audience, dismissed; and the court adjourned to the Council Chamber, where they remained in secret conclave till late in the evening. When they arose, it was given out, and propagated through the town, that they had decided in favour of the pleas, and that jurors were to be summoned the next morning, to try the prisoners.

Whether this rumour had any foundation in truth, or whether it was invented, and circulated, to soften the keen asperity of the public feeling, I know not; but this is certain, the court met again early next morning, in secret conclave, in the Council Chamber; and then it was believed, by many, conjectured by more, and reported generally, that Hutchinson, and his confidential few, had been alarmed at the decision of the preceding evening, and had contrived a secret meeting, in the morning, to reconsider the vote. Whether there was any truth in these whispers, rumours, and murmurs, I know not; but one thing is certain, that when the court opened in form, the four pleas, without permitting one word to be said for them, or against them, by the counsel, on either side, were pronounced by the president, Bernard, to be overruled.

All

The prisoners were now at the bar, and the trial commenced. The witnesses, on both sides, examined, and cross-examined. agreed, in every fact and circumstance. No contradictory testimony. British sailors, and American sailors, all agreed. What morality, and what religion, Dr. Morse, in these sons of Neptune! Oh! for the honour of human nature, that I could say the same of the court !

When the examination was ended, and taken down by the clerk, and the counsel, in writing, the argument of counsel was expected. The counsel, for the prisoners, had taken great pains to search, and research, through every law, human and divine, the doctrine of hom. icide, in all its divisions, distinctions, and limitations. As this was said to be a civil law court, he had ransacked every writer, on the civil law, that the town of Boston possessed; he had examined every authority, in the laws of England, upon the subject; and, superadded to all, he had brought forward that volume of the British statutes at large, which contained the "act of Parliament, which expressly prohibited the impressment of seamen in America." All these books were piled up, on the table, before him, in the sight of the court, when the counsel arose, in the ordinary course of proceedings, to argue the cause of his clients, the poor prisoners at the bar. After addressing the court, in the usual style of respect, he begged their attention to the authorities in law, and to the testimonies, which he should apply, to shew that the action of the prisoners, in killing Lieutenant Panton, could amount to nothing more than justifiable homicide, in necessary self-defence.

The words, "justifiable homicide," were scarcely out of his mouth, before Hutchinson started up, in very indecorous haste, and moved that the prisoners be remanded, and the court adjourned to the CounChamber. The prisoners, the crowded audience, the bar, the

counsel, were all thunder-struck. But what were prisoners, audience, bar, or counsel, against "sic volo, sic jubeo, stet pro ratione voluntas?" The court was adjourned to the Council Chamber, and there enclosed, like a conclave of cardinals, in secret intrigues, for the rest of the day.

When the court opened, the next day, and the prisoners ordered to the bar, all the world expected that the trial would commence, and the argument, on the law, and the evidence, proceed. But, after a solemn pause, and total silence, Governor Bernard, the president of the court, arose, and, with a countenance so solemn, and so gloomy, as made the audience shudder, as if a sentence of death was coming, addressed himself to the prisoners, by name, and pronounced, "The court have considered the evidence, in support of the libel against you, and are unanimously of opinion, that it amounts only to justifiable homicide. You are accordingly acquitted, and discharged from your imprisonment." Not another word was said, except by Mr. Auchmuty, the Judge of Admiralty, who cried out, "the court is unanimous in this opinion."

I will leave to poets, and writers of romance, to describe the joy that glowed in every heart, and lighted every countenance at this denouement of the tragedy. One circumstance is too characteristic to be omitted. The counsel for the prisoners,* descending from the chamber, where the court sat, to the lower floor of the court-house, was met, at the bottom of the stairs, by the boatswain of the Rose. Sir," said he, "we are all greatly obliged to you for your noble conduct, in defence of these brave fellows; yet, sir, this is the employment in which I have been almost constantly engaged for twenty years, fighting with honest men, to deprive them of their liberty; I always thought I ought to be hanged for it; and now I know it."

