the Characters of the Lees are established. if I had a good Memory I should quote a Text from the Book of Proverbs applicable to this matter.

JAMES LOVELL TO JAMES Warren

June 15th, 1779

GENERAL WARREN, -As Mr. Adams is on his Journey to Boston it is not essential that I should now write minutely, relative to the Points which have been agitated here lately; all proper Communications will be made to you by him in a Way to which an Epistle is only a secondary Satisfaction. He will also give you the whole of what has reached us yet from Sth. Carolina, touching the good Fortune of Genl. Lincoln. But these Considerations would not acquit me to myself if I neglected thus early to acknowledge my Obligations to you for the obliging Expression of your "Desire to be considered as my Friend," contained in your Letter of May 30th which reached me the Night before last. Be assured, dear Sir, that you have hereby liquidated a full Page in my Book of Sufferings. There was a Season when I counted upon Thousands and Tens of Thousands; but, for several Months back I have been fully persuaded that all my Hazards Toils and Watchings were to be recompensed by the Approbation of a virtuous Few. I wish the "unusual Anxiety and Weights upon your Spirits" may be thrown off so far as it was occasioned by the Ultimata which are one time or other to be debated here: I cannot but think a decent Coalition would take Place among such as it is supposed will differ, from local Interests or varied Degrees of Resolution. I believe our Ally intends well for us. But such Belief does not warrant the laying aside political Watchfulness: Nor should the Exertion of this occasion any Disgust in those who feel themselves to be thoroughly well intentioned. If, after Conversation with Mr. S. A[dams] you wish Informations may be sent from this Place respecting the Result of Points not quite decided when he left us relative to Cod and Hadock, I will endeavor to give you all the Satisfaction my Circumstances will allow. You will always consider the Distinc

tion between catching and drying, being Rights with widely differing Foundations.1

As to our Money, it cannot be mended but by stopping the Press. Taxes, if the States should even comply punctually with our Recommendations, which their past Conduct does not warrant us to look for, will not answer by themselves. We are about to borrow 20 Millions of the People on probable temptations. But can we offer Interest in exact Proportion to Exchange to such Persons as now may be disposed to lend, and not pay the same to those who have formerly lent. I think not. We did equal Justice when we offered Bills on France. We must do the same at this Time. Give 6 per Cent conditional, to rise in proportion to the Quantity in Circulation at the Date of the Certificate and the Due of Interest; 3 as, unavoidably, Something of an Emission must go on, till we are otherwise supplied. For my Part, I think such a Measure would alone be sufficient to obtain much Money.

3

Some Thoughts are suggested of holding the Principal till the Currency shall be 1/8 appreciated; but this is holding up no Temptation, for, if the Press is stopped, the Appreciation would inevitably be 1/8 in a very short Term indeed.

If the "Sacrifice of Consistency" which you justly notice was made in a Case where there were Abilities of a Size to produce any great Events, I should be more chagrined than I am at observing the public Want of a republican Delicacy in the Case stated.

I am sorry that the Opportunities for Holland were not the Carriers of my Letters as I have been unlucky here. Our worthy Friend John Adams must think I neglect him in his very odd Situation. We are ripening towards Measures which must induce an immediate and definite consequential Disposition of him, and I have no doubt of an honorable one. As to the Assents and Dissents in our tragicomical Journals, the Grounds of them are hard. to be fathomed; and the Case you mention is a very delicate one; I dare venture, however, to say that it is not to be accounted for by Want of Honesty, but rather by the Quantity of that Species

which puts us off of Guard against the Arts of designing Men. By hearsay or conjecture you are become so much Master of my Situation, that I shall have no great Fears of your Reproof, if, feeling half as unwell from Watching as I do at present, I shall, now and then, omit a direct Return to your kind Correspondence. I slight my Feelings, at this Time, to prove my ready acceptance of the Intercourse to which you so pleasingly have provoked Your most humble Servant,

