(1735 - 1826) Second President of the United States and a drafter of the Declaration of Independence, which he also signed. He later joined Franklin and Jay to negotiate peace with Great Britain. Superb content A.L.S. 'John Adams', 1p. 12mo., Boston, Dec. 12, 1772 ro a 'Mr. Elliot;. In full: 'We are all in a lurry here about the Dependency of the Governor and the Dependency of the Judges, the Commission for trying the Rhode Islanders for burning the Gaspee. I wonder how your Colony sleeps so soundly in a whole skin, when her sisters [the other American colonies] are so worried and tormented! I am with much respect your old friend & humble servant John Adams [To:] Mr. Elliot +The fools call it the Independency of the Govr, Judges, &c' The place and date were long ago detached from the letter and mounted to a 7.5 x 4.25 card, with the body of the letter laid down just beneath it, probably to accommodate a collector's space requirements and to 'preserve' the letter. The letter itself bears a chip to the upper-left corner with no loss of text, and worn folds with a pinhole thereat. The Gaspee Affair was a significant event in the lead-up to the American Revolution. HMS Gaspee was a British customs schooner operating in and around Newport, Rhode Island in 1772. It ran aground in shallow water while chasing the packet ship Hannah on June 9 near Gaspee Point in Warwick, Rhode Island. A group of men, angered by the Navigation Acts and led by Abraham Whipple and John Brown, attacked, boarded, and torched the ship. The event greatly increased tensions between the American colonists and British officials. As for Adam's correspondent, it appears he did carry on a correspondence with an Andrew Eliot from Connecticut while seeking out the opinions of those from other colonies. Indeed, he writes in his diary that this was his intent during December 1772: '...The high Commission Court, the Star Chamber Court, the Court of Inquisition, for the Tryal of the Burners of the Gaspee, at Rhode Island, are the present Topick of Conversation. The Governor of that Colony, has communicated to the assembly a Letter from the Earl of Dartmouth. The Colony are in great Distress, and have applied to their Neighbours for Advice, how to evade or to sustain the Shock...' Adams was also clearly concerned about the threat to colonial independence posed by the British plan to pay the salaries of colonial judges and governors directly, thus making these officials more owing to the British than to the Colonists. Finally, there was the threat to local trials by peers posed by the attempt to ship to Britain any persons accused of participating in the burning of the Gaspee. Both of these issues greatly alarmed Adams and other American colonial leaders of the day, and were viewed as a direct assaults on the judicial liberties of Americans as British subjects. Fine historical content from the very birth of the Revolution.