Letters of the Boston Society

Copies, with slight modifications, are sent to Jeremiah Wadsworth, Fisher Ames, George Thatcher, Benjamin Goodhue, Timothy Pickering, George Cabot, Francis Dana, Nathan Dane, Stephen Higginson, John Lowell, Israel Thorndike, Elbridge Gerry, Theophilus Parsons, Elias Boudinot, Egbert Benson, George Clymer, Richard Bland Lee, Josiah Parker, Oliver Ellsworth, William Few, Charles Carroll, Daniel Carroll, Tristram Dalton, Caleb Strong, John Langdon, Paine Wingate, Theodore Foster and Richard Henry Lee

Sir,

We would like to commence this letter by thanking you for your continued service to this country, and we would like to state that whatever your response or reaction to the material contained below that we can work together with a sense of friendship and unity with the best interests of our nation at heart.

It is our opinion that the great matter separating the so-called ‘Federalists’ and the so-called ‘Democratic-Republicans’ is a resolved issue, and that the debate as currently happening is little more than a continuous rehashing of the issues that were resolved by the creation of our Constitution and the approval of the ensuing Bill of Rights. It is our belief that, since this issue is resolved, it is important to stop holding to party lines that exist to fight a resolved conflict and that we must transition to a new movement reflective of the issues facing our young nation. What’s more, the recent defeat of the National Bank has proven that the Federalist Party, as a means of pushing the policies that are beneficial to this nation, are ineffective and unorganized, and we are of the firm belief that there is a great amount of dead weight at the head of the Congressional wing of the party.

Therefore, we, the undersigned, have commenced with a plan to actually organize a party of like-minded individuals, strongly influenced by the Federalist cause but pursuing policies that will move the nation forward and beyond the disputes that fueled the Constitution. Thus, we would like to announce the looming formation of what we will call the National Democracy Party, a group dedicated to the following ideals:

Our revolution was won by the hard work of common men who do not own land or wealth, and it is our belief that they deserve a say in the future of the nation that their blood was spilled creating. Therefore, we support universal white male suffrage.

Our nation will need a new kind of economy to represent the fact that we are now no longer a colony and that we must build goods and industries on par with those being created in Europe. Therefore, we support initiatives to improve and control the currency, promote industrialization and encourage foreign trade.

Our nation will need infrastructure to promote trade at home and abroad, and also to provide for national defense. Therefore, we believe in the creation of inter-state roads and canals.

Our nation will need more land so that farmers can expand their crops and so that the poor of our nation can have their own farms and their own chances at a future of prosperity. Therefore, we support westward expansion.

Our nation was won for us by the hard work of George Washington. Therefore, we support him as President and will not break with him whatever party we join.

We would like to ask you, as a committed servant of this nation, to shed the dying husk of the Federalist Party and join the National Democracy Party as a continuation, distillation and improvement of that ideology.

Thank you,

- Speaker Pro Tempore Gordon Battle Hughes, New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District
- Representative Albert Hannover, Massachusetts’ 3rd Congressional District
- Representative David Lee, Vermont’s 1st Congressional District
- Representative Orison Pratt, Massachusetts’ 1st Congressional District
- Colonel Jacob Hannover, Continental Army (Ret.)
- Colonel William Bathurst, New Hampshire Militia