or merchandize whatsoever prohibited and uncustomed, and to put and secure the same, in his majesty's storehouse in the port, next to the place where such seizure shall be made."
Here is all the colour for "Writs of assistance," which the officers of the crown aided by the researches of their learned counsel, Mr. Gridley, could produce.
Where, exclaimed Otis, is your seal of his majesty's court of exchequer? And what has the court of exchequer to do here? But my sheet is full, and my patience exhausted for the present.
JOHN ADAMS.
Quincy, June 24, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
MR. OTIS said such a "writ of assistance" might become the reign of Charles 2d. in England, and he would not dispute the taste of the parliament of England, in passing such an act, nor the people of England in submitting to it; but it was not calculated for the meridian of America. The Court of Exchequer had no jurisdiction here. Her warrants and her writs were never seen here. Or if they should be, they would be waste paper. He insisted however, that these warrants and writs were even in England inconsistent with the fundamental laws, the natural and constitutional rights of the subjects. If, however, it would please the people of England, he might admit, that they were legal there, but not here.
Diligent research had been made by Otis and Thatcher, and by Gridley, aided, as may well be supposed, by the officers of the customs, and by all the conspirators against American liberty, on both sides the water, for precedents and examples of any thing similar to this writ of assistance, even in England. But nothing could be found, except the following: An act of the 12th of Charles 2d. chapter 22. "An act for the regulating the trade of Bay-making, in the Dutch Bay-hall, in Colchester." The fifth section of this statute, "for the better discovering, finding out and punishing of the frauds and deceits, aforesaid, be it enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for the governors of the Dutch Bay-hall, or their officers or any of them, from time to time, in the day time, to search any cart, waggon or pack, wherein they shall have notice, or suspect any such deceitful Bays to be, and also from time to time, with a constable, who are hereby required to be aiding and assisting them, to make search in any house, shop, or warehouse, where they are informed any such deceitful Bays to be, and to secure and seize the same, and to carry them to the Dutch Bay-hall; and that such Bays so seized and carried to the said hall, shall be confiscate and forfeit, to be disposed in such manner as the forfeitures herein before mentioned, to be paid by the weavers and fullers, are herein before limited and appointed."
The Dutch Bay-hall made sport for Otis and his audience; but was acknowledged to have no authority here, unless by certain distant analogies and constructions, which Mr. Gridley himself did not pretend to urge. Another ridiculous statute was of the 22d and 23d of Charles 2d. chapter 8th, "An act for the regulating the making of Kidderminster Stuffs."
By the eleventh section of this important law, it is enacted, "That the said president, wardens, and assistants of the said Kidderminster weavers, or any two or more of them, shall have, and hereby have power and authority, to enter into and search the houses and workhouses of any artificer under the regulation of the said trade, at all times of the day, and usual times of opening shops and working; and into the shops, houses, and warehouses of any common buyer, dealer in, or retailer of any of the said cloths or stuffs, and into the houses and workhouses of any dyer, sheerman, and all other workmen's houses and places of sale, or dressing of the said cloths, or stuffs and yarns; and may there view the said cloths, stuffs and yarns respectively; and if any cloth, stuff or yarns shall be found defective, to seize and carry away the same to be tried by a jury."
The wit, the humour, the irony, the satire, played off, by Mr. Otis, in his observations on these acts of navigation, Dutch bays and Kidderminster stuffs, it would be madness in me to pretend to remember with any accuracy. But this I do say, that Horace's "Irritat, mulcet, veris terroribus implet," was never exemplified in my hearing with so great effect. With all his drollery, he intermixed solid and sober observations upon the acts of navigation, by Sir Joshua Child, and other English writers upon trade, which I shall produce together in another letter.
It is hard to be called upon, at my age, to such a service as this. But it is the duty of
JOHN ADAMS.
Quincy, July 9, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
IN the search for something, in the history and statutes of England, in any degree resembling this monstrum horrendum ingens, the writ of assistance, the following examples were found.
In the statute of the first year of king James the second, chapter third, "An act for granting to his majesty an imposition upon all wines and vinegar," &c. Section 8, it is enacted, "That the officers of his majesty's customs &c. shall have power and authority to enter on board ships and vessels and make searches, and to do all other matters and things, which may tend to secure the true payment of the duties by this act imposed, and the due and orderly collection thereof, which any customers, collectors or other officers of any of his majesty's ports can or may do, touching the securing his majesty's customs of tonnage and poundage," &c. &c. &c. I must refer to the statute for the rest.