JAMES LOVELL

JAMES LOVELL TO JAMES WArren

July 13th, 1779

Confidential. DEAR SIR, -Three days ago I wrote to Mr. Adams inclosing Papers that show the Spirit of the Parties in a certain little-great Assembly. I must ingeniously acknowledge to you that if I had been properly convinced that Gr: Britain was seriously disposed for Peace, I should have rested on an Instruction to our Plenipotentiary "in no case to give up a common right of Fishery." But I have seen Reason to wish for a Stipulation that Britain shall not disturb us in the Exercise of that Right. If France can harbour no too-interested Views in regard to that grand Branch of Commerce, Britain surely would make every advantage of our Inattention to it at the Hour of Peacemaking. And it has seemed to me as if some Persons here were much more bent upon coaxing than upon forcing a Peace from our Enemy; We are told that Passengers and Letters are put on shore in Nth. Carolina from a Vessel arrived in Cheseapeak which left Rochelle the 10th of May. We have not had a Line from our Appointments in France for a long Season. Mr. Gerard recd. Letters via Boston, as mentioned in yr. Gazettes but they were not of very modern date.

We had a Communication from him in a private Audience 1 Yesterday but under the Injunctions of the House for Secrecy, so that A and B will be stigmatized if they communicate the Substance in a private confidential Letter, should they be dis1 Journals of the Continental Congress, XIV. 821.

covered, while C and D, under the Signature of Americanus or O Tempora O Mores, may publish the whole to the World in a News Paper.

I find that Gentlemen in your Neighborhood are rather backward to accept a Delegation to Congress. The Reasons lay fair to Conjecture. Some cannot in Conscience and Honor hold several Appointments incompatible with each other; and Some cannot bring themselves to consent to sacrifice Time, Health and Estate for a Station of abundant Anxiety and an equal Portion of Obloquy. I presume that all new elected Members ought to come forward before an old one though he has had a whole years Respite. One of your State would have had a terrible time here for several months back if he had been an acting Delegate. He must have gone against the Interests of his Constituents or the Designs of his favorite old Associates.

Mrs. Lovell writes that you had a Confirmation of the Sth. Carolina good news by a Vessel in at the Hyannas. I am sorry for that preparatory Contrast to what I now must tell you. The Print of last Tuesday is Full on the Head of Disappointment; and Genl. Lincoln writes me June 5th: "Matters are not going on right here and if this Department is not immediately attended to by Congress and an army sent more respectable than the one already here, this State must be lost. You will see by my Letter to Congress that by the 10th of Augst. there will be but few troops on the Ground unless reinforcements arrive, which I have little reason to expect." I will not venture to write to you concerning the State of our grand army. I will leave that for Major Rice1 to tell with the Minute Anecdotes of the Southern Department. With Esteem and Affection your humb Servt.

I Nathan Rice, aid to General Lincoln.

J. L.

JAMES WARREN TO JOHN ADAMS

ADAMS MSS.

PLYMOUTH, N. E., July 29th, 1779 MY DEAR SIR, I am told that in the few Letters which have been received from you here you complain greatly that your Friends dont write to you oftener, and that you seldom hear from America. I easily conceive such a Situation painful, and have contributed my mite to prevent it by writing by every good opportunity and long Letters too, for I know that People in high Stations have their Curiosity as well as others, and if they assume Brevity themselves in their Letters, they love to have matters in detail from others. upon this Principle I filled a large sheet which went six weeks ago per Capt. Thompson in a little flying Schooner, which I dare say will run clear and deliver you the Letter in safety, and make it unnecessary to be lengthy in this. Our Spirits have been alternately raised and depressed by the accounts we have had at different times from South Carolina, sometimes the British Army has been wholly routed, and destroyed, and at others were advancing with a prospect of carrying Charlestown, in short the accounts both here and at Philadelphia have been interrupted, confused and uncertain. I dont learn that Congress ever get any regular Official Accounts. I had a Letter from Mr. Lovel of the 18th Instant, in which he gives such accounts as they had received from Transient Persons, from which compared with each other he dared only to infer that we might expect good Tidings from thence. I now hear a Vessel arrived at New London in a short passage, says the Britons had reached their Shipping and Embarked. I dont understand how it is that these fellows can prowl about a Country for six months, with an Army of Continentals and Militia all round them, and then get off without much loss.

Gen'l Sullivan is gone into the Woods with about 5000 Men. (an Expedition I have no great Opinion of) while the Enemy have been ravaging the Coasts of Connecticut and burning their Towns, etc., etc., according to the true Spirit of Magnanimity and Humanity of the Plan expressed by their Commissioners. if there be no Check to their proceedings, it seems to me this is their Plan of

.