Successful Boston lawyer, active member of the Sons of Liberty,
and noted political essayist, Josiah Quincy Junior (1744-1775) left
a lasting impression on those he met--for his passion in the
courtroom as well as his orations in the Old South Meeting House,
and for his determination to live fully, despite being afflicted
with a disease that would cut his life short. Gathered in this, the
sixth and final volume of the Quincy Papers, are Quincy's surviving
correspondence, his essays for the Boston press written between
1767 and 1774, and his 1774 pamphlet "Observations, " which was the
culmination of his thinking and writing about the problem of
balancing imperial authority and colonial liberty. He represented,
as well as any of his longer-lived contemporaries, the difficulty
of protesting British policy without turning on Britain itself, the
uneasy blending of reasoned political discourse with a desire to
denounce perceived injustice, and the quest to find a peaceful
solution and yet reserve the right to use force if all else failed.
In his attempt to define and defend American rights, he borrowed as
readily from classical sources as modern, drawing on a rich
philosophical and legal tradition that served him well throughout
his public life. He well understood the power of the ideas that he
mustered for political debate. That understanding also shows
through in Quincy's other writings, from his law commonplace book
and Latin legal maxims (in volume 2) to the journal of his 1773
southern journey (in volume 3) to his still-cited reports for cases
argued in the Massachusetts Superior Court from 1761 to 1772 (in
volumes 4 and 5).
This last volume stands as a companion piece to the first.
There, Quincy's political ideas are discussed and traced, in part
through Quincy's political commonplace book, compiled between 1770
and 1774. Here, readers can follow how Quincy expressed those ideas
in the newspaper pieces and pamphlet that became an essential part
of the debate over rights in the empire. Here too can be found his
deep concern, expressed in letters from London to his beloved wife,
Abigail, that he serve Massachusetts--"my country," as he called
it--well, that he give his last full measure of devotion, if
necessary, to the patriot cause.
Distributed for the Colonial Society of Massachusetts
General
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