Portrait of a Patriot

by Quincy, Josiah, Jr.; Coquillette, Daniel R.; York, Neil Longley

• ISBN13: 9780962073786
• ISBN10: 0962073784
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-30
• Publisher: Colonial Society of

Summary

Josiah Quincy Jr. (1744-1775), Boston lawyer and patriot penman,had he lived longer could have been a leader of the new American Republic with aname familiar in most households. In a four-volume series, the Colonial Society ofMassachusetts will reprint his major political and legal writings. Editor NeilLongley York provides a significant biographical introduction, followed by Quincy'sPolitical Commonplace Book, in which the patriot noted down passages from his widereading in politics and history that he believed relevant to his own times. Thus,readers have an unusual opportunity to enter into the extraordinary mind of apatriot immediately before the Revolution. A new edition of Quincy's London Journalfollows, the record of his last-ditch efforts to stave off the impending conflict byseeking some possible ground for compromise with leading British politicians in themonths before the battles at Lexington and Concord. Although the peace missionultimately failed, the journal provides a fascinating record of how British societyand leading figures in the government appeared to a young lawyer from a distantcolony.