162 



care and duty, and wrote to Elbridge Gerry patriotic 

 words, which fitly close this strange narration. 25 



Austin says " This act of violence, following soon after 

 the destruction of the tea in Boston Harbor, was urged 

 by the advocates of the ministry as the natural effect of a 

 bad example. To the friends of the people this was pecul- 

 iarly mortifying. It was with extreme regret that in a 

 place considered as patriotic as Marblehead, a disgraceful 

 scene of riot and ruin should have been exhibited, which 

 could not fail to be turned to their disadvantage in the 

 great contest on which they were entering." 26 



[MR. ADAMS TO MR. GERRY.] 



BOSTON, MARCH 25, 1774. 



MY DEAR SIR : 



While the general court was sitting, I received a 

 letter from you relating to the unhappy circumstances the town of 

 Marblehead was then in; but a great variety of business, some of 

 which was very important, prevented my giving you a convincing 

 proof at that time, of the regard with which I am ever disposed to 

 treat your favours. Besides, if it had been in my power to have aided 

 you with advice, I flattered myself, from the information I afterwards 

 had, that the storm, though it raged with so much violence, would 

 soon spend itself, and a calm would ensue. The tumult of the people 

 is very properly compared to the raging of the sea. When the pas- 

 sions of a multitude become headstrong, they generally will have their 

 course : a direct opposition only tends to increase them ; and as to 

 reasoning, one may as well expect that the foaming billows will 

 hearken to a lecture of morality and be quiet. The skilful pilot will 

 carefully keep the helm, and so steer the ship while the storm con- 

 tinues, as to prevent, if possible, her receiving injury. 



When your petition was read in the house, I was fearful that our 

 enemies would make an ill improvement of it. I thought I could 

 discover in the countenances of some, a kind of triumph in finding 

 that the friends of liberty themselves were obliged to have recourse 

 even to military aid, to protect them from the fury of an ungoverned 



20 See Wells's Life of Samuel Addms, Vol. II, pp. 154-5. 

 28 See Austin's Life of Elbvidge Gerry, Vol. I, pp. 33-42. 



