The Writings of Samuel Adams - Volume 4Adams, Samuel
History
The Writings of Samuel Adams - Volume 4
Adams, Samuel
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1809
If I was to tell you that I wonder much at the Conduct of some of our
Politicians it might discover my own Folly; for it is said a wise Man
wonders at Nothing. Be it so. I am curious to know who made the Motion
for the Admission of Gray, Gardiner & Jemmy Anderson? Which of the
B[oston] Members supported the Motion? Are the Galleries of the House
open? Do the People know that such a Motion was made? A Motion so
alarming to an old Whig? Or are they so incessantly eager in the
Pursuit of Pleasure or of Gain as to be totally thoughtless of their
Country? I hope not. Gracious Heaven! Defend us from Vanity Folly & the
inordinate Love of Money. Your News Papers are silent upon every
Subject of Importance but the Description of a Feast, or the Eclat of
some Great Man. Your able Patriot is wholly employd in spirited
Exertions of the Military Kind, or surely he wd have pourd forth all
his Eloquence against so detestable a Motion.--" The Motion did not
obtain." I rejoyce in this; But Do you do Justice [to] the House by so
faint an Expression? I hope they rejected it with every Mark of
Contempt & Indignation. Do the Gentlemen who made & supported this
Motion know, that even in this Quaker Country, they are trying &
condemning & I suppose will hang some of their considerable Men for
Crimes not inferior to those of Gray & Gardiner. Jemmy Anderson I have
forgot. I suppose he is a little Man & a Scotchman. It is the opinion
of the People in this Country, that a Galloway could not atone for his
publick Crimes with the Sacrifice of an hundred Lives. A Galloway, a
Gray, a Gardiner! Examine them & say which is the greatest Criminal.
Confiscation you tell me labors--"it labors very hard"! I have heard
objections made to it, not in this Country, but in my own. But I
thought those objections were made by interested Men. Shall those
Traiters who first conspired the Ruin of our Liberties; Those who
basely forsook their Country in her Distress & sought Protection from
the Enemy when they thought them in the Plenitude of Power--who have been
ever since stimulating & doing all in their Power to aid and comfort
them while they have been exerting their utmost to enslave & ruin us.
Shall these Wretches have their Estates reservd for them & restored at
the Conclusion of this glorious Struggle in which some of the richest
Blood of America has been spilled, for the sake of a few who may have
Money in England & for this Reason have maintaind a dastardly and
criminal Neutrality? It cannot be. I venturd to speak my Mind in a
Place where I could claim no Right to speak. I spoke with Leave which I
should have disdaind to have done, had I not felt the Importance of the
Subject to our Country. I will tell you my Opinion. If you do not act a
decisive Part--If you suffer those Traiters to return & enjoy their
Estates, the World will say, you have no Sense of publick Injury & have
lost your understanding.
Adieu my dear Friend,
TO MRS. ADAMS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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