The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Editor’s Note
• 1: Essays and Controversial Papers of the Revolution
• On Private Revenge
• On Self-delusion
• On Private Revenge
• 2: A Dissertation On the Canon and Feudal Law
• 3: Instructions of the Town of Braintree to Their Representative, 1765
• 4: The Earl of Clarendon to William Pym
• No. I
• No. Ii
• No. Iii
• 5: Governor Winthrop to Governor Bradford
• No. I
• No. II: That the Hypocrite Reign Not, Lest the People Be Ensnared. Job.
• 6: The Independence of the Judiciary; a Controversy Between William Brattle and John Adams
• 7: Two Replies of the Massachusetts House of Representatives to Governor Hutchinson
• Answer to His Excellency’s Speech At the Opening of the Session
• Answer to His Excellency’s Speech
• 8: Novanglus; Or, a History of the Dispute With America, From Its Origin, In 1754, to the Present Time Addressed to the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay
• No. I
• No. Ii
• No. Iii
• No. Iv
• No. V
• No. Vi
• No. Vii
• No. Viii
• No. Ix
• No. X
• No. Xi
• No. Xii
• 9: Thoughts On Government: Applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies
• 10: The Report of a Constitution, Or Form of Government, For the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
• Preamble
• Chapter I: A Declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
• Chapter II: The Frame of Government
• Chapter III: Executive Power
• Chapter IV: Judiciary Power
• Chapter V: Delegates to Congress, Commissions, Writs, Indictments, &c.; Confirmation of Laws, Habeas Corpus, and Enacting Style
• Chapter VI: The University At Cambridge, and Encouragement of Literature, &c.
• Chapter Vii and Last

Editor’s Note

With a few minor exceptions, this volume includes all of John Adams’s Revolutionary and pre-Revolutionary political writings. All documents are reproduced in their entirety and, with one exception, have been taken from volumes 3 and 4 of Charles Francis Adams’s ten-volume collection of The Works of John Adams (Boston, 1850–56). In turn, the Charles Francis Adams documents were reproduced from original newspaper publications. “Two Replies of the Massachusetts House of Representatives to Governor Hutchinson” was taken from the original Journal of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts.

In the spirit of introducing modern readers to documents reproduced in exactly the same form in which they were read by eighteenth-century readers, I have decided against annotating any of these documents. In order to recapture the distant past we must first appreciate its strangeness and differentness from the present. My intention is to permit Adams to speak for himself and to challenge the modern reader to further study the philosophic and political contexts in which Adams wrote. Nor, for the most part, have I attempted to modernize the text. The definitive annotated edition of Adams’s Revolutionary writings will be found in the ongoing publication of the Papers of John Adams (Boston, 1977–). I have also removed all footnotes and annotation used by Charles Francis Adams.

The Revolutionary Writings of John Adams