In the statute of king James the second, chapter four, "An act for granting to his majesty an imposition upon all tobacco and sugar imported," &c. Section fifth, in certain cases, "The commissioners may appoint one or more officer or officers to enter into all the cellars, warehouses, store cellars, or other places whatsoever, belonging to such importer, to search, see and try," &c. &c. &c. I must again refer to the statute for the rest, which is indeed nothing to the present purpose.
Though the portraits of Charles the second and James the second were blazing before his eyes, their characters and reigns were sufficiently odious to all but the conspirators against human liberty, to excite the highest applauses of Otis's philippics against them and all the foregoing acts of their reigns, which writs of assistance were now intended to enforce. Otis asserted and proved, that none of these statutes extended to America, or were obligatory here by any rule of law, ever acknowledged here, or ever before pretended in England.
Another species of statutes were introduced by the counsel for the crown, which I shall state as they occur to me without any regard to the order of time. 1. of James the second, chapter 17. "An act for the revival and continuance of several acts of parliament therein mentioned," in which the tobacco law among others is revived and continued.
13th and 14th of Charles 2nd, chapter 13. "An act for prohibiting the importation of foreign bone-lace, cutwork, embroidery, fringe, band-strings, buttons and needle work." Pray sir, do not laugh! for something very serious comes in section third. "Be it further enacted, that for the preventing of the importing of the said manufactures as aforesaid, upon complaint and information given, to the justices of the peace or any or either of them within their respective counties, cities and towns corporate, at times reasonable, he or they are hereby authorized and required to issue forth his or their warrants to the constables of their respective counties, cities and towns, corporate, to enter and search for such manufactures in the shops being open, or warehouses and dwelling houses of such person or persons, as shall be suspected, to have any such foreign bone-laces, embroideries, cut-work, fringe, band-strings, buttons or needle work within their respective counties, cities, and towns corporate, and to seize the same, any act, statute or ordinance to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding."
Another curious act was produced, to prove the legality of writs of assistance, though it was no more to the purpose than all the others. I mean the statute of the 12th of Charles the second, chapter third, "An act for the continuance of process and judicial proceedings continued." In which it is enacted, section first, "That no pleas, writs, bills, actions, suits, plaints, process, precepts, or other thing or things, &c. shall be in any wise continued," &c.
But I must refer to the act. I cannot transcribe. If any antiquarian should hereafter ever wish to review this period, he will see with compassion how such a genius as Otis was compelled to delve among the rubbish of such statutes, to defend the country against the gross sophistry of the crown and its officers.
Another act of 12 C. 2d, ch. 12, "An act for confirmation of judicial proceedings," in which it is enacted, &c. "that nor any writs, or actions on, or returns of any writs, orders or other proceedings in law or equity, had made, given, taken or done, or depending in the courts of chancery, king's bench, upper bench, common pleas, and court of exchequer, and court of exchequer chamber, or any of them, &c. in the kingdom of England, &c. shall be avoided, &c." I must refer to the statute.
In short, wherever the custom house officers could find in any statute the word "writs", the word "continued" and the words "court of exchequer," they had instructed their counsel to produce it, though in express "words restricted to the realm." Mr. Gridley was incapable of prevaricating or duplicity.
It was a moral spectacle, more affecting to me than any I have since seen upon any stage, to see a pupil treating his master with all the deference, respect, esteem and affection of a son to a father, and that without the least affectation; while he baffled and confounded all his authorities, and confuted all his arguments and reduced him to silence.
Indeed, upon the principle of construction, inference, analogy, or corollary, by which they extended these acts to America, they might have extended the jurisdiction of the court of king's bench, and court of common pleas, and all the sanguinary statutes against crimes and misdemeanors, and all their church establishment of archbishops and bishops, priests, deacons, deans and chapters; and all their acts of uniformity, and all their acts against conventicles.
I have no hesitation or scruple to say that the commencement of the reign of George the third was the commencement of another Stuart's reign: and if it had not been checked by James Otis and others first, and by the great Chatham and others afterwards, it would have been as arbitrary as any of the four. I will not say it would have extinguished civil and religious liberty upon earth; but it would have gone great lengths towards it, and would have cost mankind even more than the French revolution to preserve it. The most sublime, profound and prophetic expression of Chatham's oratory that he ever uttered was, "I rejoice that America has resisted; two millions of people reduced to servitude, would be fit instruments to make slaves of the rest."