This trial, Dr. Morse, is a mystery, never yet explained—a labyrinth, without a clue !-an enigma that never can be unriddled! Though all hypothesis must be unavailing, in investigating this phenomenon, so strange, so unprecedented in the history of jurisprudence-I must be permitted to suggest a few hints for your consideration and inquiry.

1st. Where can you find a secret Court of Judicature? In Courts Martial? In the Inquisition? or in the Lion's Mouth at Venice? The Star-Chamber, and the High Commission Court, in England; even Jeffries' Courts were open, and public.

2d. Here were the Governor, the Lieutenant-Governor, the Chief Justice, the Judge of Admiralty of Massachusetts, the Governor and Counsellors from New-Hampshire, Counsellors from Rhode-Island, and the Commander in Chief of the Royal Navy, Commodore Hood, now, if alive, Lord Bridport, sculking and hiding, in total silence, from open court to secret council-chamber, like Indians, fighting

*Mr. Adams himself, whose modesty induced him to conceal it.

behind bushes, and running, in the dark, from one bush to another, to avoid detection.

3d. Upon what law, upon what principle, were the prisoners acquitted of piracy and murder? Nobody knew; nobody could conjecture. Every honest soul was delighted with the decision; but none knew, or could surmise, upon what grounds it was made.

4th. Was the decision according to the law of nature, the law of nations, the civil law, the common law, or the statute law? No man could answer any of these questions. All was darkness, mystery, uncertainty, and confusion. The honest lawyers said, " Misera servitus est ubi jus est vagum aut incognitum."

5th. There was an act of Parliament, expressly forbidding impressments in America, then lying on the table before the judges, produced by the counsel for the prisoners, and ready to be read at a moment's warning, which would have justified the decision of the court to the king, the English nation, and the American public, without any other authority, or argument. Why did not the court permit this statute to be read, or mentioned? Why did, they not produce it, and read it themselves, if the counsel had, through ignorance or forgetfulness, omitted it.

6th. Can it be credible, that this court, and all the counsel for the crown, and all the naval and custom-house officers, were ignorant of the statute? However incredible it may appear, I have always believed, and still believe, that not one of them all had the least knowledge, or suspicion, that such an act existed. There was, at that time, but one copy of the statutes at large, in Massachusetts, and that set had been imported by the counsel for the prisoners.

7. Was the sentence of the court founded on the principle of the universal illegality of impressment? I sincerely believe it was; and, moreover, that not one judge, upon that bench, would have dared to give an opinion of its legality. The oracular and equivocal dictum of Lord Chatham had not then been pronounced, nor the opinion of the first Pitt, as ignorant as it was dogmatical, that it was a common law prerogative of the crown.

Candour obliges me to acknowledge that Mr. Sewall conducted this prosecution like a judicious lawyer, and polite gentleman; but Hutchinson appeared hurried between his terror of the crown, and its officers, on one hand, and his dread of unpopularity on the other.

No trial had ever interested the community so much before; excited so much curiosity and compassion, or so many apprehensions of the fatal consequences of the supremacy of parliamentary jurisdiction, or the intrigues of parliamentary courts. No trial had drawn together such crowds of auditors from day to day. They were as numerous as those in the next year, at the trials of Preston and the soldiers.

Nevertheless, every thing relative to this great event, must remain mysterious. The whole transaction seems totally forgotten. None of our historians appear to have ever heard of it. Mrs. Warren has

not remembered it; and Dr. Gordon has taken no notice of it; yet Dr. Gordon has minutely related the action of" Mr. Richardson," in shooting young Sneider, and its effects. "Mr. Richardson," and his exploit, were thought worthy to be recorded, while Panton and Corbett were to be forgotten! And who was Richardson? If there was even a colour of justice in the public opinion, he was the most abandoned wretch in America. Adultery, incest, perjury, were reputed to be his ordinary crimes. His life would exhibit an atrocious volume. This man was selected, by the Board of Commissioners, for a custom-house officer. His name was sufficient to raise a mob; and I had almost said, to the honour of the mob, "Mr. Richardson," and the innocent victim, Sneider, ought to have been remembered; but Panton and Corbett ought not to have been forgotten. Preston and his soldiers, ought to have been forgotten sooner.

