The records and files of the court of probate in Boston were transported to Halifax. Judge Foster Hutchinson had the honour to return them after the peace of 1783. But admiralty records have never been restored as I have heard.
The subject may be pursued hereafter by your servant,
JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, September 13, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
IT is some consolation to find in the paragraph of the charter, next following the court of admiralty, that nothing in it "shall in any manner enure, or be taken to abridge, bar, or hinder any of our loving subjects whatsoever, to use and exercise the trade of fishing upon the coasts of New England, but that they and every of them shall have full and free power and liberty to continue and use their said trade of fishing upon the said coast, in any of the seas thereunto adjoining, or any arms of the said seas, or salt water rivers, where they have been wont to fish; and to build and sett, upon the lands within our said province or colony, lying waste, and not then possessed by particular proprietors, such wharfs, stages, and work-houses, as shall be necessary for the salting, drying, keeping and packing of their fish, to be taken and gotten upon that coast; and to cut down and take such trees and other materials there growing or being upon any parts or places lying waste, and not then in possession of particular proprietors, as shall be needful for that purpose, and for all other necessary easments, helps and advantages, concerning the trade of fishing there, in such manner and form, as they have been heretofore at any time accustomed to do, without making any willful waste or spoil, any thing in these presents to the contrary notwithstanding."
Fellow citizens! Recollect that "This our province or colony" contained the whole of Nova Scotia as well as the "Province of Maine, Massachusetts bay and New Plymouth." Will you ever surrender one particle, one iota of this sacred charter right, and still more sacred right of nature, purchase, acquisition, possession, usage, habit and conquest? Let the thunder of British cannon say what it will, I know you will not. I know you cannot. And if you could be base enough to surrender it, which I know you cannot and never will be, your sons will reclaim it, and redemand it, at the price of whatever blood or treasure it may cost, and will obtain it, secure it, and command it, forever. This pretended grant is but an acknowledgment of your antecedent right by nature, and by English liberty. You have no power or authority to alienate it. It was granted, or rather acknowledged to your successors and posterity as well as to you, and any cessions you could make would be null and void in the sight of God and all reasonable men.
Mr. Otis descanted largely on these charters. His observations carried irresistible conviction to the minds and hearts of many others as well as to mine, that every one of those statutes from the navigation act, to the last act of trade, was a violation of all the charters and compacts between the two countries, was a fundamental invasion of our essential rights, and was consequently null and void; that the legislatures of the colonies, and especially of Massachusetts, had the sole and exclusive authority of legislation and especially of taxation in America.