Boston, November 26,
1828.
TO THE HONORABLE JOHN
QUINCY ADAMS.
SIR,
The undersigned, citizens of Massachusetts, residing in
Boston and its vicinity, take the liberty of addressing you on the subject of a
statement published in the National Intelligencer of the 21st of October, and
which purports to have been communicated or authorised by you.
In that statement, after speaking of those individuals in
this State, whom the writer designates as “certain leaders of the party which
had the management of the State Legislature in their hands” in the year 1808,
and saying, that in the event of a civil war, he (Mr Adams) “had no doubt the
leaders of the party would secure the co-operation with them of Great Britain,”
it is added, “That their object was, and had been for several years, a
dissolution of the Union, and the establishment of a separate Confederation, he
knew from unequivocal evidence, although not proveable in a court of law.”
This, sir, is not the expression of an opinion as to the
nature and tendency of the measures at that time publicly adopted, or proposed,
by the party prevailing in the State of Massachusetts. Every citizen was at
liberty to form his own opinions on that subject; and we cheerfully submit the
propriety of those measures to the judgment of an impartial posterity. But the
sentence which we have quoted contains the assertion of a distinct fact, as one
within your own knowledge. We are not permitted to consider it as the unguarded
expression of irritated feelings, hastily uttered at a time of great political
excitement. Twenty years have elapsed since this charge was first made, in
private correspondence with certain members of Congress; and it is now
deliberately repeated, and brought before the Public under the sanction of your
name, as being founded on unequivocal evidence, within your knowledge.
We do not claim for ourselves, nor even for those deceased
friends whose representatives join in this address, the title of leaders of any
party in Massachusetts ; but we were associated in politics with the party
prevailing here at the period referred to in the statement above mentioned;
some of us concurred in all the measures adopted by that party; and we all
warmly approved and supported those measures. Many of our associates who still
survive, are dispersed throughout Massachusetts and Maine, and could not easily
be convened to join us on the present occasion. We trust however that you will
not question our right, if not for ourselves alone, at least in behalf of the
highly valued friends with whom we acted at that time, and especially of those
of them who are now deceased, respectfully to ask from you such a full and
precise statement of the facts and evidence relating to this accusation, as may
enable us fairly to meet and answer it.
The object of this letter therefore is, to request you to
state
First, Who are the persons, designated as leaders of the
party prevailing in Massachusetts in the year 1808, whose object, you assert,
was and had been for several years, a dissolution of the Union, and the
establishment of a separate Confederation? and
Secondly, the whole evidence on which that charge is
founded.
It is admitted in the statement of the charge, that it is
not proveable in a court of law, and of course that you are not in possession
of any legal evidence by which to maintain it. The evidence however must have
been such as in your opinion would have been pronounced unequivocal by upright
and honorable men of discriminating minds ; and we may certainly expect from
your sense of justice and self respect a full disclosure of all that you possess.
A charge of this nature, coming as it does from the first
magistrate of the nation, acquires an importance which we cannot affect to
disregard; and it is one which we ought not to leave unanswered. We are
therefore constrained, by a regard to our deceased friends and to our
posterity, as well as by a sense of what is due to our own honor, most solemnly
to declare, that we have never known nor suspected that the party which
prevailed in Massachusetts in the year 1808, or any other party in this State,
ever entertained the design to produce a dissolution of the Union, or the
establishment of a separate Confederation. It is impossible for us in any other
manner to refute, or even to answer this charge, until we see it fully and particularly
stated, and know the evidence by which it is to be maintained.
The undersigned think it due to themselves to add, that in
making this application to you, they have no design nor wish to produce an
effect on any political party or question whatever. Neither is it their purpose
to enter into a vindication or discussion of the measures publickly adopted and
avowed by the persons against whom the above charge has been made. Our sole
object is to draw forth all the evidence on which that charge is founded, in
order that the public may judge of its application and its weight.
We are Sir, with due respect,
Your obedient servants,
H. G. OTIS,
ISRAEL THORNDIKE,
T. H. PERKINS,
WM. PRESCOTT,
DANIEL SARGENT,
JOHN LOWELL,
WM. SULLIVAN,
CHARLES JACKSON,
WARREN DUTTON,
BENJ. PICKMAN,
HENRY CABOT,
Son of the late George
Cabot.
C. C. PARSONS,
Son of Theophilus
Parsons, Esq. deceased.
FRANKLIN DEXTER,
Son of the late Samuel
Dexter.
SOURCE: Correspondence
Between John Quincy Adams, Esquire, President of the United States and Several
Citizens of Massachusetts Concerning the Charge of a Design to Dissolve the
Union Alleged to have Existed in that State, p. 11-14
