with him I want him as a clerk but I want him more as a companion, for I can obtain ten Clerks where I can find one young Gentleman whose mind like his is furnished with useful knowledge and whose disposition is so well calculated to promote the happiness of all connected with him Nothing but a knowledge that our seperation will promote his interest could make the measure tolerable to me My best wishes will always attend him and nothing will make me more happy than having an opportunity really to serve him saving that information by which I should be convinced that his situation in life was so perfectly eligible as to make him independent of any aid from mortals about him. He will deliver you a copy of my private letter to General Washington there is nothing in it which should recommend it to any saving to the faithful historian whose chief enquiry is for a state of facts. It is a short narrative of an important transaction, the most so to me of any one in which I held a part. Some have thought that the seige should not have been undertaken with so small an allowance of provisions and that I ought not to have retained so large a proportion of officers. Respecting the first I have, I think, explained in the said letter. I detained a larger number of officers than I otherwise should have detained but for the assurance that a very large reinforcement of militia would be sent in to my aid. Had they arrived the experienced officers would have rendered the most important services I was buoyed up from a hope that I should receive the reinforcement untill it was too late to send out the officers. Had they been sent out when the seige first commenced it would have been of the worst consequences not only to the garrison but to the Citizens at large my apprehensions could not have been concealed. However an officer may feel his feelings should be to himself. If you shall wish for a farther state of facts pray point them to him who has the honor of being with esteem and friendship yours sincerely B. LINCOLN MERCY WARREN TO JOHN ADAMS ADAMS MSS. PLIMOUTH, Sept. 24, 1790 SIR, Though the vice-president of the United States and his lady may have forgotten Mrs. Warren, yet her former friend, Mr. Adams, will accept a small volume from the hand of their sincere and very Humble servant M. WARREN MERCY WARREN TO HENRY KNOX KNOX MSS. PLIMOUTH, Sept. 24, 1790 SIR, Though some of my late letters have been received by the minister at War with a silence which perhaps ought to forbid further interruption, yet as I will not suppose it a designed neglect, I ask my friend, General Knox, to accept a small volume lately offered the public by His most Obedient Humble servant, M. WARREN GEORGE WASHINGTON TO MERCY WARREN MOUNT VERNON, Novr. 4th, 1790 MADAM,- My engagements since the receipt of your letter of the 12th of Septr., with which I was honored two days ago, have prevented an attentive perusal of the Book1 that accompanied it; but, from the reputation of its Author, from the parts I have read, and from a general idea of the pieces, I am persuaded of its gracious and distinguished reception by the friends of virtue and science. I desire to assure you of the gratitude with which your Flattering expressions of regard impress me, and of the respectful consideration, with which I have the honor to be, Madam, Your Most Obedt. and Most Hble. Ser. Go. WASHINGTON 1 Poems, Dramatic and Miscellaneous. Boston, 1790. See letter of Washington, June 4, 1790, supra. JOHN ADAMS TO MERCY WArren PHILADELPHIA, Decr. 26, 1790 MADAM, Yesterday I had the Pleasure of receiving your favour of September the twenty fourth, with an elegant Copy of your Poems dramatic and miscellaneous; for both which I pray you to accept my best Thanks. It is but a few days since We received three other Copies addressed to me, but without a Letter or any other indication from whom or whence they came. As We were subscribers for the Publication, these might come from some Bookseller who in due time, will produce his Account which We shall be ready with pleasure to discharge. If they came from you, Madam, We are so much the more obliged and thankful to you: and shall hereafter receive from a Bookseller those for which We subscribed. All will not be too many, and We shall know very well how to dispose of them with Pleasure and Advantage. The Poems are not all of them new to me, by whom some of them have been read and esteemed some years ago. However foolishly some European Writers may have sported with American Reputation for Genius, Literature and Science: I know not where they will find a female Poet of their own to prefer to the ingenious Author of these Compositions. I am ignorant, Madam, of any foundation you may have for the Distinction you make between The Vice President and Mr. Adams, or for an insinuation that either may have forgotten Mrs. Warren since Mrs. Warren is certainly