John Adams: “Letters of Novanglus”(1775) John Adams’s letters
signed with the pseudonym Novanglus (“New Englander”) arose in
part out of his public service; he began this long series of
newspaper essays in reply to a Massachusetts author who was
critical of the authority and policy of the First Continental
Congress, in which he had just served. But his “Letters of
Novanglus” say virtually nothing about Congress. Instead, they
launch into an examination of the last fifteen troubled years in
Massachusetts and move on to a broad assertion of the province’s
autonomy and the autonomy of all North American colonies within
the British Empire, based on the writings of ancient and modern
political writers. They go on to construct a detailed legal
history of England and its dominions over the past several
hundred years. John Adams (Library of Congress)View Full Size