Copy of a letter : Cambridge, to Isaac Parker, 1812 Mar. 2.

Referring to an exchange of letters between them the previous month concerning his "charge to the Grand Jury of Suffolk, on the subject of libels;" quoting from his letter to him of February 8th (MA 157.9) and adding that he subsequently received two pages which he mistakenly assumed were the manuscript of the charges but were in fact later discovered to be rather an order for the manuscript of the charges; explaining, in details and at length, "accidents" in communication and delivery of letters; enclosing "a printed copy of his message of February 27th to the Legislature and to the state; saying "I do not apprehend the Supreme Judicial Court has intended, in the exercise of its Judicial function, to interfere with those of the Legislature or Executive. But I perfectly agree with you, Sir, 'that it is my duty to resist an unintentional encroachment, altho' the act which constitutes it, may not in the apprehension of that Court, have the character which seems to me to belong to it';" referring to the Judge's suspicion that there was a personal nature to his objections and "for supposing me capable of attempting to draw from you information, to criminate yourself. No part of my conduct, I trust could warrant such a suspicion;" regretting that 'the peculiar state of the times may have caused you to ascribe to me views and intentions which did not, and could not exist, and the more so, as in the case of your refusal to admit John Shirley Williams, Esqr. commissioned by me (and duly qualified) as a Clerk of the Judicial Courts of the County of Norfolk, your conduct was not considered as an opposition to law, or to the Executive authority, but was viewed and treated by me as an inadvertence on the part of the Supreme Judicial Court, too minute to make any serious impression."