considerations that loose phraseology sug- | Mrs. Adams (Letters, vol. ii., p. 232,) when gests! And twenty-five years later we stating to her son the qualities which find him repeating the same sentiments:— would support his father through the arduous duties of President, places in the

entire silence of the editor on what we must call a most serious imputation, which, having been publicly made, he would, we suppose, have been anxious to contradict, if he could have honestly done

I have been, forenoon and afternoon, to highest rank religion-and expressly the church to hear Parson Waddell, who gave us Christian religion. But, in conclusion, two discourses, good and wholesome for soul, we are forced to confess that the most unbody, and estate. He is a good picture of "stall-pleasant impression that remains on our ed theology," and is said to have a good estate. mind on this subject is produced by the Last Sunday I went to the Presbyterian church and heard Mr. Grant, an ingenious young gentleman. There is something more cheerful and comfortable in an Episcopalian than in a Presbyterian church. I admire a great part of the Divine service at Church very much. It is very humane and benevolent, and sometimes pathetic and affecting, but rarely gloomy, if ever. Their creeds I could dispense with very well, because Mr. Adams began practising the lawthe Scriptures being before us contain the creed we suppose as an attorney-in 1758, and most certainly orthodox. But you know I never soon got into business. In 1761-the write nor talk upon divinity. ... Benevolence professions of attorney and counsel being and beneficence, industry, equity and humanity, often combined in those parts--he was resignation and submission, repentance and re-admitted to the degree of barrister-atformation, are the essence of my religion. law; and in the same year he inherited by Alas! how weakly and imperfectly have I fulfilled the duties of my own religion!'-vol. ii., the death of his father a small estate at Pp. 264, 265.

We pause for a moment to deduce from the evidence of this most respectable wit. ness the impolicy--the sin of neglecting in our colonies the culture of our national religion, and abandoning the pregnant desert to the innate zeal of sectaries.

so.

Braintree-now Quincy.' At this period the British government attempted to introduce into Massachusetts the process of Wri's of assistance-a kind of general search-warrant for the discovery of goods which had not paid duties. This was resisted as a branch of the power claimed by the mother-country of taxing the coloBut in Mr. Adams's confession of faith nies:-the popular side was argued in Bosit cannot be denied, that an important ton by Mr. Otis, an eminent lawyer of the something is wanting :---neither the mo. day, and afterwards a still more eminent tives which led him to divine worship, nor patriot. Mr. Adams was present-but the merely moral foundations of his reli- whether engaged in the cause is not statgion,' are satisfactory to a Christian ed. He, on one occasion, calls Mr. Otis mind: but the defect, which may be only his worthy master: it is therefore probaverbal, would by no means justify us in ble that he was employed in his office; pronouncing him an infidel; and in short, and, perhaps, attended him in court on this if Mr. Adams was not a very dishonest occasion. There can be no doubt that hypocrite, (which his whole life and cha- Otis's example had an important influence racter seem to negative,) Dr. Allen, on Adams's principles and conduct. His though in other respects his great ad- account of the effect of Otis's speech is mirer, must have done him, in this respect, remarkable: Every man of an immense some degree of injustice. And this we crowded audience appeared to me to go more readily believe from one minute cir- away, as I did, ready to take arms against cumstance: it is stated that Mr. Adams writs of assistance. Then and there the formed these unhappy infidel opinions in child Independence was born!' So it proearly life, nor were his views afterwards bably was; but Mr. Adams might have changed.' Now we find him under date of wished it a more honourable parentage25th January, 1799, abjuring the idolatry for Mr. Otis-by whose zeal this legal which some freethinkers professed for question was blown up into a revolutionVoltaire, 'whose materialism, &c., appear though eulogised by Mr. Adams as 'leav to him very superficial and nonsensical; ing a character that will never die while ---he adds, that he was profoundly learn- the memory of the American Revolution ed in all that jargon at twenty years of remains, whose foundation he laid with an age, but found it all useless, and soon re-energy and those masterly abilities that nounced it.' This proves that in one im no other man possessed,—was in truth, portant point at least his early views were at first, no more than a disappointed placesubsequently changed. We see also that jobber turned patriot. Dr. Allen, in the

