I wonder how your Colony happens to sleep so soundly in a whole skin, when her Sisters are so worried and tormented!

Autograph letter signed by John Adams, to an unknown recipient. Boston, [Massachusetts], 26 December 1772. 1p, date line and letter mounted separately to a 7 1/2 x 4 1/4 in. card. A brief but important missive sent in the wake of the Gaspee Affair.

The letter reads in full, "We are all in a Lurry here about the Dependency of the Governor and the Dependency of the Judges, the Commission for trying the Rhode Islanders for Burning the Gaspee. I wonder how your Colony happens to sleep so soundly in a whole skin, when her Sisters are so worried and tormented! I am with much Respect your old Friend & humble servant [signed] John Adams." A postscript added to bottom of the letter adds: "+ The Fools call it the Independency of the Govr, Judges, &c." Above this postscript is a notation, seemingly in a different hand and likely added later, "Mr. Elliot?" 

While lesser known than the Boston Massacre (1770) or the Boston Tea Party (1773), the Gaspee affair was yet another significant event in the lead-up to the American Revolution. HMS Gaspee was a Royal Navy revenue schooner tasked in 1772 with patrolling Narragansett Bay, enforcing British restrictions on American commerce, and stemming the tide of illegal trade. Commanded by Lieut. William Dudingston, the Gaspee aggressively patrolled the Rhode Island coast raising the ire of Rhode Islanders and further heightening tensions in an already volatile environment. On 9 June 1772, after the Gaspee was run aground during a chase with a small trader from Newport bound for Providence, a group of men from Providence planned on attack on the stranded vessel. Early in the morning of the 10th, approximately 60 armed men rowed to the Gaspee, fired upon it wounding Lieut. Dudingston, then boarded the ship, removed Dudingston and his crew, and burned the ship to the waterline. The attack was the first major armed act of rebellion against the British crown, and the subsequent investigation prompted the colonies to consider united action against England.

Days after the attack Rhode Island Governor Joseph Wanton issued a proclamation offering a reward for information leading to the capture of the persons guilty of the "atrocious crime." With the investigation making little progress, two months later King George III would issue his own proclamation, offering rewards of up to £1000 for the names of those responsible for the attack, and naming five officials to constitute a Royal Commission of Inquiry: one judge each from the supreme courts of Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey, the judge of the vice-admiralty of Boston, and Rhode Island's Governor Wanton. These officials, known as the Gaspee Commission, were to send any accused attackers to England for trial.

Written during the period in which the Gaspee Commission was conducting its investigation, John Adams's letter is a powerful testament to the heightening tensions of the era and the impact of the Gaspee affair far beyond the colony of Rhode Island. His specific reference to the Governor and "Commisssion for trying the Rhode Islanders" displays his concerns over the method of investigation, and over the potential lack of impartiality of its members. The prospect of Americans being sent to England for trial, as opposed to being tried in America by a jury of their peers, was highly alarming to colonists. Just two days after he penned the letter offered here, Adams writes in his diary on 29 [28] December 1772: "The high Commission Court, the Star Chamber Court, the Court of Inquisition, for the Tryal of the Burners of the Gaspee, at Rhode Island, are the present Topick of Conversation. The Governor of that Colony, has communicated to the assembly a Letter from the Earl of Dartmouth. The Colony are in great Distress, and have applied to their Neighbors for Advice, how to evade or to sustain the Shock." The matter of the Gaspee was clearly at the forefront of Adams's mind, and of the general conversation, in December 1772. Significantly, Adams uses this letter to call out the unnamed recipient and his home colony for what Adams apparently perceived as apathy to the distress of the Rhode Islanders. Adams's tacitly expresses what would soon become a bedrock foundation of the Patriot resistance - the necessity of the colonies to work together in opposition to the British crown.

The unusual condition of the letter offered here leaves open the possibility that there are anomalies in our understanding of the letter's context. Plausible explanations for the detached place and date are that a collector may have reduced the size of the letter for display, or perhaps that the text is merely the last page of a larger letter that was cut and placed alongside the date for display. Additionally, the notation "Mr. Elliot?" suggests a later individual, perhaps a member of the Adams family, sought to determine the intended recipient of the letter and had reason to suspect a Mr. Elliot. The Adams Papers Digital edition records Adams family correspondence between Abigail Adams and John Eliot, son of Rev. Andrew Eliot of Boston, and includes a reference to his brother, Andrew Eliot, a minister at Fairfield, Connecticut, in a 1775 letter between John and Abigail. Adams's reference to himself as an "old Friend" suggests the recipient was someone whom Adams had long known. Additional research could yield informative details on the exact identity of the recipient.

Despite the questions of the detached date and unknown recipient, the content of the letter and its significance remain clear. Adams's words clearly reflect a deepening resolve to oppose perceived British tyranny, and an explicit exhortation to join together with "Sister" colonies in opposition to the crown. The burning of the Gaspee did in fact have a lasting legacy, as the colonies came to decide that "unity of action" would best position them to address their grievances, leading ultimately to the formation of the First Continental Congress.

An impassioned letter from one of America's most uncompromising and persuasive Founding Fathers.

[Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [American Revolutionary War, American Revolution, Founding Fathers, Declaration of Independence, Colonial America, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe]

Place and date detached from the letter and adhered separately above main body of text. Loss at upper left corner not affecting text. Creasing at folds and toning.