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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

17 Dec. 1773: TO JAMES WARREN. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799-1811) [1854]

Edition used:

The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1856). 10 volumes. Vol. 9.

Part of: The Works of John Adams, 10 vols.

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Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


TO JAMES WARREN.

Boston, 17 December, 1773.

The die is cast. The people have passed the river and cut away the bridge. Last night three cargoes of tea were emptied into the harbor. This is the grandest event which has ever yet happened since the controversy with Britain opened. The sublimity of it charms me!2

For my part, I cannot express my own sentiments of it better than in the words of Colonel D. to me, last evening. Balch should repeat them. “The worst that can happen, I think,” said he, “in consequence of it, will be that the province must pay for it. Now, I think the province may pay for it, if it is drowned, as easily as if it is drunk; and I think it is a matter of indifference whether it is drunk or drowned. The province must pay for it in either case. But there is this difference; I believe it will take them ten years to get the province to pay for it; if so, we shall save ten years’ interest of the money, whereas, if it is drunk, it must be paid for immediately.” Thus he.—However, he agreed with me, that the province would never pay for it; and also in this, that the final ruin of our constitution of government, and of all American liberties, would be the certain consequence of suffering it to be landed.

Governor Hutchinson and his family and friends will never have done with their good services to Great Britain and the colonies. But for him, this tea might have been saved to the East India Company. Whereas this loss, if the rest of the colonies should follow our example, will, in the opinion of many persons, bankrupt the company. However, I dare say, the governor and consignees and custom-house officers in the other colonies will have more wisdom than ours have had, and take effectual care that their tea shall be sent back to England untouched; if not, it will as surely be destroyed there as it has been here.

Threats, phantoms, bugbears, by the million, will be invented and propagated among the people upon this occasion. Individuals will be threatened with suits and prosecutions. Armies and navies will be talked of. Military executions, charters annulled, treason trials in England, and all that. But these terms are all but imaginations. Yet, if they should become realities, they had better be suffered than the great principle of parliamentary taxation be given up.

The town of Boston never was more still and calm of a Saturday night than it was last night. All things were conducted with great order, decency, and perfect submission to government. No doubt we all thought the administration in better hands than it had been.

TO JAMES WARREN.

Boston, 22 December, 1773.

Yesterday the Governor called a council at Cambridge. Eight members met at Brattle’s. This, no doubt, was concerted last Saturday, at Neponset hill, where Brattle and Russel dined, by way of caucus, I suppose.1 Sewall dined with their honors yesterday. But behold, what a falling off was there! The Governor, who last Friday was fully persuaded and told the council that some late proceedings were high treason, and promised them the attendance of the attorney-general to prove it them out of law books,1 now, such is his alacrity in sinking, was rather of opinion they were burglary. I suppose he meant what we call New England burglary, that is, breaking open a shop or ship, &c., which is punished with branding, &c.

But the council thought it would look rather awkward to issue a proclamation against the whole community, and therefore contented themselves with ordering Mr. Attorney to prosecute such as he should know or be informed of. They have advised a prorogation of the General Court for a fortnight. It is whispered that the Sachem has it in contemplation to go home soon, and perhaps the prorogation is to give him time to get away. Few think he will meet the House again.

The spirit of liberty is very high in the country, and universal. Worcester is aroused. Last week a monument to liberty was erected there in the heart of the town, within a few yards of Colonel Chandler’s door. A gentleman of as good sense and character as any in that county, told me this day, that nothing which has been ever done, is more universally approved, applauded, and admired than these last efforts. He says, that whole towns in that county were on tiptoe to come down.

Make my compliments to Mrs. Warren, and tell her that I want a poetical genius to describe a late frolic among the seanymphs and goddesses. There being a scarcity of nectar and ambrosia among the celestials of the sea, Neptune has determined to substitute Hyson and Congo, and, for some of the inferior divinities, Bohea. Amphitrite, one of his wives, viz. the land, and Salaria, another of his wives, the sea, went to pulling caps upon the occasion, but Salaria prevailed. The Sirens should be introduced somehow, I cannot tell how, and Proteus, a son of Neptune, who could sometimes flow like water, and sometimes burn like fire, bark like a dog, howl like a wolf, whine like an ape, cry like a crocodile, or roar like a lion. But, for want of this same poetical genius, I can do nothing. I wish to see a late glorious event celebrated by a certain poetical pen which has no equal that I know of in this country.

We are anxious for the safety of the cargo1 at Provincetown. Are there no Vineyard, Marshpee, Mattapoiset Indians, do you think, who will take the care of it, and protect it from violence? I mean from the hands of tyrants and oppressors, who want to do violence with it to the laws and constitution, to the present age, and to posterity.

I hope you have had a happy anniversary festival. May a double portion of the genius and spirit of our forefathers rest upon us and our posterity!

[2 ]The same train of reflection is in the Diary of this date. Volume ii. p. 323.

[1 ]The Governor says that this was an attempt to convene the council, but it failed.

[1 ]See the Diary, vol. ii. p. 325, and compare Hutchinson’s account of this conference in the third volume of his History, p. 439.

[1 ]The fourth and last vessel was driven ashore on Cape Cod. Some of the tea was saved, sent to Boston, and landed at the castle.