Life of Bernard, governor of Massachu-ernor Bernard is said to have offered him setts, says that the place of advocate-general. But,' his biographer tells us, he decidedly declined that lucrative post-he was not a man to be thus bribed to desert the cause of his country!' We are not, however, told in what way Mr. Adams was or could have been, at that period, enlisted in the cause of his country; and Governor Hutchinson, who succeeded Bernard, tells (in his valuable History of Massachusetts,' vol. iii., p. 328) a different, and, we think, more probable, story :—

his [Bernard's] indiscretion in appointing Mr. Hutchinson chief-justice, instead of giving that office to Colonel Otis, of Barnstaple, to whom it had been promised by a former [not the preceding] governor, proved very injurious to the government cause. In consequence of this appointment he lost the influence of Colonel Otis, and, by yielding himself to Mr. Hutchinson, drew upon him the hostility of James Otis the son, a man of great talents, who soon became the leader on the popular side.'

And it is further stated by the same authority, that

Otis in his resentment had said that he would set the province in flames, even though he perished by the fire.'

This, however, is the course of all revolutions; individual ambition and resentment are the incendiaries, but they can only be successful when there is already a collection of inflammable matter. If the social condition of America had not prepared her for independence, the personal resentments of Mr. Otis could have had but little permanent effect.

'Mr. John Adams was a distant relation and intimate acquaintance of Mr. Samuel Adams. After his education at the college he applied to the study of the law, a short time before the troubles began. He is said to have been at a loss which side to take. Mr. Sewell, who was with the Government, would have persuaded him to be on the same side, and promised him to desire Governor Bernard to make him a justice of the peace. The Governor took time to consider of it, and having, as Mr. Adams conceived, not taken proper notice of him, or given er deliberated, and ever after joined in opposi him offence on some former occasion, he no longtion. As the troubles increased he increased in knowledge, and made a figure not only in his own profession, but as a patriot, and was geneIn 1764, while practising the law with rally esteemed as a person endowed with more some success at Braintree, Mr. Adams knowledge than his kinsman [Samuel Adams], married Abigail Smith, the daughter, neither his business nor his health would admit and equally zealous in the cause of liberty; but grand-daughter, and great-grand-daughter of that constant application to it which distinof puritan ministers; and next year pub-guished Samuel Adams from all the rest of the lished An Essay on Canon and Feudal province. In general, John Adams may be said Law.' We were, at first, a little surprised to be of stronger resentment upon any real or at a young village-lawyer in Massachu- supposed personal neglect or injury than the setts publishing an Essay on Canon and Feudal Law we wondered where he should have found books, experience, or opportunities for such studies; but our surprise was lessened when we were told that the object of this legal essay was to show the conspiracy between Church and State for oppressing the people.' We have not seen that work, which we suppose can only be curious as an incident in the personal history of President Adams. In 1765 he removed to the larger sphere of Boston, where his legal practice is said to have been extensive. All this time the dissensions, of which the affair of the Writs of assistance was the first symptom, were growing more serious, and assuming gradually a national character; though they still wore the aspect of opposition to the local governors, who endeavoured to meet their difficulties by the old mode of buying off the patriots; amongst whom, it seems, Mr. Adams now began to distinguish himself so much, that in 1768 Gov

other; but in their resentment against such as opposed them in the cause in which they were His ambition was without bounds, and he has engaged, it is difficult to say which exceeded. acknowledged to his acquaintance that he could not look with complacency upon any man who was in possession of more wealth, more power, or more knowledge than himself."

