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Did you ever propose an Allowance of Hay and Oates for our Horses since we have been in this Service. our Board and Horsekeeping has from the begining cost us more than our pay, and since last December we have been at least a dollar a day out of pocket. the Service is hard enough. the least that could be done is to afford us support here, if we are not Enabled to take any kind of Care of our Familys. we are Obliged to give Carpenters, Riggers and some other Tradesmen five dollars a day, while we have but about four. Ceteris paribus they have the Advantage of us. they are at Home with their Familys, we are Abroad and Absent from ours. your Resolve about the Frenchman's Pendant is thought very Extraordinary. it is a great Triumph to the Skippers, and is Improved with some marks of Insult, and is mortifying to your own Officers. if it is a fact that our Ships are allowed to wear their pendants in the Ports of France in presence of Men of War, all the officers lately there give us wrong Information, and certain it is one of your Vessels of War lately at Martinico [was] not permitted to wear her pendant, to the Mortification of Capt. Chew, who was a Man of great Spirit. I hope proper respect will be paid to the Judgment of Courts Martial, and their Sentences never altered but where Errors, fraud, Injustice or partiality plainly appear.

A French Cutter now here fires a morning and Evening Gun.

SAMUEL ADAMS TO JAMES WARREN

PHILADA., July 14, 1778

MY DEAR SIR, I am to acknowledge the Receipt of your favors of the 26th and 28th of June. I have long been apprehensive, you know, that false Ideas of Politeness would injure the Minds of our Countrymen and prove destructive to Morals and Liberty. But I own, I did not expect that the most ridiculous Folley would have taken so early and large a Stride as it appears to have done in the Instance you mention. It cannot in my opinion be supported by any Principles of Truth and Propriety and discovers a Degree of Servility shocking to sober Humanity.

And yet a Conduct so void of common Sense will find Advocates among many who never had and never can have a Spark of that Republican Feeling which you have always possessd. These People are formd to be Asses and Slaves; Let them remain so. But surely they ought not to be advanced to places of Influence, to spread by their Examples, the Principles of Servility and Slavery among the People. I will take an Opportunity when I am at Leisure to answer your Letter of the 26, which I have communicated to my Friend Colo. Lee. Yesterday I made a short Visit to Monsr. Gerard. If I can form any Judgm[en]t of him, his Manners would suit our Country. But I expect to be better acquainted with him soon. Mr. H[ancock] has asked and obtaind Leive of Absence and is going home! Adieu.

S. A

SAMUEL ADAMS TO JAMES WARREN

PHILADA., July 15, 1778

MY DEAR SIR, - Mr. H[ancock] informs me that he will certainly set off for Boston immediately after Dinner, and being now in Congress I have Time only to write you a short Letter.

The Sieur Gerrard, will soon have an Audience in Congress in the stile of "Minister Plenopotentiary of his most Christian Majesty the King of France." Would you think that one so little of the Man of the World as I am should be joynd in a Committee to settle Ceremonials? It is however of some Importance that we agree upon Forms that are adapted to the true republican Principles; for this Instance may be recurrd to as a Precedent in Futurity.1

The Articles of Confederation were signd last Week by seven [eight] States. North Carolina has sent a full Ratification of it, so the Members of that State will sign when they arrive which is expected in a few Days. Congress has written a Letter to the

I The Committee was composed of Richard Henry Lee, Samuel Adams and Gouverneur Morris. They reported on July 17 but the report was debated and the final form adopted on July 20. Journals of the Continental Congress, x1. 688, 698, 707.

States of Georgia, Maryland, Delaware and Jersey pressing them to authorize their Delegates to joyn in this most necessary Transaction. I believe there will [be] no Difficulty except with Maryland, and she will finally accede. The Articles have undergone no Alterations.

The french Minister arrivd in this City on Lords Day, and the day following, last Monday the Delegates of Massachusetts Bay paid him their Complements in Form. I know not that those of any other State have observd this Ceremony. It appeard to us highly proper. We were receivd with Politeness, and heard some handsome Things said of the State we have the Honor to repre

sent.

The Minister plenipotentiary deliverd to Congress a Letter from his Sovereign expressd in the strongest Terms of Affection and Friendship.

