JAMES WARREN TO SAMUEL ADAMS1 PLYMO., Jan. the 1, 1775 DEAR SIR, — This is designed principally to Inform you that the last Storm cast away about nine or ten miles from hence a Sloop from Virginia, haveing on Board among other things a considerable donation for your suffering Town. as soon as that Circumstance was known here, a number of the Inhabitants of this Town, about twenty, took a Sloop and went down with a determination to assist the Master, and more especially to secure and bring up as much of the donation as could be saved, but returned as they went, without Effecting anything, the Master absolutely refuseing to let them take any Articles, telling them it was his design to have the whole Cargo sold on the Beach. his Conduct is very strange, but as we dont know the Man, we are unable to Conjecture whether it proceeds from Weakness or Wickedness, or from Evil Concellors. it is said he has put himself under the direction of one or two Marshfield Tories. the donation Consists (as I hear) of Corn, flour, wheat Bread, pork, and some Butter.2 I hear nothing from you of late more than I should if you was Apprehended, Transported, Tryed, and Executed on the Statutes of Harry the 8th or George the Third. I sincerely wish this may prove a happy year to you, tho' I am Inclined to think it will be a Troublesome one to both of us. I should be glad of a [illegible] of your Conjectures on that subject. Your Company will be much desired on our Anniversary and not a little Expected. I am much engaged in military matters to prepare for the opening of the Campaign in the Spring. The Tories that return from Boston report that foreign Troops are to be sent over, that our new Treasurer refuses to receive any money, etc., etc., and of late seem to prick up their Ears. Ruggles' Impudence is an Example for them and the publication of Massachusettensis are read with more devotion and Esteem than Holy writt. we have no News. have Established a Post that leaves Boston on Thursday Noon. desire a Line from you. I am, with Compliments to your good Lady, your sincere Friend and Humble Servt. 3 JAS. WARREN Brackets or Mortons I know not which the Post may be seen at. I think the late Movements of the Troops in their Excursions into the Country a piece of Generalship. this practised without Exciting the Apprehensions of the People will enable him to surprise them one day with 1 From the Samuel Adams Papers in the New York Public Library. 2 See 4 Collections, Iv. 161. 3 Henry Gardner. an Important Blow, struck when they had no Expectation. when I was at Cambridge I should have tho't such a movement would have made more noise. JAMES WARREN TO HARRISON GRAY1 PLYMO., Jany. 20th, 1775 SIR, I Received yours of the 27th of December and have observed the Contents with that Care and Attention which their Extraordinary Nature seems to demand. I do not use myself to analyse with a Critical Exactness Letters I Receive, unless necessary to discover the Temper and disposition of Mind, The Governing Principles, or the Ends proposed by the Writer. Whether Resentment, Disappointment in the part you have Unhappily taken in Government, or the feeble Policy of the Party, mark most strongly your Letter, I shall not undertake to determine, but I have no difficulty in assuring you that if you expect by any or all of these to Intimidate or drive me from the Paths I have walked in to those devious Tracks which neither Honour or Conscience lead to or Countenance, you have mistaken your Man. I have long since fortified myself against either Allurements, or Threats. I am now perfectly satisfyed with the part I have taken in Government both from its rectitude and the prospect of Success attending it. Whether you are so or not with that you have taken, or what kind of Ideas you have formed of Treason, is not my Business at present to Enquire. But if I may presume to advise on this Occasion it should be, that Policy might so far prevail over resentment as to make you very spareing of your Charges of Treason, or even Ingratitude, against any man, and much more so against Bodies of Men, respectable for their Numbers, Fortunes, Abilities and publick Virtues. The production or winding up of a piece of small Witt, however satisfied you might be with the little Fondling, can by no means Ballance the Hazard of a Recrimination. The Connection in our Family makes it very painful to me to Address you in this manner. had you Confined yourself to the proper subject of your Letter, without Unnecessarily and even wantonly Insulting both me and my Friends, I should have Addressed. you in a very different Stile. I am very sensible that I owe you money, and that every Man has a right to Call for his Debts; but then I think every man should give a little warning, and not (by a sudden Transition from a full satisfaction of the security already had and without any I From the New York Public Library. 2 Mrs. Warren's brother, Samuel Allyne Otis, married for his first wife Elizabeth, only daughter of Harrison Gray. reason to doubt the Goodness of it more now than at any former time) make (as you say) an unexpected demand either of the money Immediately, or a Mortgage. Security of any kind I never was asked for before. My Credit has always been good. My Circumstances are at least as good now as ever. had you suggested to me last Summer any uneasiness, I would have found a way before this to have discharged the Debt. I will Endeavour to do it when my Vessels return in the Spring. I cannot pay this Sum of Money at present. I am not willing to give a Mortgage, nor will I ever Injure you or your Children. What you mean by your Insinuation of my Conduct being such as Exposes me to ruin I know not. Surely you can charge me neither with Drunkeness, Idleness, or Extravagance, the Common Sources of ruin. if you have in Contemplation the Idea of Gibbets and Confiscations, let me tell you it is the most Utopian and Contemptible one that ever Entered the Head of a Man. Few Hearts have been wicked enough to wish for them and much fewer Heads weak enough to Expect them. I will not at present suppose yours among them. I will therefore presume that I have traced this Conduct of