SULLIVAN, James (1744-1808). Autograph letter signed (''Jas Sullivan'') to Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814), Watertown, 6 May 1776.

SULLIVAN, James (1744-1808). Autograph letter signed ("Jas Sullivan") to Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814), Watertown, 6 May 1776.

Four pages, 335 x 210mm, bifolium (tape residue along top right margin of final page, minor marginal wear).

Invoking Thomas Paine in May 1776, James Sullivan challenges property qualifications for suffrage—a letter which provoked an impassioned rebuttal from John Adams, who concluded Sullivan's egalitarian proposals would result in women, children, and the indigent voting, while threatening to "confound and destroy all Distinctions, and prostrate all Ranks, to one common Levell." An important letter from Sullivan discussing the profound political ramifications of the language in the draft preamble to the proposed Massachusetts constitution, observing that sovereignty lay with "the people" rather than "any King or Queen of Great Britain". His observation leads to a lengthy and thoughtful discourse on who should enjoy the right to vote. In one particularly compelling passage, Sullivan observes that "the poor and rich are alike interested in that important part of Government called Legislation, but in the Supporting the Executive parts of Civil Government by Grants and Supplies of money, men are interested in proportion to their Estates. And it is absurd for a man who has but 40/ per annum Estate to have as much weight and importance as he who has forty pounds while he who has 39/ only has no Share in the matter." Overall, Sullivan's thinking ran toward the democratic, and typical of those deeply swayed by the anti-monarchial arguments advanced by Thomas Paine in Common Sense, he declares "Government is founded on the Authority of the people, and by them only is Supported and is as the writer of Common Sense observes, not founded so much in human Nature, as in the depravity of it. Men in a State of innocence would want Society for their mutual assistance, but the depravity of mens Minds demand Government for their defence."

Sullivan concluded his lengthy discourse by asking Gerry to show his letter to John Adams, who, later the same month, wrote a lengthy and thoughtful rebuttal to Sullivan's arguments, echoing the sentiments expressed in his recent essay, "Thoughts on Government," concerning the proposed constitution for North Carolina. Adams cautioned against moving too rashly to alter established voter qualifications, cautioning that society at that politically unstable period, should "be very cautious of making Alterations." Even in more tranquil times, Adams cautioned that granting suffrage or officeholder rights to those without holding property, concluding "that very few Men, who have no Property, have any Judgment of their own. They talk and vote as they are directed by Some Man of Property, who has attached their Minds to his Interest." If Sullivan's egalitarian notions carried the day, Adams feared "There will be no End of it. New Claims will arise. Women will demand a Vote. Lads from 12 to 21 […] and every Man, who has not a Farthing, will demand an equal Voice with any other in all Acts of State." (John Adams to James Sullivan, 26 May 1776, in Sara Martin, ed. The Adams Papers Digital Edition. A portion of the Sullivan's letter to Gerry is published in the footnote.)