indebted to The Vice President and Mr. Adams in Partnership for the last Letter. Be pleased, Madam, to present my respectful Regards to General Warren and all Friends. With great Esteem I have the Honour to be, Madam your most obedient and most humble Servant, JOHN ADAMS ADAMS MSS. MERCY WARREN TO JOHN ADAMS SIR, An unsealed letter from you came to my hand this day. for the letter I thank you, as it contained expressions of regard and esteem which I have been used to receive from your pen. for the manner I own myself at a loss. Does not an unsealed letter from you, sir, appear like a diminution of that confidential intercourse that long subsisted and conveyed warm from the heart the strong expressions of friendship in many a close sealed packet. Was you, sir, apprehensive that your own reputation might suffer by an attention to any one of a family you "had been used to hear spoken off with respect and affection by all," unless the public first inspected the correspondence. Yet perhaps you might mean to do me honour by letting the world see your polite encomium on a late publication. Indeed I feel myself flattered by the Compliment and yet more by its being in the stile of my old friend. I acknowledge I stand indebted to the vice president for one letter before his of the 26 December. But you must permit me to say some expressions in that letter appeared so irreconcilable with former sentiment that I was impeled much against my inclination to consider it as forbiding any further interruption. Delicate friendship, conscious of its own disinterested attachment, is easily wounded. I might, perhaps, feel too sensibly some former impressions that may hereafter be explained. but I can never tax myself with a voluntary neglect of punctuallity or the want of attention in any other instance towards a friend I thought unimpressable by the Ebullitions of party or political malice.1 I In a brief note of February 14, Mr. Adams stated that the unsealed letter was unintentional and due to carelessness on the part of the secretary. He prepared a letter of the same date which was not sent. It opened with an explanation of the absence of sealing and continued: "Neither 'the ebullitions of party nor political malice' have made any impressions on me. The expressions you allude to were the result of very sober reflection upon facts proved to me by the testimony of many witnesses of unquestionable veracity, among whom were not a few of the best friends General Warren ever had in his life. A civil war, Madam, is in my opinion a very serious thing. This Country has once at least A copy of the work you informed me you had just received I forwarded immediately on publication. I know not what should thus long have retarded its passage. Nor can I inform you, sir, from whom you received three other volumes. But could I have supposed, as you obligingly intimate, that you could have disposed of so many with pleasure and advantage they should have been much at your service from the hand of the author. Mr. Warren returns both friendly and respectful regards. You will present me also to Mrs. Adams. I am, Respected sir, with sincere esteem your most Obedient and Humble servant M. WARREN ALEXANDER HAMILTON TO MERCY WARREN PHILADELPHIA, July 1, 1791 MADAM, In making you, thus late, my acknowledgements for the honor you did me, by presenting me with a volume of your poems, I dare not attempt an apology for the delay. I can only throw myself upon your clemency for a pardon. I have not however been equally delinquent towards the work itself, which I have read, more than once, with great interest. It is certain that in the Ladies of Castille,1 the sex will find a new occasion of triumph. Not being a poet myself, I am in the less danger of feeling mortification at the idea, that in the career of dramatic composition at least, female genius in the United States has outstripped the Male. With great consideration and esteem I have the honor to be, Madam, Your most obedt and humble Servant, A. HAMILTON been within a hair's breadth of a very bloody one, nor is it likely to be soon so secure against the probability of another as I wish it. There is more than one among those persons whom twenty years ago I counted among my friends who are not so explicit and decided as I presume to think they ought to be in favor of those principles and measures which appear to me indispensable to preserve the liberty, peace and safety of this people. As long as this indecision remains, it is impossible there should be the same confidence between them and me which there was once. The affection for them which I once had will never be forgotten, nor can it ever be destroyed; but confidence can never be the same without the same foundation for it." - ADAMS MSS. I A tragedy in five acts, written in 1783-1784, at the request of a "young gentleman in Europe" - her son, Winslow. |