Another statute was produced, 12 C. 2. cap. 19, "An act to prevent frauds and concealments of his majesty's customs and subsidies." "Be it enacted," &c. "that if any person or persons &c. shall cause any goods, for which custom, subsidy, or other duties are due or payable, &c. to be landed or conveyed away, without due entry thereof first made and the customer or collector, or his deputy agreed with; that then and in such case, upon oath thereof made before the lord treasurer, or any of the barons of the exchequer, or chief magistrate of the port or place where the offence shall be committed, or the next adjoining thereto, it shall be lawfull, to and for the lord treasurer, or any of the barons of the exchequer, or the chief magistrate of the port or place, &c. to issue out a warrant to any person or persons, thereby enabling him or them, with the assistance of a sheriff, justice of the peace or constable, to enter into any house in the day time where such goods are suspected to be concealed, and in case of resistance, to break open such houses, and to seize and secure the same goods so concealed; and all officers and ministers of justice are hereby required to be aiding and assisting thereunto."
Such was the sophistry; such the chicanery of the officers of the crown, and such their power of face, as to apply these statutes to America and to the petition for writs of assistance from the superior court.
JOHN ADAMS.
Quincy, July 14, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
MR. OTIS, to show the spirit of the acts of trade, those I have already quoted, as well as of those I shall hereafter quote, and as the best commentaries upon them, produced a number of authors upon trade, and read passages from them, which I shall recite, without pretending to remember the order in which he read them.
1. Sir Josiah Child, "A new discourse of trade." Let me recommend this old book to the perusal of my inquisitive fellow citizens. A discerning mind will find useful observations on the interest of money, the price of labour, &c. &c. &c. I would quote them all, if I had time. But I will select one. In page 15, of his preface, he says, "I understand not the world so little, as not to know, that he that will faithfully serve his country, must be content to pass through good report, and evil report." I cannot agree to that word, "content." I would substitute instead of it, the words, "as patient as he can." Sir Josiah adds, "neither regard I, which I meet with." This is too cavalierly spoken. It is not sound philosophy. Sir Joshua proceeds: "Truth I am sure at last will vindicate itself, and be found by my countrymen." Amen! So be it! I wish I could believe it.
But it is high time for me to return from this ramble to Mr. Otis's quotations from Sir Joshua Child, whose chapter four, page 105, is "concerning the act of navigation." Probably this knight was one of the most active and able inflamers of the national pride in their navy and their commerce, and one of the principal promoters of that enthusiasm for the act of navigation, which has prevailed to this day. For this work was written about the year 1677, near the period when the court of Charles 2d. began to urge and insist on the strict execution of the act of navigation. Such pride in that statute did not become Charles, his court or his nation of royalists and loyalists, at that time. For shall I blush, or shall I boast, when I remember, that this act was not the invention of a Briton, but of an American. George Downing, a native of New England, educated at Harvard College, whose name, office, and title appear in their catalogue, went to England in the time of lord Clarendon's civil wars, and became such a favourite of Cromwell and the ruling powers, that he was sent ambassador to Holland. He was not only not received, but ill treated, which he resented on his return to England, by proposing an act of navigation, which was adopted, and has ruined Holland, and would have ruined America, if she had not resisted.
To borrow the language of the great Dr. Johnson this "Dog" Downing must have had a head and brains, or in other words genius and address: but if we may believe history, he was a scoundrel. To ingratiate himself with Charles 2d. he probably not only pleaded his merit in inventing the navigation act, but he betrayed to the block some of his old republican and revolutionary friends.
George Downing! Far from boasting of thee as my countryman, or of thy statute as an American invention; if it were lawful to wish for any thing past, that has not happened, I should wish that thou hadst been hanged, drawn, and quartered, instead of Hugh Peters, and Sir Henry Vane. But no! This is too cruel for my nature! I rather wish, that thou hadst been obliged to fly with thy project, and report among the rocks and caves of the mountains in New England.
But where is Downing's statute? British policy has suppressed all the laws of England, from 1618 to 1660. The statute book contains not one line. Such are records, and such is history.
The nation, it seems, was not unanimous in its approbation of this statute. The great knight himself informs us, page 105, "that some wise and honest gentlemen and merchants doubted whether the inconveniences it has brought with it be not greater than the conveniences." This chapter was, therefore, written to answer all objections; and vindicate and justify Downing's statute.