The severity with which, in these let ters, Mr. Adams generally treats his adversaries, and the dry and niggardly style in which he mentions his friends and as. sociates-even Washington himselfstrongly corroborate-and indeed we do not find that Mr. Adams's friends deny the justice of-Governor Hutchinson's esti mate of his character: but, after all, candour must confess that it is only by such qualities as boldness, emulation, and ambition---which enemies will call presumption, envy, and selfishness-that men can distinguish themselves in revolutionary struggles; and we really believe that Mr. Adams, though he himself pleads guilty to 'egotism'-had as little of those pow

erful but unamiable stimulants as any man | by the Governor. It is not unlikely that of his day excepting always the great some personal disappointment may have and blameless Washington.

originally helped to sharpen Mr. Adams's But whether this offer of office was made patriotism; but it was quite natural that an and declined, or not, it is certain that Mr. eminent lawyer, with a good deal of confiAdams had now attained very considera- dence-no small share of ambition—eduble eminence in his profession; and we cated in the puritan and republican tenfind him soon after taking a forward part ets which then prevailed in New England in local politics. In 1769 he was one of under a surface of monarchical forms-and a committee of three appointed by the in- with, above all, a high and affectionate habitants of Boston to draw up instruc- confidence in the capabilities of his native tions to their representatives in the pro- land: it was natural, we say, that such a vincial legislature, to resist what were styl-man should in the first instance approve ed British encroachments. From this it resistance to what most of his class conwould seem that, if he at any time hesi- sidered unconstitutional aggression, and tated between the parties, he had now de- be eventually carried along the stream of cidedly joined the Opposition, and ranked opposition into the assertion of Independas one of its leaders. In 1770 an affray ence. In 1774 his opinions and efforts occurring between the King's troops and emerge into full light: we then find him a Boston mob, in which some of the riot- one of the delegates of the province of ers were killed, a Captain Preston and Massachusetts to the first Congress, and-some of his soldiers were keenly prose- from the earliest moment that we are accuted for murder. On this occasion,' says quainted with his views already contemGovernor Hutchinson, 'Captain Preston plating and preparing--though not withhad been well advised [perhaps by the Go-out some misgivings and regret (vol. i., p. vernor himself] to retain two gentlemen 62)---the great result of national emanciof the law, who were strongly attached to pation. He and his colleagues, of whom the cause of liberty, and to stick at no the most remarkable was Samuel Adams, reasonable fees for that purpose; and this appear to have been far in advance of the measure proved of great service to him. 'rest even of the second Congress on the (ib, p. 328). The two gentlemen thus re- road to Independence. tained, and highly fee'd, were Mr. Adams and Josiah Quincy, a relative of Mrs. Ad- 'I have found this Congress like the last. ams. Their advocacy was able and sucWhen we first came together, I found a strong cessful, and the verdict of acquittal which jealousy of us from New England, and the Masthey obtained for the officer was then--- of designs of independency; an American repubsachusetts in particular. Suspicions entertained and is still-quoted in America as a proof lic; Presbyterian principles, and twenty other of the moderate and conciliatory spirit of things. Our sentiments were heard in Conthe province; praise which it certainly does not merit for, though Captain Preston was acquitted, some of his men were most unjustly, and in mere compliance with popular violence, found guilty of manslaughter, and punished accordingly. If Mr. Adams had been before wavering, this victory would probably have drawn him closer to the party he had so essenThis tone was then so peculiar to Mr. tially served. But it did not do so, and Adams and his New England colleagues, his political differences with the Govern- that, about this time, Congress voted, in ment grew wider. Mrs. Adams tells us spite of his earnest opposition, an address that in 1772 he had like to have been to the King calculated to open a door for chosen into the Council, but if he had, reconciliation. A letter from Adams to Hutchinson acknowledged that he would his friend Mr. Warren, President of the have negatived him.' (Let., vol. i., p. 30.) provincial Congress of Massachusetts, and This was the occasion on which Mrs. | another to Mrs. Adams, expressing his Adams uttered the wish-so strange in a disapprobation of this address and his pious lady well read in the Scriptures-wishes for vigorous measures of resistthat the said Governor might be gibbeted ance, having been intercepted, they were like Mordecai-meaning, we presume, like published by our Government as a proof Haman. Next year, 1773, he was actual- that the conciliatory address was deceply chosen by the Assembly, and negatived tive, and that Mr. Adams's letters betrayed

VOL. LXIX.

18

gress with great caution, and seemed to make but little impression; but the longer we sat, the more clearly they saw the necessity of pushing vigorous measures. It has been so now. Every day we sit the more we are convinced that the designs against us are hostile and sanguinary, and that nothing but fortitude, vigour, and perseverance can save us.'--vol. i., p. 45.