I can at present add no more than to inform you, that your Nephew,' the Son of my old Friend James Otis Esq, came into this City a few Days ago with the Intention of purchasing some Necessaries, but being destitute of Cash his Friends were under a Necessity of Supplying him with the Sum of twenty pounds Lawful Money for the Repayment of which I have taken his written Request to his Grandfather, agreably to his own Proposal. I have indorsed the order and inclosd it in this Letter. I know not whether this will altogether meet with Approbation; I was the rather inclind to interest myself for this young Gentleman, because I have been satisfactorily informd that he has behavd well in his military Character. I gave my best Advice respecting his Morals. When you receive the Money you will please to repay to Mr. Hancock fourteen Dollars and thirteen and two thirds to Mr. Dana, (both which Gentlemen will be at Boston shortly) and the Remainder to Mrs. A., upon Notice of which I will account with two other Gentlemen concernd, Mr. Holten and Colo. Pickering. I remain your very affectionate

Mr. Dana desires his particular Respects to you.

S. A

I Probably James Otis, an ensign in Col. Henry Jackson's regiment.

JAMES WARREN TO SAMUEL ADAMS 1

BOSTON, July 17, 1778

MY DEAR SIR, -I suppose I may now Congratulate you on your return to your Antient and most Convenient Seat Philadelphia. I hope you will now possess it at least as long as you please. we are told the Enemy have suffered great loss in their passage from Philadelphia to York, tho' I could wish they had suffered a Compleat defeat. we have a report of Town that the French Fleet have arrived at the Delaware. I think it high Time to hear of their Arrival somewhere. I hope they will do great service. it is said they are under the directions of Congress. you can hardly Conceive the Uncertainty we have been in about the Military Operations. Gen'l Lee has one day been Exalted by Applauses to the Starrs, and the next Condemned for Capital Offences: at least to the Tryal of a Court Martial for them. We have not a word of News that I can give you, every thing remains here as it did. I shall therefore trouble you no further at this time than to recommend to your Notice and that of my other Friends Capt. Green 2 the Bearer of this, who came from France as Commander of the Queen of France, and has in all respects Behaved as a Gentleman, and a Friend to America. I Expect a Packet from you soon. I am sure if Numbers and length of Letters are a proper Charge against you the Ballance is against you. I have wrote to your Committee per this Conveyance. do attend to our Letters. I am forced to ask for so many things that I cant repeat them. My best regards to Mr. Gerry and Mr. Lovel. I dont write to the first because I Expect him every day. I am in haste. Your Friend etc.3

J. W.

I From the Samuel Adams Papers in the New York Public Library. 2 John Green.

3 Letters from Samuel Adams to James Warren, July 20 and 25, 1778, are in Writings of Samuel Adams, IV. 41, 45.

JOHN ADAMS TO JAMES WARren

ADAMS MSS.

PASSI, July 26, 1778

MY DEAR SIR, Yours of [7] June by Captain Barnes fortunately reached me yesterday. I was much surprised, you may well imagine, at its Contents. But I suppose the Cause of their not electing you to the Council must have been your engagements in the Navy Board.

I am unhappy to learn by the Newspapers that our Constitution is likely to occasion much Alteration in the State, but notwithstanding all our Dissentions, there is a Mass of Prudence and Integrity among our People that will finally conduct them into the right way.

I wish now that I had accepted of your polite offer of your Son. It is however for his Interest, because he may pursue Business there to much better Profit. If Mr. Austin should leave me, I should have occasion for a Clerk, which would afford a young Gentleman a decent subsistence and no more. The Frigates, the Merchandise, the Negotiations and the vast Correspondence we have, render a Clerk indispensably necessary for each of the Commissioners, and for some of them more than one.

Mr. Hancock, Mr. Adams and my respectable successor, Dr. Holten, are gone to Congress, but you don't mention Mr. Paine. Where is he? Earning Twenty thousand dollars a year at the Bar? If he is I wish him Joy and hope in time to arrive at some Part of the same Honour and Profit. Dane, I suppose, is earning Thirty thousands. Upon my word, I think these Gentry ought to throw their Profits into Hotchpotch with a poor Brother at Passi. Where is the Spirit and the Genius of America? To suffer the feeble Remnants of our Enemies in Philadelphia and Rhode Island to come out with such Insolence and burn Houses and Vessels without Retaliation is intolerable.

Will it ever do to think of Race while Great Britain has Canada, Nova Scotia and the Floridas, or any of them? Such a Race will be but short. We shall have perpetual Wars with Britain while she has a foot of Ground in America. But if the belligerent Powers shall be exhausted so as to think of Race, leaving Canada in the

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