Browsing: Papers of John Adams, Volume 9

2. On 6 April, after the Commons resolved itself into a committee of the whole to hear petitions, John Dunning offered two resolutions and Thomas Pitt a third, the language of which JA accurately paraphrased in the following two sentences. The first passed on a division of 233-215 and the second and third were adopted without division. Lord North objected to the entire proceeding, but could not prevent the committee from approving Charles James Fox's motion to report the resolutions immediately to the House. Just before the vote on Dunning's first resolution, Fox reportedly charged George III with having brought about more distress to the nation than any previous sovereign, and declared that “unless the motion should be agreed to, not only the committee, but the House, ought never to sit again” ( Parliamentary Hist. , 21: 347, 362–364, 367–368). In a letter of 16 April, Edmund Jenings congratulated JA on the outcome of the proceedings (Adams Papers).