And yet certainly the situation of his native province, when it began its resist ance, was not such as to require any honest man to enter into any dangerous machinations for its liberation; and a wise mau might have doubted, as Mr. Adams himself did at first, whether it was likely to gain much by the change. He says

the real intention of the Congress :-a mis- | take, it now appears; for the Congress was still so very averse to the idea of independence, that Mr. Adams, already looked upon with distrust, became, on the publication of these letters, so odious and unpopular, that his society was shunned. To be sure, it was not altogether his hostility to the mother-country that led to this disgrace he had in those letters severely censured and ridiculed some of his colleagues who happened to take the moderate course; and, probably, the amour propre of both parties sheltered itself un-less mixed with Scotch, Irish, Dutch, French, 1. The people are purer English_blood; der an affected amour de la patrie. But Danish, Swedish, &c., than any other; and dein a short time, events having taken a scended from Englishmen, too, who left Europe turn favourable to Mr. Adams's view, the in purer times than the present, and less taintpersonalities of his letters were generally ed with corruption than those they left behind forgotten, and he more than resumed his them. former station in public opinion.

The following answer to a question of his wife's as to Dr. Franklin, will, besides giving his opinion of the Doctor, show that even after the battle of Bunker's Hill the prospect of total independence was not popular :

He

'Dr. Franklin has been very constant in his attendance on Congress from the beginning. His conduct has been composed and grave, and, in the opinion of many gentlemen, very reserved. He has not assumed anything, nor affected to take the lead; but has seemed to choose that the Congress should pursue their own principles and sentiments, and adopt their own plans. Yet he has not been backward; has been very useful on many occasions, and discovered a disposition entirely American. He does not hesitate at our boldest measures, but rather seems to think us too irresolute and backward. thinks us at present in an odd state, neither in peace nor war, neither dependent nor independent; but he thinks that we shall soon assume a character more decisive. He thinks that we have the power of preserving ourselves; and that, even if we should be driven to the disagreeable necessity of assuming a total independency and set up a separate state, we can maintain it. The people of England have thought, that the opposition in America was wholly owing to Dr. Franklin; and I suppose their scribblers will attribute the temper and proceedings of Congress to him; but there cannot be a greater mistake. He has had but little share further than to co-operate and to assist. He is however a great and good man. I wish his colleagues from this city were all like him.'-vol. i., pp. 53, 54.

Mr. Adams must have been more personally active in the preliminary troubles than we were aware of, for we find him writing to his wife, 10th October, 1775

Pray bundle up every paper not already hid, and conceal them in impenetrable darkness. No body knows what may occur.'-vol. ii., p. 63.

'New England has, in many respects, the advantage of every other colony in America, and, indeed, of every other part of the world that I know anything of.

2. The institutions in New England for the support of religion, morals, and decency exceed any other; obliging every parish to have a minister, and every person to go to meeting, &c.

3. The public institutions in New England for the education of youth, supporting colleges at the public expense, and obliging towns to maintain grammar-schools, are not equalled, and never were, in any part of the world.

'4. The division of our territory, that is, our counties, into townships; empowering towns to assemble, choose officers, make laws, mend roads, and twenty other things, gives every man an opportunity of showing and improving that education which he received at college or at school, and makes knowledge and dexterity at public business common.

5. Our law for the distribution of intestates occasions a frequent division of landed property, and prevents monopolies of land.'—vol. i., pp. 74, 75.

This was certainly a state of things that ought not to have provoked rebellion, and we must say that an accurate examination of the early stages of the dispute-long before they attracted European noticehas convinced us that the patriots were generally, like Mr. Otis, disappointed place-hunters, and that the original dis satisfaction had no reasonable foundation.

