New from the University of Virginia Press (distributed for the Colonial Society of Massachusetts):
Portrait of a Patriot, Volume 6: The Major Political and Legal Papers of Josiah Quincy Junior, edited by
Daniel R. Coquillette (Boston College) and
Neil Longley York (Brigham Young University). The Press explains:
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.
More information is available
here.
