best that could be given might be Compleated in a minute by referring the whole to your discretion. The delay may create difficulties by giving time to prejudice to grow and rancle from the Conduct and narrow Policy of Britain, who will never grow wise from Prosperity or Adversity.

I am told that Penobscot is Evacuated. the Commanding Officer after applying to our Government for a Commission to some Person to receive the delivery of the place and waiting in vain, went off at last, after having burned the Barracks, etc., which we seemed to care nothing about. I think he did right. Mrs. Warren desires her regards to you. we are all well, except Charles, who is in a dangerous situation. You have not given me a single hint for the Improvement of the Noble Science of Husbandry since you have been in Europe. do you reserve them all for your own use, that you may Excel us in that Art on your return, as much [as] you have done in Politics abroad. I am with Great Esteem your Friend and Servant,

J. WARREN

March 10th. Congress have made their Recommendations to the several States, agreeable to the Treaty. A Committee of the General Court have it under Consideration, but it is said will not report this Session. Nothing seems to be a more General Subject of Conversation than the Cincinnati Clubb. People seem not to have considered the nature and dangerous tendency of the Institution till they were roused and alarmed by a Pamphlet wrote in So. Carolina, said by Mr. Burke,' which I would enclose if the Expense of postage would not be too great. The most (?) of the People, in N. England more especially, have manifested great uneasiness at the half pay for Life to the Officers of the Army, since commuted for five years pay; but the uneasiness seemed to be subsiding till Irritated to fresh resentment by this Institution. County Conventions and Town Meetings are now frequently expressing their Resentments and determinations to pay no Taxes

1 Edanus Burke's Considerations on the Society, or Order of Cincinnati, published in Charleston over the signature of "Cassius" and reprinted in Philadelphia, New York, Hartford and Newport. No edition appears to have been printed in Boston. The authorship was soon discovered.

for the Commutations. The Officers, I think, deserve some such Consideration; but then they should be content in other respects to be on a footing with their fellow Citizens, without claiming any distinctions that are Invidious now and may be dangerous hereafter. Miss Nabby is here on a Visit, and I dare say you will hear from her mamah by this opportunity. Coll. Quincy died last Week. Adieu. I am as above.

MERCY WARREN TO JOHN ADAMS ADAMS MSS.

MILTON, June 1, 1784

1

SIR,This will be handed you by a person who will insure the welcome did it come from one who has much less claim to your Friendship than the writer. at the same time her communications will render any other needless from your American Friends. this therefore is only a Line in Testimony of my Respects and Regards, though if I was to indulge my pen it would be very expressive of my wishes for your Early Return to your Native Country, where perhaps your abilities are as much wanted and your Exertions might be as serviceable as in any Department you may fill in Europe. Yet I cannot say you would be more happy here, but I think your Conduct has evinced to the World that this is but a secondary Consideration with you.

You will be too Happy when you receive this to make it of any Consequence whether another Line is added. May the Felicity of my Friend be equal to their wishes, nor mared by a Common Course of Human events, more than is necessary in a state of Moral Discipline. some little interruptions we must feel to ease our presumption, and some greater we have always to fear to Remind us of our Dependence. Dependence is a word not very pleasing to an American ear. But, though we have broken the yoke of Britain and defy the potentates of the Earth, we must not, we cannot expunge it from our Vocabulary. our happiness Depends on too many Contingencies to suffer us to forget our weakness and our intire Dependence on the Great Font of Felicity for the smallest

I Mrs. Adams.

stream of enjoyment. What Language is this to a Man of the World, to a Minister of State, immersed in the Deep Systems of Political Refinement among the Nations, improved by Arts, Erudition and Experience, caressed in the Courts of Princes amidst the splendor of Greatness, the Glass of Pomp and all the Pageantry of Ambition, unshackled by a want of power for the Zenith of indulgence. But when I address the Embassadeur I do not forget that I write to the Philosopher, to one who can contrast the Rational simplicity and the quiet Delight of his own little Villa at the foot of Pens Hill with the Briliancy of the Birth night or the parade of office, and find the latter sink in the comparison when tryed by the Feelings of the Man, not by the Rivalry of Pride. Sure I am that were you to behold the Variegated Beauties which the summit of Milton this Day exhibits to the Eye of Reason and Gratitude, you would heave one sigh for the tranquil hour of Contemplation in some Delightful Recess

Where the free soul looks down and pities Kings.