Mr. Otis cast an eye over this chapter, and adverted to such observations in it, as tended to show the spirit of the writer, and of the statute; which might be summed up in this comprehensive Machiavelian principle, that earth, air, and seas, all colonies and all nations were to be made subservient to the growth, grandeur and power of the British navy.
And thus, truly, it happened. The two great knights, Sir George Downing, and Sir Josiah Child, must be acknowledged to have been great politicians!
Mr. Otis proceeded to chapter 10, of this work, page 166, "concerning plantations." And he paused at the 6th proposition, in page 167, "That all colonies and plantations, do endamage their mother kingdoms, whereof the trades of such plantations are not confined by severe laws, and good executions of those laws, to the mother kingdom."
Mr. Otis then proceeded to seize the key to the whole riddle, in page 168, proposition eleventh, "that New England is the most prejudicial plantation to the kingdom of England." Sir George Downing, no doubt, said the same to Charles 2d.
Otis proceeded to page 170, near the bottom, "we must consider what kind of people they were and are that have and do transport themselves to our foreign plantations." New England, as every one knows, was originally inhabited, and hath since been successively replenished by a sort of people called Puritans, who could not conform to the ecclesiastical laws of England; but being wearied with church censures and persecutions, were forced to quit their fathers' land, to find out new habitations, as many of them did in Germany and Holland, as well as at New England; and had there not been a New England found for some of them, Germany and Holland probably had received the rest: but Old England, to be sure, would have lost them all.
"Virginia and Barbadoes were first peopled by a sort of loose, vagrant people, vicious, and destitute of the means to live at home, (being either unfit for labour, or such as could find none to employ themselves about, or had so misbehaved themselves by whoring, thieving, or other debauchery, that none would set them at work) which merchants and masters of ships, by their agents, (or spirits, as they were called) gathered up about the streets of London, and other places, clothed and transported, to be employed upon plantations; and these I say, were such as, had there been no English foreign plantation in the world, could probably never have lived at home, to do service for their country, but must have come to be hanged, or starved, or died untimely of some of those miserable diseases, that proceed from want and vice; or else have sold themselves for soldiers, to be knocked on the head, or starved in the quarrels of our neighbours, as many thousands of brave Englishmen were in the low countries, as also in the wars of Germany, France, and Sweden, &c. or else, if they could by begging or otherwise, arrive to the stock of 2s. 6d. to waft them over to Holland, become servants to the Dutch, who refuse none.
"But the principal growth and increase of the aforesaid plantations of Virginia and Barbadoes, happened in, or immediately after, our late civil wars, when the worsted party, by the fate of war, being deprived of their estates, and having, some of them, never been bred to labour, and others of them made unfit for it by the lazy habit of a soldier's life, their wanting means to maintain them all abroad, with his majesty, many of them betook themselves to the aforesaid plantations; and great numbers of Scotch soldiers of his majesty's army, after Worcester fight, were by the then prevailing powers voluntarily sent thither.
"Another great swarm or accession of the new inhabitants to the aforesaid plantations, as also to New England, Jamaica, and all other his majesty's plantations in the West Indies, ensued upon his majesty's restoration, when the former prevailing party being by a divine hand of providence brought under, the army disbanded, many officers displaced, and all the new purchasers of public titles dispossessed of their pretended lands, estates, &c. many became impoverished, and destitute of employment; and therefore such as could find no way of living at home, and some who feared the re-establishment of the ecclesiastical laws, under which they could not live, were forced to transport themselves, or sell themselves for a few years, to be transported by others, to the foreign English plantations. The constant supply, that the said plantations have since had, hath been such vagrant, loose people, as I have before mentioned, picked up especially about the streets of London and Westminster, and malefactors condemned for crimes, for which by law they deserved to die; and some of those people called quakers, banished for meeting on pretence of religious worship.
"Now, if from the premises it be duly considered, what kind of persons those have been, by whom our plantations have at all times been replenished, I suppose it will appear, that such they have been, and under such circumstances, that if his majesty had had no foreign plantations to which they might have resorted, England, however, must have lost them."
