Falmouth, 5 July, 1774.
I can't be easy without my pen in my hand, yet I know not
what to write.
I have this morning heard a dialogue between Will Gardiner
and a Captain Pote, of Falmouth. Gardiner says he can't subscribe the
non-consumption agreement because he has a hundred men coming from England to
settle upon Kennebeck River, and he must supply them, which he can't do without
English goods. That agreement he says may do at Boston, but not in the Eastern
country. Pote said he never would sign it, and railed away at Boston mobs,
drowning tea, and tarring Malcom.
James Sullivan at dinner told us a story or two. One member
of the General Court, he said, as they came down stairs after their dissolution
at Salem said to him, “Though we are killed, we died scrabbling, did not we?”
This is not very witty, I think.
Another story was of a piece of wit of brother Porter, of
Salem. He came upon the floor and asked a member, “What state are you in now?”
The member answered, “In a state of nature.” “Aye,” says Porter, “and you will
be damned before you will get into a state of grace.”
SOURCE: Charles Francis Adams, Familiar Letters of
John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams, During the Revolution, p. 12
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