QUINCY, JosIAH, Jr., 1744-75, b. Boston; graduated at Harvard college in 1703; read law with Oxenhridge Thacher. and was admitted to the bar, rising to a high rank in his profession. He denounced the stamp act through the press and at public meetings in Boston, and took strong ground against the exactions of parliament. His part in bringing on the revolution was greater than that of any other Massachusetts man except, perhaps, Joseph Warren and James Otis. In 1770 he conducted, in the face of an eacited popular feeling, the defense of the British soldiers implicated in the Boston mas sacre; three years later, lie went to Charleston, S. C., on account of his health, and took advantage of his journey to enter into relations with the patriot leaders in the southern and middle states, and to arrange for a system of communication between them and the leaders of the same party in Massachusetts. In 1774 appeared his Observations on the Boston Port Bill, which clearly indicated war as the only means of settling the disputes between Great Britain and the colonists, and intimated that independence must be the result. The work had much effect both at home and in England, where it was repub
lished. An attempt was made by means of an anonymous letter to induce him not to publish the book; but the only result was a short reply by Quincy in the -Massachusetts Gazette. The same year he went to England, where he lived On friendly terms with Barre, Franklin, the earl of Shelburne, Priestley, and other friends of the colonies, and had interviews with lords Dartmouth and North. Be carried on a correspondence with the whigs at home, and his activity drew from lord Hillsborough, iu the house of lords, the remark that if the government performed its duty he " would be in Newgate or Tyburn." He sailed for home in the spring of 1775, but died on the voyage. His life was written by his SOD Josiah, and his Reports of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts Bay, 1761-72, edited by his great-grandson Samuel M., appeared in 1865.