yours to its true Sources. I am, Sir, Your Obedt. Humble Servt. JAS: WARREN HANNAH WINTHROP TO MERCY WARREN [ANDOVER, April or May, 1775] Can the Friend of my heart, who is engraven there as with the point of a diamond, question whether it is in the power of the greatest Commotion, danger or Abscense, to erase the tender Idea, or in the least impair the sincerest friendship? No, you have been the object of my waking thoughts and my nightly dreams; but since we were dispossest of our earthly enjoyments all nature has seemed reversed, and with it the weakened mind of your friend, rendered incapable of attending to those pleasures which made life agreeable. Nor can she yet forget, nor will old Time ever cease the horrors of that midnight cry, preceeding the Bloody Massacre at Lexington, when we were rousd from the benign Slumbers of the Season, by beat of drum and ringing of Bell, with the fire alarm, That a thousand of the Troops of George the third were gone forth to murder the peacefull inhabitants of the surrounding Villages. A few hours with the dawning day convinced us the Bloody purpose was executing. The platoon firing assuring us the rising Sun must witness the Bloody Carnage. Not knowing what the Event would be at Cambridge at the return of these Bloody ruffians, and seeing another Brigade dispatched to the Assistance of the former, Looking with the ferocity of Barbarians, it seemed necessary to retire to some place of Safety till the Calamity was passed. My partner had been a fortnight confind by illness. After dinner we set out not knowing whither we went. we were directed to a place called fresh pond about a mile from this town,1 but what a distressd house did we find there filld with women whose husbands were gone forth to meet the Assailiants, 70 or 80 of these with numbers of Infant Children, crying and agonizing for the Fate of their husbands. In addition to this scene of distress we were for some time in sight of the Battle, the glistening instruments of death proclaiming by an incessant fire that much blood must be shed, that many widowd and orphand ones be left as monuments of that persecuting Barbarity of British Tyranny. Another uncomfortable night we passd, some nodding in their Chairs, others resting their weary limbs on the floor. The welcome harbingers of day give notice of its dawning light, but brings us news it is unsafe to return to Cambridge as the enemy were advancing up the river and firing on the town. to stay in this place was impracticable. methinks in that hour I felt the force of my Mother Eve's Soliloquy on being driven out of Paradise, comparing small things with great O unexpected stroke, worse than of death! into a lower world; to this obscure and wild? how shall we breath in other air Less pure, accustomed to immortal fruits? and could only be consold by the mild reply of Michael her Guardian Angel. Lament not Eve, but patiently resign What justly thou has lost: nor set thy heart thy husband, him to follow thou art bound, His benign words to Adam must also afford Consolation to the lonely • His omnipresence fills Land, sea and air,... surmise not then His presence to these narrow bounds confind.3 I Cambridge. 2 Paradise Lost, XI. 268 ff. 3 Ib., 336 ff. Thus with precipitancy were we driven to the town of Andover, following some of our Acquaintance, five of us to be conveyd with one poor tired horse and chaise. Thus we began our pilgrimage alternately walking and riding, the roads filld with frighted women and children, some in carts with their tattered furniture, others on foot fleeing into the woods. But what added greatly to the horror of the scene was our passing thro the Bloody field at Menotomy which was strewd with the mangled Bodies, we met one affectionate Father with a cart looking for his murderd son and picking up his Neighbours who had fallen in Battle, in order for their Burial. I should not have chose this town for an Asylum, being but twenty miles from seaports where men of war and their Pirates are stationed, but in being fixd here I see it is not in man to direct his steps, As you kindly enquire after our Situation, I must tell you it is Rural and romanticaly pleasing. Seated in a truly retired spot, no house in sight, within a mile of Neighbours thinly settled, the House decent and neat stands under the shade of two venerable elms, on a gently rising, one flight of steps with a View of a spacious meadow before it, a small Rivulet meandring thro it, the grassy Carpet interspersd with a Variety of flowers, shrubs, several little mounts rising in the conic form, intersected with fertile spots of waving grain. The Horizon bounded with a thick wood as if nature intended a Barricade against the Canonade of some formidable despot. But here all is perfect Silence, nothing is heard but the melody of the groves and the unintelligible Language of the Animal Creation. From the profound stillness and serenity of this woody region I can almost persuade myself we are the only human inhabitants of Creation and instead of Lossing my fondness for Society I shall have a higher relish for the pleasures of friendly converse and social endearments, tho the Family we live with are very obliging. But alas the gloomy appearance of mortal things sets the Vanity of human life in the clearest demonstration before me, nor can I forbear to drop a tear over that Seminary which has been the glory of this Land, and lamenting those walls early dedicated to the Study of Science and calm Philosophy Instead of the delightfull harmony of nature nothing but the din of arms and the clarion of War, the Youth dispersd, the hands of their preceptors sealed up, those fountains of Knowledge the Library and Apparatus entirely useless and perhaps may fall into those hands whose highest joy would be to plunge us into darkness and Ignorance that we might become fitter objects for Slavery and Despotic rule. my partner wishes some attention might be paid to these important Treasures. Oh, shall we ever be restord to that peacefull abode, that happy roof, where retird from all the glitter and noise of the gay and busy world, my Consort would joy to finish his mortal life in in |