Quincy, January 5, 1818.

Sir,

YOUR sketches of the life of Mr. Henry have given me a rich entertainment. I will not compare them to the Sybil, conducting Æneas to see the ghosts of departed sages and heroes in the region below, but to an angel, convoying me to the abodes of the blessed on high, to converse with the spirits of just men made perfect. The names of Henry, Lee, Bland, Pendleton, Washington, Rutledge, Dickinson, Wythe, and many others, will ever thrill through my veins with an agreeable sensation. I am not about to make any critical remarks upon your works, at present. But, sir,

If I could go back to the age of thirty five, Mr. Wirt, I would endeavour to become your rival; not in elegance of composition, but in a simple narration of facts, supported by records, histories, and testimonies, of irrefragable authority. I would adopt, in all its modesty, your title, "Sketches of the life and writings of James Otis, of Boston." And, in imitation of your example, I would introduce portraits of a long catalogue of illustrious men, who were agents in the revolution, in favor of it or against it.

Jeremiah Gridley, the father of the bar in Boston, and the preceptor of Pratt, Otis, Thatcher, Cushing, and many others; Benjamin Pratt, chief justice of New-York; colonel John Tynge, James Otis, of Boston, the hero of the biography; Oxenbridge Thatcher, Jonathan Sewall, attorney general and judge of admiralty; Samuel Quincy, solicitor general; Daniel Leonard, now chief justice of Bermuda; Josiah Quincy, the Boston Cicero; Richard Dana and Francis Dana, his son, first minister to Russia, and afterwards chief justice; Jonathan Mayhew, D. D. Samuel Cooper, D. D. Charles Chauncey, D. D. James Warren and his wife; Joseph Warren, of Bunker's Hill; John Winthrop, professor at Harvard college, and a member of council; Samuel Dexter, the father; John Worthington, of Springfield; Joseph Hawley, of Northampton, and James Lovel, of Boston; governors Shirley, Pownal, Bernard, Hutchinson, Hancock, Bowdoin, Adams, Sullivan, and Gerry; lieutenant governor Oliver, chief justice Oliver, judge Edmund Trowbridge, judge William Cushing, and Timothy Ruggles, ought not to be omitted. The military characters, Ward, Lincoln, Warren, Knox, Brooks, Heath, &c. must come in of course. Nor should Benjamin Kent, Samuel Swift, or John Reed, be forgotten.

I envy none of the well merited glories of Virginia, or any of her sages or heroes. But, sir, I am jealous, very jealous, of the honour of Massachusetts.

The resistance to the British system, for subjugating the colonies, began in 1760, and in the month of February, 1761, James Otis electrified the town of Boston, the province of Massachusetts bay, and the whole continent, more than Patrick Henry ever did in the whole course of his life. If we must have panegyrics and hyperboles, I must say, that if Mr. Henry was Demosthenes, and Mr. Richard Henry Lee, Cicero, James Otis was Isaiah and Ezekiel UNITED.

I hope, sir, that some young gentleman, of the ancient and honourable family of "The Searchers," will hereafter do impartial justice, both to Virginia and Massachusetts.

After all this freedom, I assure you, sir, it is no flattery, when I congratulate the nation on the acquisition of an attorney general of such talents and industry as your "Sketches" demonstrate.

With great esteem, I am, Sir,

Your friend and humble servant,

JOHN ADAMS.

Mr. Wirt, Attorney General of the United States.