Any man, who will consider with attention these passages from Sir Josiah Child, may conjecture what Mr. Otis's observations upon them were. As I cannot pretend to remember them verbatim, and with precision, I can only say, that they struck me very forcibly. They were short, rapid; he had not time to be long: but Tacitus himself could not express more in fewer words. My only fear is, that I cannot do him justice.
In the first place, there is a great deal of true history in this passage, which manifestly proves, that the emigrants to America, in general, were not only as good as the people in general, whom they left in England, but much better, more courageous, more enterprizing, more temperate, more discreet, and more industrious, frugal, and conscientious: I mean the royalists as well as the republicans.
In the second place, there is a great deal of uncandid, ungenerous misrepresentations, and scurrilous exaggeration, in this passage of the great knight, which prove him to have been a fit tool of Charles 2d. and a suitable companion, associate and friend of the great knight, Sir George Downing, the second scholar in Harvard College catalogue.
But I will leave you, Mr. Tudor, to make your own observations and reflections upon these pages of Sir Josiah Child.
Mr. Otis read them with great reluctance; but he felt it his duty to read them, in order to show the spirit of the author, and the spirit of Sir George Downing's navigation act.
But, my friend, I am weary. I have not done with Mr. Otis or Sir Josiah Child. I must postpone, to another letter from your friend,
JOHN ADAMS.
Quincy, July 17, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
MR. OTIS proceeded to page 198, of this great work of the great knight, sir Josiah Child.
Proposition eleventh, "That New England is the most prejudicial plantation in this kingdom."
"I am now to write of a people whose frugality, industry and temperance, and the happiness of whose laws and institutions do promise to themselves long life, with a wonderful increase of people, riches and power: and although no men ought to envy that virtue and wisdom in others, which themselves either cannot or will not practice, but rather to command and admire it; yet I think it the duty of every good man primarily to respect the welfare of his native country; and therefore, though I may offend some whom I would not willingly displease, I cannot omit, in the progress of this discourse, to take notice of some particulars, wherein Old England suffers diminution by the growth of those colonies settled in New England, and how that plantation differs from those more southerly, with respect to the gain or loss of this kingdom, viz.
"All our American plantations, except that of New England, produce commodities of different natures from those of this kingdom, as sugar, tobacco, cocoa, wool, ginger, sundry sorts of dying woods, &c. Whereas, New England produces generally the same we have here, viz: corn and cattle: some quantity of fish they do likewise kill, but that is taken and saved altogether by their inhabitants, which prejudiceth our Newfoundland trade; whereas, as hath been said, very few are or ought, according to prudence, be employed in those fisheries but the inhabitants of Old England. The other commodities we have from them are some few great masts, furs, and train oil, whereof the yearly value amounts to very little, the much greater value of returns from thence being made in sugar, cotton, wool, tobacco, and such like commodities, which they first receive from some other of his majesty's plantations in barter for dry cod fish, salt mackerel, beef, pork, bread, beer, flour, peas, &c. which they supply Barbadoes, Jamaica, &c. with, to the diminution of the vent of those commodities from this kingdom; the greatest expense whereof in our West India plantations would soon be found in the advance of the value of our lands in England, were it not for the vast and almost incredible supplies those colonies have from New England.
"2. The people of New England, by virtue of their primitive charters, being not so strictly tied to the observation of the laws of this kingdom, do sometimes assume a liberty of trading, contrary to the act of navigation, by reason whereof many of our American commodities, especially tobacco and sugar, are transported in New England shipping directly into Spain and other foreign countries, without being landed in England, or paying any duty to his majesty, which is not only loss to the king, and a prejudice to the navigation of Old England, but also a total exclusion of the old English merchants from the vent of those commodities in those ports where the new English vessels trade; because there being no custom paid on those commodities in New England, and a great custom paid upon them in Old England, it must necessarily follow that the New English merchant will be able to afford his commodities much cheaper at the market, than the Old English merchant: and those that can sell cheapest, will infallibly engross the whole trade, sooner or later.
"3. Of all the American plantations, his majesty hath none, so apt for the building of shipping as New England, nor none so comparably qualified for breeding of seamen, not only by reason of the natural industry of that people, but principally by reason of their cod and mackerel fisheries: and in my poor opinion, there is nothing more prejudicial, and in prospect more dangerous to any mother kingdom, than the increase of shipping in her colonies, plantations and provinces."