MR. NILES,

JOHN ADAMS.

Quincy, February 13, 1818.

The American Revolution was not a common event. Its effects and consequences have already been awful over a great part of the globe. And when and where are they to cease?

But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American War? The revolution was effected, before the war commenced. The revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people. A change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations. While the king, and all in authority under him, were believed to govern in justice and mercy, according to the laws and constitution derived to them from the God of nature, and transmitted to them by their ancestors-they thought themselves bound to pray for the king, and queen, and all the royal family, and all in authority, under them, as ministers ordained of God for their good. But when they saw those powers renouncing all the principles of authority, and bent upon the destruction of all the securities of their lives, liberties and properties, they thought it their duty to pray for the Continental Congress, and all the thirteen state congresses, &c. There might be, and there were others, who thought less about religion and conscience, but had certain habitual sentiments of alle. giance and loyalty derived from their education; but believing allegiance and protection to be reciprocal, when protection was withdrawn, they thought allegiance was dissolved.

Another alteration was common to all. The people of America had been educated in an habitual affection for England, as their mother country; and while they thought her a kind and tender parent, (erroneously enough, however, for she never was such a mother,) no affection could be more sincere. But when they found her a cruel beldam, willing like lady Macbeth, to "dash their brains out," it is no wonder if their filial affections ceased, and were changed into indignation and horror.

This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.

By what means, this great and important alteration in the religious, moral, political and social character of the people of thirteen colonies, all distinct, unconnected and independent of each other, was begun, pursued and accomplished, it is surely interesting to humanity to investigate, and perpetuate to posterity.

To this end it is greatly to be desired that young gentlemen of let ters, in all the states, especially in the thirteen original states, would undertake the laborious, but certainly interesting and amusing task, of searching and collecting all the records, pamphlets, newspapers, and even hand-bills, which in any way contributed to change the temper and views of the people, and compose them into an independent nation.

The colonies had grown up under constitutions of government so different, there was so great a variety of religions, they were composed of so many different nations, their customs, manners and habits had so little resemblance, and their intercourse had been so rare, and their knowledge of each other so imperfect, that to unite them in the same principles in theory, and the same system of action, was certainly a very difficult enterprise. The complete accomplishment of it, in so short a time and by such simple means, was, perhaps, a singular example in the history of mankind.-Thirteen clocks were made to strike together; a perfection of mechanism which no artist had ever before effected.

In this research, the glorioroles of individual gentlemen, and of separate states, is of little consequence. The MEANS AND THE MEASURES are the proper objects of investigation. These may be of use to posterity, not only in this nation, but in South America, and all other countries. They may teach mankind that revolutions are no trifles; that they ought never to be undertaken rashly; nor without deliberate consideration and sober reflection; nor without a solid, immutable, eternal foundation of justice and humanity; nor without a people possessed of intelligence, fortitude and integrity sufficient to carry them with steadiness, patience, and perseverance, through all the vicissitudes of fortune, the fiery trials and melancholy disasters they may have to encounter.

The town of Boston early instituted an annual oration on the fourth of July, in commemoration of the principles and feelings which contributed to produce the revolution. Many of those orations I have heard, and all that I could obtain I have read. Much ingenuity and eloquence appears upon every subject, except those principles and feelings. That of my honest and amiable neighbour. Josiah Quincy, appeared to me the most directly to the purpose of the institution. Those principles and feelings ought to be traced back for two hundred years, and sought in the history of the country from the first plantations in America. Nor should the principles and feelings of the English and Scotch towards the colonies, through