JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Paris, April 3d, 1780.
Sir,
The fermentation in England has already distressed the administration and overawed some of the members of the House of Commons, but there is room to suspect, that this is chiefly to be attributed to the approach of an election. The petitions are very far from being universal, and the congress of the sub-committees is not yet numerous.
At a meeting of these from York, Surry, Middlesex, Sussex, Gloucester, Hertford, Kent, Huntington, Dorset, Bucks, Chester, Devon, and Essex, from the cities of London, Westminster, Gloucester, and the towns of Newcastle and Nottingham, holden at the St Albans tavern, and afterwards by adjournment at the great room in King Street, St James, on the 11th, 14th, 15th, 17th, 18th, and 20th days of March, 1780, the Reverend Christopher Wyvill in the chair, a memorial was agreed on, containing reasons for a plan of association.
They affirm that there is a despotic system, and they date the commencement of it nearly from the beginning of the present reign, and they say that they have arrived at the crisis, which the wisest of the political writers marked for the downfall of British liberty, when the legislative body shall become as corrupt as the executive, they should have said more corrupt, because that is undoubtedly the fact at present, as well as the case stated by Montesquieu.
They say, that by the unhappy war with America, begotten in the first instance of this despotic system, and nursed with a view of giving completion to it, the fatal influence of the Crown has been armed with more ample means for enslaving Parliament, while the nation has visibly sunk almost into beggary. Never did any country experience so sudden a reverse from prosperity to depression. They state the fall of rents, the accumulation of taxes, and the stagnation of all credit. They then run a long course of reasoning, to show the utility, importance, and necessity, of the several things they recommended to the people of England, which are all comprehended in a few propositions.
1st. They recommend perseverance in the petitions, and an association in support of them.