come. I am concerned for your health in this hot season. Pray take care of it. I have dispensed with attendance on public worship this / afternoon in order to write to you, having no other time. Colonel Read was kind enough to give me notice of this opportunity. Pray present my best respects to all my friends, among which I presume to rank Mr. Hopkins and Ward. Your own goodness will induce you to continue your favours. (I shall lose no opportunity of writing as long [as] you continue to be pleased with it. When you are tired with my incorrect ramblings you will I hope very honestly tell me of it. I shall think it not strange, and shan't think of resentment. I never write well. I am sure I can't here crowded with business and surrounded with company. Your usual candour must be called into exercise; it is greatly relied on. I am, as I believe I shall be, your sincere friend

JOHN ADAMS TO JAMES WARren

JAS. WARREN

PHILADELPHIA, July 23d, 1775 DR. SIR, - I have many things to write you which thro. Haste and Confusion I fear, I shall forget.

Upon the Receipt of General Washington's Letter, the Motion which I made Some Days before for appointing General Thomas first Brigadier was renewed and carried, so that the return of the Express will carry his Commission. I hope that this will give all the satisfaction which is now to be given. You ask me upon what Principle We proceeded in our first Arrangement. I answer upon the Principle of an implicit Complyance with the order in which the General officers were chosen in our Provincial Congress last Fall. Not one of us would have voted for the Generals in the order in which the General Officers were chosen in our Provincial Congress I Joseph Reed.

2

General Thomas is much esteemed and earnestly desired to continue in the service: and as far as my opportunities have enabled me to judge I must join in the general opinion that he is an able good officer and his resignation would be a public loss. The postponing him to Pomroy and Heath, whom he has commanded, would make his continuance very difficult, and probably operate on his mind." Washington to the Continental Congress, July 10, 1775. Writings (Ford), 111. 15. Congress appointed Thomas "in room of General Pomeroy, who never acted under the commission sent him," July 19. Journals of the Continental Congress, II. 191.

last Fall; Not one of us, would have voted for the Generals in the order in which they were placed, if We had not thought that you had settled the Rank of every one of them last Fall in Provincial Congress and that We were not at Liberty to make any Alteration. I would not have been so shackled however, if my Colleagues had been of my Mind.

But, in the Case of the Connecticutt officers, We took a Liberty to alter the Rank established by the Colony and by that Means made much Uneasiness; so that We were sure to do Mischief whether We conformed or deviated from Colony arrangements. I rejoice that Thomas had more Wisdom than Spencer 1 or Woorster, and that he did not leave the Camp nor talk imprudently. If he had we should have lost him from the Continental service; for I assure you, Spencer by going off, and Woorster by unguarded Speeches have given high offence here, it will cost us Pains to prevent their being discarded from the service of the Continent with Indignation. Gentlemen here had no private Friendships Connections, or Interests which prompted them to vote for the arrangement they made but were influenced only by a Regard to the Service; and they are determined that their Commissions shall not be despised.

I have read of Times, either in History or Romance, when Great Generals would cheerfully serve their Country, as Captains or Lieutenants of Single Companies, if the Voice of their Country happened not to destine them to an higher Rank; but such exalted Ideas of public Virtue seem to be lost out of the World. Enough of this.

I have laboured with my Colleagues to agree upon proper Persons to recommend for a Quarter Master General, a Commissary of Musters and a Commissary of Artillery 2 but in vain. The Consequence has been that the appointment of these important, and lucrative officers is left to the General, against every proper Rule and Principle, as these offices are Checks upon his. This is a great Misfortune to our Colony; however, I hope that you and

I Spencer refused at first to serve under Putnam, but later consented to the arrangement. 2 Thomas Mifflin was appointed Quartermaster-General August 14, 1775; Ezekiel Cheever, Commissary of Artillery Stores, August 17.

others, will think of proper Persons and recommend them to the General.

There is, my Friend, in our Colony a great Number of Persons well qualified for Places in the Army, who have lost their all, by the outrages of Tyranny, whom I wish to hear provided for. Many of them will occur to you. I beg leave to mention a few. Henry Knox, William Bant' young Hichbourne the Lawyer 2 William Tudor, and Perez Morton. These are young Gentlemen of Education and Accomplishments, in civil Life, as well as good Soldiers; and if at this Time initiated into the service of their Country might become in Time and with Experience able officers, if they could be made Captains or Brigade Majors, or put into some little Places at present I am very sure their Country would loose nothing by it, in Reputation or otherwise. A certain Delicacy which is necessary to a good Character may have prevented their making any applications, but I know they are desirous of serving.