"4. The people that evacuate from us to Barbadoes, and the other West India plantations, as was hinted, do commonly work one Englishman to ten blacks; and if we kept the trade of our said plantation entirely to England, England would have no less inhabitants, but rather an increase of people by such evacuation; because that one Englishman, with the ten blacks that work with him, accounting what they eat, use, and wear, would make employment for four men in England, as was said before; whereas, peradventure, of ten men that issue from us to New England.
"To conclude this chapter, and to do right to that most industrious English colony; I must confess, that though we lose by their unlimited trade with our foreign plantations, yet we are very great gainers by their direct trade to and from Old England: our yearly exportations of English manufactures, malt, and other goods, from hence thither, amounting in my opinion to ten times the value of what is imported from thence; which calculation I do not make at random, but upon mature consideration, and peradventure upon as much experience in this very trade as any other person will pretend to: and therefore, whenever a reformation of our correspondency in trade with that people shall be thought on, it will in my poor judgment require great tenderness and very serious circumspection."
Mr. Otis's humour and satire were not idle upon this occasion, but his wit served only to increase the effect of a subsequent, very grave and serious remonstrance and invective against the detestable principles of the foregoing passages, which he read with regret, but which it was his duty to read, in order to shew the temper, the views and the objects of the knight, which were the same with those of all the acts of trade anterior and posterior, to the writing of this book: and those views, designs and objects were, to annul all the New England charters, and they were but three, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut; to reduce all the colonies to royal governments, to subject them all to the supreme domination of parliament, who were to tax us, without limitation, who would tax us whenever the crown would recommend it, which crown would recommend it, whenever the ministry for the time being should please, and which ministry would please as often as the West India planters and North American governors, crown officers and naval commanders should solicit more fees, salaries, penalties and forfeitures.
Mr. Otis had no thanks for the knight for his pharisaical compliment to New England, at the expense of Virginia and other colonies who for any thing he knew were equally meritorious. It was certain the first settlers of New England were not all godly. But he reprobated in the strongest terms that language can command, the machiavilian, the jesuitical, the diabolical and infernal principle that men, colonies and nations were to be sacrificed, because they were industrious and frugal, wise and virtuous, while others were to be encouraged, fostered and cherished, because they were pretended to be profligate, vicious and lazy.
But, my friend, I must quit Josiah Child, and look for others of Mr. Otis's authorities.
JOHN ADAMS.
Quincy, July 27, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
ANOTHER author produced by Mr. Otis was, "The trade and navigation of Great Britain considered," by Joshua Gee. "A new edition, with many interesting notes and additions by a merchant," printed in 1767. This new edition, which was printed no doubt to justify the ministry in the system they were then pursuing, could not be the edition that Mr. Otis produced in 1761. The advertisement of the editor informs us that "This valuable treatise has for many years been very scarce, though strongly recommended by the best judges and writers on trade, and universally allowed to be one of the most interesting books on that subject." "The principles upon which it was written continue, with little variation." But I am fatigued with quotations, and must refer you to the advertisement in the book, which will shew, past a doubt, that this was a ministerial republication. The "feelings, the manners and principles," which produced the revolution, will be excited and renovated by the perusal of this book, as much as by that of sir Josiah Child. I wish I could fill sheets of paper with quotations from it; but this is impossible. If I recommend it to the research, and perusal, and patient thinking of the present generation, it is in despair of being regarded. For who will engage in this dry, dull study? Yet Mr. Otis laboured in it. He asserted and proved, that it was only a reinforcement of the system of sir Josiah Child, which Gee approved in all things, and even quoted with approbation the most offensive passage in his book, the scurrilous reflections on Virginia and Barbadoes.
Another writer produced by Mr. Otis was "Memoirs and considerations, concerning the trade and revenues of the British colonies in America; with proposals for rendering those colonies more beneficial to Great Britain. By John Ashley, Esq."
This book is in the same spirit and system of Josiah Child and Joshua Gee.
Mr. Otis also quoted Postlethwait. But I can quote no more.
If any man of the present age can read these authors and not feel his "feelings, manners and principles," shocked and insulted, I know not of what stuff he is made. All I can say is, that I read them all in my youth, and that I never read them without being set on fire.
