1203. CHASE (Samuel), Independence and.—
A Fourth of July oration, delivered in
the town of Milford, in your State, gives to
Samuel Chase the credit of having “first
started the cry of Independence in the ears of
his countrymen”. Do you remember anything
of this? I do not. I have no doubt it was
uttered in Massachusetts even before it was
by Thomas Paine. But, certainly, I never
considered Samuel Chase as foremost, or even
forward in that hallowed cry. I know that
Maryland hung heavily on our backs, and that
Chase, although first named, was not most in
unison with us of that delegation.—
To John Adams. Washington ed. vii, 218.
(1821)