I must enjoin Secrecy upon you, in as strong Terms as Mr. Hutchinson used to his confidential Correspondents; and then confess to you that I never was since my Birth, so compleatly miserable as I have been since the Tenth of April. Bad Health, blind eyes, want of Intelligence from our Colony, and above all the unfortunate and fatal Divisions, in our own Seat in Congress, which have lost us Reputation, as well as many great Advantages which We might otherwise have obtained for our Colony have made me often envy the active Hero in the Field, who, if he does his own Duty, is sure of Applause, tho he falls in the Execution

of it.

It is a vast and complicated System of Business which We have gone through, and We were all of us unexperienced in it. Many Things may be wrong, but no small Proportion of these are to be attributed to the Want of Concert and Union among the Mass. Delegates.

We have passed a Resolution that each Colony make such Provision as it thinks proper and can afford, for defending their Trade

I One of the name was a member of an independent Company formed at Boston, in 1776. 2 Benjamin Hichborn, who was taken by the British on his return from Philadelphia, and whose experiences are related by Dr. Belknap in 1 Proceedings, IV. 79.

3 (1751-1837).

in Harbours Rivers, and on the Sea Coast, against Cutters and Tenders. We have had in Contemplation a Resolution to invite all Nations to bring their Commodities to Market here, and like Fools have lost it for the present. This is a great Idea. What shall we do? Shall we invite all Nations to come with their Luxuries, as well as Conveniences and Necessaries? or shall We think of confining our Trade with them to our own Bottoms, which alone can lay a Foundation for great Wealth and naval Power? Pray think of it.

I rejoice that the Generals and Coll. Reed and Major Mifflin are so well received. My most respectfull Compliments to them all.

I thank you and Mrs. Warren a thousand Times for her kind and elegant Letter. Intreat a Continuance of her Favours in this Way, to your old Friend

[No signature.]3

JOHN ADAMS TO JAMES WARREN 4

PHILADELPHIA, July 24th, 1775

DEAR SIR,-In Confidence. I am determined to write freely to you this time. A certain great Fortune and piddling Genius, whose Fame has been trumpeted so loudly, has given a silly Cast to our whole Doings. We are between Hawk and Buzzard. We ought to have had in our Hands a month ago the whole Legislative, executive and judicial of the whole Continent, and have completely

I Journals of the Continental Congress, III. 189.

2 lb., 200. On the following day, July 22, the question was "postponed to be taken up at some future day."

3 Endorsed "Favored by Mr. Hitchbourne."

4 This is taken from a copy of the letter, in an unidentified writing, in the Warren papers. This copy also gives the letter from John Adams to his wife, taken like the other from Hichborn, and the facetious paragraph from Benjamin Harrison's letter to Washington which has given rise to so much gossip since, and which Jared Sparks omitted in his Correspondence of the Revolution. The two Adams letters are given in Works of John Adams, II. 411 n. with an explanation of the entrusting them to Hichborn. The letters were printed in Draper's Massachusetts Gazette, August 17, 1775, and while the text now given differs from that used in the Works, it does not differ materially. In a letter from Hannah Winthrop to Mercy Warren, September 30, 1775, she wrote: "I have taken pains to procure the Letters for you, but have not been able. As for the Versification, it was in a hand Bill, and so scurrilous as not to be worth notice." No copy has been found.

5 John Dickinson, a conservative in this Congress.

modeled a Constitution; to have raised a naval Power, and opened all our Ports wide; to have arrested every Friend to Government on the Continent and held them as Hostages for the poor Victims in Boston, and then opened the Door as wide as possible for Peace and Reconciliation. After this they might have petitioned, and negotiated, and addressed etc. if they would. Is all this extravagant? Is it wild? Is it not the soundest Policy?

One Piece of News, Seven thousand Weight of Powder arrived here last Night. We shall send some along as soon as we can, but you must be patient and frugal.

We are lost in the Extensiveness of our Field of Business. We have a Continental Treasury to establish, a Paymaster to choose and a Committee of Correspondence or Safety, or Accounts, or something, I know not what, that has confounded Us all Day.

Shall I hail you Speaker of the House or Counsellor or what? What kind of an Election had you? What sort of Magistrates do you intend to make?

Will your new Legislative and executive feel bold or irresolute? Will your Judicial hang and whip and fine and imprison without scruples? I want to see our distress'd Country once more yet I dread the Sight of Devastation.

--

You observe in your Letter the Oddity of a great Man.' He is a queer Creature. But you must love his Dogs if you love him, and forgive a thousand whims for the Sake of the Soldier and the Scholar.

SAMUEL ADAMS TO JAMES WARREN

PHILADA., July 24, 1775

MY DEAR SIR, -I am exceedingly obligd to you for your Letter of the 9th of July. It affords me very great Satisfaction to be informd by you, that "no Suspicions, no Uneasiness at all prevails with Regard to our old Generals." I assure you I have been otherwise informd since I received your Letter. Indeed I do not always rely much upon the Information we have, being often 2 Adams, Familiar Letters, 89.

I Charles Lee.