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Josiah Quincy, Jr., [Franklin in London, 1774–1775]
- University of Iowa Press
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[46] [Franklin in London, 1774–1775] Josiah Quincy, Jr. The son of Benjamin Franklin’s friend Josiah Quincy (1710–1784), Josiah Quincy, Jr. (1744–1775) was a prominent young radical in Revolutionary Boston . He graduated with his Bachelor’s degree from Harvard College in 1763. The Stamp Act crisis in 1765 radicalized Quincy. When he took his master’s degree at Harvard the following year, he delivered the commencement address , choosing patriotism as his subject. He soon became a member of Samuel Adams’s inner circle, writing many pseudonymous newspaper articles defending the American cause. Quincy furthered his education by reading law with the prominent Boston attorney Oxenbridge Thacher and eventually took over his practice. He solidified his reputation as a lawyer and a patriot by assisting John Adams in his defense of the British soldiers charged with murder in the 1770 Boston Massacre. Quincy contracted tuberculosis in the early 1770s. On the advice of his physicians, he visited South Carolina, returning overland to Boston and thus giving himself an excellent perspective on colonial America as a whole. In May 1774, he published his most famous work, Observations on the Act of Parliament Commonly Called the Boston Port-Bill; with Thoughts on Civil Society and Standing Armies, a scathing indictment of British policy in colonial America made all the more powerful when Quincy signed his own name to it. This pamphlet was reprinted in Philadelphia, and Edward and Charles Dilly reprinted it in London. Moses Coit Tyler, who provided some brief comments on the work in The Literary History of the American Revolution (1897), greatly enjoyed its “hectic intensity of style” (1: 272). Quincy’s Observations deserves a more extensive critical appreciation. Massachusetts friends sent Quincy to London in September 1774, partly to gather political intelligence and possibly to negotiate with British officials. He carried with him letters of introduction from such figures as James Bowdoin, one of Franklin’s longtime friends and correspondents. Given their shared intellectual interests and their passion for American democracy, Quincy and Franklin became good friends, regardless of the nearly forty-year difference in age. From London, Quincy wrote his father, “Your friend Dr. Franklin is a [47] november 17. proceeded to london, where I arrived about eleven o’clock a.m. The numbers, opulence etc. of this great city far surpass all I had imagined. My ideas are upon the rack, my astonishment amazing. Was waited upon by Messrs. Th[omas]. Bromfield, E. and C. Dilly and Mr. Jno. Williams—from all of whom I received many civilities. Waited upon Dr. B. Franklin and drank tea with him. He appears in good health and spirits, and seems warm in our cause, and confident of our ultimate success. I find many friends to liberty and America rejoined on notice of my arrival. One of the Sons of Liberty (unknown to me) informed Mr. B[romfield] that he heard one in the coffee-house to-day say, “Yes, he has been blowing up the seeds of sedition in America and has now come to do the same here.” I desired Mr. B. to convey word that if I had done nothing but blow up seeds, they would probably be very harmless, as they would never take root but if I should have the good fortune to sow any here and they should afterwards ripen, he or the ministry might blow them about at their leisure. I find among a certain set of Americans there was great wonderment made at the N. E. [New England] Coffee-house about what brought me to London. My Observations have been reprinted here with approbation, as I hear. . . . November 18. This morning Jno. Williams, Esqr., Inspector of the Custruely great and good Man” (Papers 21: 513). Franklin, in turn, appreciated Quincy’s intellect and enthusiasm but worried about his health. As he told Bowdoin, “I am much pleased with Mr. Quincy. ’Tis a thousand Pities his Strength of Body is not equal to his Strength of Mind. His Zeal for the Public (like that of David for God’s House) will I fear eat him up” (Papers 21: 507). As the following excerpt from his journal demonstrates, Quincy actively sought out prominent figures in British politics and enjoyed meeting Franklin’s scienti fic friends, yet his increasingly poor health took its toll. He left London on March 16 but died on board a ship within sight of Massachusetts. Josiah Quincy, Jr. franklin in his own time [48] toms in...