But with all this, we must admit that the prospect of independence was an attractive, and as it has turned out a rational speculation; and Mr. Adams pursued it with mingled activity and prudence, and deserves the large share of the national gratitude which he enjoyed till his Presidency, and which, we believe, is now pretty generally restored to his memory. Mr. Adams not only hastened the decla ration of Independence, but he contributed to the adoption of the existing form of federal government, by the publication in

1776 of his Thoughts on Government.' to be general of the American army;' For most internal purposes, we believe but it appears that, when a strong cabal the federative system the very best that was formed in Congress against Washcould have been adopted; but Mr. Adams ington, Adams-if he did not join the ca-occupied, we suppose, with what was bal, which his grandson but faintly denies more immediately urgent, some sort of looked at least with a jealous and somedomestic government-does not in this what detracting eye on the great General. work allude to, and probably did not con- We find in a letter of the 26th October, sider the effect of, this federal system in 1777, this aigre-doux passage:the foreign relations of a country-and we should not be surprised if it should happen, and indeed rather shall be surprised if it does not happen, that this federal system, as at present constituted, shall be found wholly inadequate to, and inconsistent with, the maintenance of a national government and character. It is a great and interesting problem, and, as we have often said, the system has in America every possible advantage from local and temporary circumstances, and yet we strongly doubt its stability in its present form-but more of this by and by.

'Congress will appoint a thanksgiving [for some successes in the North in which Washington was not concerned ;] and one cause of it ought to be, that the glory of turning the tide of arms is not immediately due to the Commander-in-chief [Washington,] nor to southern troops. If it had been, idolatry and adulation would have been unbounded; so excessive as to endanger our liberties, for what I know. Now, we can allow a certain citizen to be wise, virtuous, and good without thinking him a deity or a saviour.'-vol. ii., p. 14.

The editor endeavours to palliate this 'jealousy' by saying that

'it was solely the result of the study of history, and of the examples of abuse of power by military chieftains, but partook of no hostility to the man, as will more fully appear by reference to the letter in this collection of the 25th February preceding.'

Mr. Adams took, as might be expected, a very active part in all the business of Congress: during his service in that body he was member of ninety, and chairman of twenty-five, committees, but seems to have been more especially employed as This apology does not satisfy our chairman of the committee for military minds: it might very well happen in times business, called the Board of War. He of cabal' that an opinion expressed on fancied, indeed, that he had himself a the 25th of February should be no proof taste for military life-which, he says, of what a caballer might feel on the 20th broke out so early as 1757, when he long- October; but, on referring back to that ed ardently to be a soldier; and in 1775, letter, it not only does not fully appear' when Congress began to appoint officers, that Mr. Adams could have no personal and Colonel Washington appeared in that jealousy of Washington eight months assembly in his uniform, Adams's ardour later, but it does not even prove that Mr. blazes up, and he writes to his wife, Oh Adams had no such jealousy even at that that I were a soldier!—I will be-I am read- time. The expressions are :-ing military books!' Again when he accompanies Generals Washington, Lee, and Schuyler a little way out of Philadelphia on their journey to join the army, he is much excited by the pride and pomp of war;' but adds, in a sudden ebullition of that amour propre which seems to have been so strong in him

'I, poor creature, worn out with scribbling for my bread and my liberty, low in spirits and weak in health, must leave others to wear the

laurels which I have sown; others to eat the bread which I have earned; a common case.'vol. i., pp. 47, 48.

It must have been something of this feeling which-at one period at least cooled in a very remarkable way his admiration of Washington. At first Washington is 'the modest and virtuous, the amiable, generous, and brave George Washington, Esquire, chosen by Congress

Many persons are extremely dissatisfied with numbers of the general officers of the highest rank. I don't mean the commanderin-chief, his character is justly very high; but Schuyler, Putnam, Spencer, Heath, are thought by very few to be capable of the great commands they hold.'-vol. i., pp. 192, 193.

This only says that Washington stands justly high with many persons who are extremely dissatisfied with the other generals; and is certainly not a full appearance of any great friendship towards Washington-particularly as we find that only two days before the date of this letter of the 25th February, 1777, Mr. Adams made a speech in Congress exactly in the spirit of the subsequent letter of the 26th of October:

I have been distressed to see some of our members disposed to idolize an image which their own hands have molten. I speak of the superstitious veneration which is paid to Gen