I will, however, transcribe one passage from Ashley, painful as it is. In page 41, he says, "The laws now in being, for the regulation of the plantation trade, viz. the 14 of Charles the second, ch. II. sec. 2, 3, 9, 10; 7 and 8 William III. ch. 22. sec. 5, 6; 6 George II. ch. 13, are very well calculated, and were they put in execution as they ought to be, would in a great measure put an end to the mischiefs here complained of. If the several officers of the customs would see that all entries of sugar, rum and molasses, were made conformable to the directions of those laws; and let every entry of such goods distinguish expressly, what are of British growth and produce, and what are of foreign growth and produce; and let the whole cargo of sugar, penneles, rum, spirits, molasses and syrup, be inserted at large in the manifest and clearance of every ship or vessel, under office seal, or be liable to the same duties and penalties as such goods of foreign growth are liable to.
"This would very much baulk the progress of those who carry on this illicit trade, and be agreeable and advantageous to all fair traders.
"And all masters and skippers of boats in all the plantations, should give some reasonable security, not to take in any such goods of foreign growth, from any vessel not duly entered at the custom-house, in order to land the same, or put the same on board any other ship or vessel, without a warrant or sufferance from a proper officer."
But you will be fatigued with quotations, and so is your friend,
JOHN ADAMS.
Quincy, July 30, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
ANOTHER passage which Mr. Otis read from Ashley gave occasion, as I suppose, to another memorable and very curious event, which your esteemed pupil and my beloved friend judge Minot has recorded.
The passage is in the 42d page. "In fine, I would humbly propose that the duties on foreign sugar and rum imposed by the before mentioned act of the 6th of king George the second, remain as they are, and also the duty on molasses, so far as concerns the importations into the sugar colonies; but that there be an abatement of the duty on molasses imported into the northern colonies, so far as to give the British planters a reasonable advantage over foreigners, and what may bear some proportion to the charge, risque and inconvenience of running it, in the manner they now do, or after the proposed regulation shall be put in execution: whether this duty shall be one, two or three pence, sterling money of Great Britain per gallon, may be matter of consideration." Gracious and merciful indeed! The tax might be reduced and made supportable, but not abolished. Oh! No! by no means.
Mr. Hutchinson, however, seized this idea of Ashley, of reducing the tax on molasses, from six pence to three pence or two pence or a penny, and the use he made of it you shall learn from your own pupil and my amiable friend judge Minot.
Volume 2d. page 142. "About this time there was a pause in the opposition to the measures of the crown and parliament, which might have given some appearance of the conciliation of parties, but which was more probably owing to the uncertainty of the eventual plan of the ministry, and the proper ground for counteracting it. The suppressing of the proposed instructions to the agent by a committee of the house of representatives, indicated that this balance of power there was unsettled. Several circumstances shewed a less inflexible spirit, than had existed among the leaders."
"The governor appointed the elder Mr. Otis a justice of the court of common pleas, and judge of probate for the county of Barnstable. The younger wrote a pamphlet on the rights of the British colonies, in which he acknowledged the sovereignty of the British parliament, as well as the obligations of the colonies to submit to such burdens as it might lay upon them, until it should be pleased to relieve them; and put the question of taxing America upon the footing of the common good."
I beg your attention to Mr. Minot's history, vol. 2, from page 140 to the end of the chapter in page 152. Mr. Minot has endeavoured to preserve the dignity, the impartiality and the delicacy of history. But it was a period of mingled glory and disgrace. But as it is a digression from the subject of Mr. Otis's speech against writs of assistance, I can pursue it no further at present. Mr. Hutchinson seized the idea of reducing the duties. Mr. Otis and his associates seemed to despair of any thing more. Hutchinson was chosen agent, to the utter astonishment of every American out of doors. This was committing the lamb to the kind guardianship of the wolf. The public opinion of all the friends of their country was decided. The public voice was pronounced in accents so terrible that Mr. Otis fell into a disgrace from which nothing but Jemmibullero[4] saved him. Mr. Hutchinson was politely excused from his embassy, and the storm blew over. Otis, upon whose zeal, energy, and exertions the whole great cause seemed to depend, returned to his duty, and gave entire satisfaction to the end of his political career.
Thus ended the piddling project of reducing the duty on molasses from six pence a gallon, to five pence, four pence, three pence, two pence or a penny. And one half penny a gallon, would have abandoned the great principle, as much as one pound.
This is another digression from the account of Mr. Otis's argument against writs of assistance and the acts of trade. I have heretofore written you on this subject. The truth, the whole truth, must and will and ought to come out; and nothing but the truth shall appear, with the consent of your humble servant,
JOHN ADAMS.
Quincy, August 6, 1818.