BOSTON [March 12] 1771
SIR
Your Letter of the 1 Sept 1770 has been laid before the Town of Boston at their annual Meeting & attended to with great Satisfaction, and we are appointed a Committee to return a respectfull Answer. Accordingly we take this Opportunity in Behalf of the Town to acknowledge the kind Sentiments your Letter expresses towards us and to intreat you to employ your Abilities for our Advantage whenever a favorable Opportunity may present. We are very sensible that you have an arduous Task in resisting the Torrent of Oppression & arbitrary Power in Ireland: a kingdom where the brutal power of standing Armies, & the more fatal Influence of pensions & places has left, it is to be feard, hardly any thing more than the Name of a free Constitution. We wish you Strength & fortitude to persevere in patriotick Exertions. Your Labour will meet with its immediate & constant Reward, in the most peaceful & happy Reflections of your own mind amidst the greatest discouragements; and be assured that the Man who nobly vindicates the Rights of his Country & Mankind shall stand foremost in the List of fame.
1 Of Dublin. Cf. Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xxxiv., p. 231. The committee which reported this letter was appointed March 12, and consisted of James Bowdoin, Joseph Warren, Samuel Pemberton, Richard Dana and Adams. Boston Record Commissioners' Report, vol. xviii., p. 46. Franklin wrote to Bowdoin, January 13, 1772: "In Ireland, among the Patriots, I dined with Dr. Lucas." J. Bigelow, Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin, vol. iv., p. 439.
TO ARTHUR LEE.
[Ms., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]
BOSTON April 19 1771.
SIR
Your Letter of the 31 Decr which I receivd by Cap Scott a few days past affords me great Satisfaction; especially as it promises a Correspondence which I dare say will be carried on with an Openness & Sincerity becoming those who are anxiously concernd for the publick Liberty at so alarming a Crisis.1 Perhaps there never was a time when the political Affairs of America were in a more dangerous State; Such is the Indolence of Men in general, or their Inattention to the real Importance of things, that a steady & animated perseverance in the rugged path of Virtue at the hazard of trifles is hardly to be expected. The Generality are necessarily engagd in Application to private Business for the Support of their own families and when at a lucky Season the publick are awakened to a Sense of Danger, & a manly resentment is enkindled, it is difficult, for so many separate Communities as there are in all the Colonies, to agree in one consistent plan of Opposition while those who are the appointed Instruments of Oppression, have all the Means put into their hands, of applying to the passions of Men & availing themselves of the Necessities of some, the Vanity of others & the timidity of all.
I have long thought that a Design has been on foot to render ineffectual the Democratical part of this Government, even before the province was cursd with the Appointment of Bernard, and so unguarded have the people been in former times, so careless in the Choice of their representatives as to send too many who either through Ignorance or Wickedness have favord that Design. Of late the lower house of Assembly have been more sensible of this Danger & supported in some Measure their own Weight, which has alarmd the Conspirators and been in my opinion the true Source of Bernards Complaint against them as having set up a faction against the Kings Authority. The 4 Judges of the Supreme Court, the Secretary & the Kings Attourny who had been Councellors were left out at the annual Election in 1766; this gave great offence to the Govr, and was followd with two Speeches to both Houses perhaps as infamous & irritating as ever came from a Stuart to the English parliamt.2 Happy indeed it was for the Province that such a Man was at the Head of it, for it occasiond such a Jealousy & Watchfulness in the people as prevented their immediate & total Ruin.