DEAR SIR,
IN my letters to you, I regard no order. And I think, I ought to make you laugh sometimes: otherwise my letters would be too grave, if not too melancholy. To this end, I send you Jemmibellero, "the song of the drunkard" which was published in Fleet's "Boston Evening Post," on the 13th of May, 1765. It was universally agreed to have been written by Samuel Waterhouse, who had been the most notorious scribbler, satyrist and libeller, in the service of the conspirators, against the liberties of America, and against the administration of governor Pownal, and against the characters of Mr. Pratt and Mr. Tyng. The rascal had wit. But is ridicule the test of truth? You see the bachanalian ha! ha! at Otis's prosodies Greek and Latin; and you see the encouragement of scholarship in that age. The whole legion, the whole phalanx, the whole host of conspirators against the liberties of America, could not have produced Mr. Otis's Greek and Latin prosodies. Yet they must be made the scorn of fools. Such was the character of the age, or rather of the day. Such have been and such will be the rewards of real patriotism in all ages and all over the world.—I am, as ever, your old friend and humble servant,
JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, June 1, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
NO man could have written from memory Mr. Otis's argument of four or five hours, against the acts of trade, as revenue laws, and against writs of assistants, as a tyrannical engine to execute them, the next day after it was spoken. How awkward, then, would be an attempt to do it after a lapse of fifty seven years? Nevertheless, some of the heads of his discourse are so indelibly imprinted on my mind, that I will endeavour to give you some very short hints of them.
1. He began with an exordium, containing an apology for his resignation of the office of advocate general in the court of admiralty; and for his appearance in that cause in opposition to the crown, and in favour of the town of Boston, and the merchants of Boston and Salem.