On January 23, 1775, an essay appeared in The Boston Gazette. It was sort of like today’s letters to the editor, only longer, more erudite, and addressed to “the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay.” Signed “Novanglus,” it was in fact written by John Adams.
Adams was responding to another such political essay by a writer calling himself “Massachusettensis.” Massachusettensis had written to warn the colonists against the dangers of prolonging the controversy with Great Britain and to remind them of their filial duty towards the Mother Country, who, he asserted, had “been indulgent almost to a fault.” Though his purpose was to rebut this author’s claims, Adams did manage to establish at least a little common ground. For example, he wrote,
"It is true as this writer observes, “that the bulk of the people are generally but little versed in matters of state, that they rest the affairs of government where accident has placed them.” If this had not been true, the designs of the tories had been many years ago, entirely defeated. It was clearly seen, by a few, more than ten years since, that they were planning and pursuing the very measures, we now see executing."
John Adams knew what he was talking about. He was one of those prescient few, who had long since realized that the measures being pursued in Parliament didn’t proceed from incompetence or ignorance, but from intrigue. He had written as much almost a decade earlier, claiming,
“There seems to be a direct and formal design on foot, to enslave all America. This however must be done by degrees.”
Perhaps it was this prediction that he had in mind, as Novanglus continued,
"The people were informed of it, and warned of their danger: But they had been accustomed to confide in certain persons, and could never be persuaded to believe, until prophecy, became history. Now they see and feel, that the horrible calamities are come upon them, which were foretold so many years ago, and they now sufficiently execrate the men who have brought these things upon them. Now alas! when perhaps it is too late. If they had withdrawn their confidence from them in season, they would have wholly disarmed them."
Adams believed that the problems the American colonists faced in 1775 stemmed from their refusal to recognize, and take suitable precautions against, the threat that he and others had been warning about. He wasn’t surprised, however. Years earlier he had written,
"[W]e all know, that human nature itself, from indolence, modesty, humanity or fear, has always too much reluctance to a manly assertion of its rights. Hence perhaps it has happened that nine tenths of the species, are groaning and gasping in misery and servitude."
John had certainly not grown any less cynical about his fellow man over the intervening years, and he repeated these same sentiments as Novanglus:
"The most sensible and jealous people are so little attentive to government, that there are no instances of resistance, until repeated, multiplied oppressions have placed it beyond a doubt, that their rulers had formed settled plans to deprive them of their liberties; not to oppress an individual or a few, but to break down the fences of a free constitution, and deprive the people at large of all share in the government and all the checks by which it is limitted."
However, even though John Adams knew that the people of all nations were too quick to trust their governments and too slow to perceive their inevitable corruption, he was not without some hope as he appealed to his fellow citizens in January of 1775.
Massachusettensis had complained of a latent spark in the breasts of the people, which disaffected individuals would always try to flame. Novanglus rejoined,
“What is this ‘latent spark’? The love of Liberty? a Deo, hominis est indita naturae. Human nature itself is evermore an advocate for liberty.”
John Adams had seen a spark too, and he wanted to fan it before it became too late. The colonists had waited too long, he felt, to take a serious stand against their oppressive government and time was running out. Something had to be done quickly, for as he would write to his wife Abigail not long after,
“A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever. When the People once surrender their share in the Legislature, and their Right of defending the Limitations upon the Government, and of resisting every Encroachment upon them, they can never regain it.”
Fortunately, we know that the colonists DID decide to take a stand against the encroachments on their liberty. Just a month after Adams wrote his first essay as Novanglus, Alexander Hamilton published a political essay of his own, titled, The Farmer Refuted. In it, Hamilton wrote,
"It betrays an ignorance of human nature to suppose, that a design formed and ripening, for several years, against the liberties of any people might be frustrated, by the mere force of intreaty. Men must cease to be as fond of power as they are before this can be the case."
Hamilton was echoing Adams’ old refrain, and finally, more and more of the colonists were beginning to agree. Eventually, these soon-to-be Americans would accept what John Adams had known all along – that the British king and Parliament weren’t stupid, or negligent, or clueless; they were corrupt, greedy, and power hungry. They weren’t dumb, they were designing. They had cooked up a scheme to enslave all America, and it was going to take a lot more than a “pretty please and thank you” to override the siren call of ambition and self-gain. After years of pleas, petitions, and remonstrances, the patriots were about to understand, at last, that they would have to fight to preserve their freedom.