Mr. Warren intends writing. if anything prevents yet be assured he is the same Friend to his Country, to Virtue, to all Honest Men, consequently invariably yours, that he was when you Laboured together, planted, hastened and matured the seed of a most Glorious Revolution. few, very few, of the first capital hands Remain with us. Death, Desertion, indifference or Foreign Employments, have left him almost alone. But the Recollection and Feeling of Conscious Rectitude is the best Companion of declining years.

Though I expect much communication from my Friend, Mrs. Adams, yet from your Punctuality and long experienced Friendship I hope my Pleasure will be enhanced by a Line from yourself to yours Respectfully and affectionately

M. WARREN

JOHN ADAMS TO JAMES WARREN

THE HAGUE, June 30, 1784

DEAR SIR, Your amiable Son, has done me the favour of his Company, here, for a Day or two, and this Morning goes to Amsterdam, intending to return to England at the End of the Week. From London He embarks soon for Lisbon. My Son1 returned with him from London where I sent him to meet his Mother and Sister. But he was dissapointed as well as I. I still expect Mrs. Adams every day: but her last Letters, (those by your Son) leave me still room to doubt-in short, every Thing public and private, in which I have been concerned has been so much in doubt, and suspence, ever since the Peace, that if I have not learned to reconcile myself to any Thing, it is because I am not a Philosopher. I now repent having written for my Family, and that I had not gone home. Yet I ought not to repent because, it was Bono publico, that induced me to resolve to stay in Europe, to try, if I could execute a Commission which Congress promised to me, F[ranklin] and J[ay], and have not performed, “une Perfidie très permise dans un Grand Roi," as Voltaire says of the King of Prussia.

Jay is minister of foreign Affairs. This is a great Point gained in favour of our Country. Wisdom and Virtue have tryumphed, for once. And I hope and believe, he will give an entire new Cast, to the Complexion of our foreign Affairs, and you may depend upon it, that for some time to come as for a long time past, the Character and the System of our Country has been entirely decided by our foreign affairs.

If I had not been very sensible of this, you would never have heard of me a second time across the Atlantic. if I had not been very sensible of this, you would have seen me at Milton again or heard of me in a British Dungeon four years ago. My kind Respects to Mrs. Warren and all your Family. Your Friend,

1 John Quincy Adams.

JOHN ADAMS

ARTHUR LEE TO JAMES WARREN

NEW-YORK, Augt 8th, 1784

DEAR SIR, I have long hoped for the pleasure of hearing from you, if it were only to inform me that your family and our friends are well. The political Sea appears to be perfectly calm with you, and indeed so it is every where. Repose, after such scenes of turbulence and agitation as were experienced for some years, seems to be the general wish. Had not the Cincinnati agitated us a little, we shoud have been sound asleep.

Give me leave to introduce to you and to Mrs. Warren, Mr. Blake, Mr. Middleton,1 Mr. Kean 2 and Mr. Heyward,3 gentlemen of consideration from South Carolina, who travel to see their sister States in the East. I wish there was more intercourse of this kind, to remove prejudices and cultivate harmony among us. Mr. H. Laurens arrivd here two days ago. He is in good health and spirits after all his sufferings. He brings some pamphlets in which the anti-american reveries of Dean and Galloway, publishd by Ld. Sheffeild are fully reported. The King of England and Mr. Pitt, he thinks, are well disposd towards a commercial treaty with America. I am persuaded, that, with the downfal of the Coalition, these incendiaries will be extinguished.

We hear that Mrs. Hayley and Mrs. Graham," are with you. I beg the favor of you to present them my respects. No choice of Consuls has been yet made, nor can be till Congress meet again.

I am now, on my way to hold treaties with the Indian Nations, if troops can be raisd in time, to garrison the western posts, of which I despair very much. What is done with the Continental State paper issued by your State? Is its redemption provided for, and what credit is it in? I have heard nothing of the Land that was to be located for me, and begin to dispair of its ever taking effect. If any thing is, or is likely to be done, I shall be glad to be I Arthur Middleton (1742-1787).

2 John Kean (c. 1756-1795).

3 Thomas Heyward, Jr. (1746-1809).

4 John Baker Holroyd, Earl of Sheffield (1735-1821), whose Observations on the Commerce of the American States reached a sixth edition in a year.

5 Mary, widow of George Hayley, a merchant of London with American connections. 6 Catherine Macaulay Graham (1731-1791).