measures were once Adopted and when I saw the fatal Influence of the Versatility of our Counsels and the Continual Change of our Measures both with regard to raising our quota of the Army and the Authority of our Government, I was for Adhering to our former measures as the least of two Errors, and for being steady for once and avoiding the great Confusions that would Ensue from haveing some Inlisted on one Encouragement and others on another. this might Occasion some Mortification to a Man who had assumed some Extraordinary airs from the Exercise of his new Commission and pleased himself with Expectations of Absolute Submission to the decrees of a Body he belonged to, and is the only Source I can conceive of, from whence should arise a Pet in the writer of the Letter which produced one in the receiver. I had once the honour of being president of the Board of War. I remained such with my head full of a Thousand projects and my hands full of Business, till the House took it into their heads that my Attendance there as Speaker was necessary for carrying on the public Business. they passed accordingly a Vote of dismission from the Board in Terms no way dishonorary to me. this was Concurred. I was sent for and have there remained ever since, without any Ideas of my own Importance quite satisfied to be there, or any where that shall be assigned me. I am, however, plyed hard enough with publick Business. had not Providence sent us a succession of Storms I should not have found leisure to write you this long Scroll even at Home. I promised myself here an Opportunity of Attending to a few small matters of my own and the Benefits of some relaxation. but the Board of War have Earnestly desired me to purchase some Vessels and Cargoes, and Charter others for them during this recess. this I am doing and have now six Vessels on hand with which I find full Employment. some of them are ordered to the Gentleman you recommend; several are already gone to that House, and I am glad to find their orders Coincideing with your wishes. No Matters of Intelligence can I give you from here. I have Collected and Conveyed in a Letter to my Friend Mr. Adams, wrote two days ago, all I could think of. I dare say he will Communicate it to you without Pet or pevishness. I think you have done well in regarding the Memory and takeing Care of the Families of those who have Nobly sacrificed their Lives for the publick good. money is much better spent this way than in another Instance hinted to you in my last, which, by the way, I never should have mentioned if it had not been worse than heaving it away and in a manner that is a dead weight on our public Operations. if he (you know who) was a real Statue, we should know what to Expect and act accordingly. Adeu my Friend. [No signature.] My Compliments to Mr. Gerry. shall write him soon. JAMES WARREN TO SAMUEL ADAMS 1 BOSTON, April 2d, 1777 MY DEAR SIR, I have often within a week past Attempted to write to you without being able to perform it. something or other has always taken place to Call me off and I Expect will now before I have wrote five lines more. however, it is not much to be regretted on your part, since I have little more to say to you than a bare Expression of my Friendship, which you was well assured of before. no kind of Intelligence has lately been received here but of a Capture made by an Indian party of a small Number of our men at Ticonderoga and a request to push forward our Men for the support of that Important Post, which we are Endeavouring to do. the Tickets for your Lottery have had an amazeing rapid sale here. Your Loan Office, I am told, is successful, but I dont know the perticulars, being as great a stranger, and perhaps for the same reasons, to the L[oan] Officers as you used to be to the friends of Government who sat in the House with you. we have now and then a prize come in, but it is a rarity. I wish again to let loose the privateers. we are takeing measures to Compleat the fortifications of this harbour and I believe if the plan be not too Extensive it will be tolerably Executed. about two-thirds of our fifteen Battalions are raised. we have in the House been Employed among many other things in passing Acts for takeing Care of the Estates of Absentees, etc., for preventing desertion, for Establishing an Oath of Abjuration and Allegiance to be taken by all that have been King's Officers (excepting Mandamus Councellors and a few others), and those suspected of being Inimical, who on refusal are to be sent to England or the West Indies. it is also to be taken by all Officers, Civil and Military, etc. we are also about many other Acts of a more private nature and Resolves in Abundance. I am again Interrupted and so must Conclude after desireing your Attention to the Affairs of my Friend, Mr. Temple. he has suffered Extremely and in a way a little out of the Common Course, not by the ravages of the Enemy, but by the wanton destruction of some of our own Army, which has laid waste his whole Farm and destroyed at once the well Contrived and Judicious work of many Years and left his Buildings in a Situation very little better. whether there be a propriety in takeing up this matter at this time I cant say. if there be I could wish it, as his Circumstances require it and his Industry in the Noble profession of Husbandry with many other good qualities have great Merit. I am with Compliments to all Friends and the best wishes for your Happiness your sincere Friend. [No signature.] I From the Samuel Adams Papers in the New York Public Library. JAMES WARREN TO SAMUEL ADAMS 1 BOSTON, June 16th, 1777 MY DEAR SIR, - It is now a long time since I have had a Line from you, so long that I cant recollect the Time when I received the last. if I was given to Jealousy I might perhaps suppose you Inclined to drop the Correspondence. I have wrote three or four to you since I received one from you. I saw Mrs. Adams a few days ago and Complained to her. she Excuses you and finds many reasons - Multiplicity of Business, etc. I believe it true and wonder you can write so much as you do. I want, however, to hear how your Confederation goes on and what the state of your foreign Intelligence. as to us the Regulateing Act (which by the way your dear Town had no small hand in at first) has bro't us into a sad. Hobble. we seem not to know how to go forward or backward. at the same time a favourer of it acknowledges the difficulty, if not Impossibility, of Executeing it. he cant think of repealing it. the principle Objection made is the Influence it will have on our Army, but, I believe, as true a reason is an Increasing Animosity between Town and Country. they are both to blame, which most I shant determine. the Conduct of the Town has certainly been very versatile and Impolitic. they could not have Injured their own Interest more than they did by their last Instructions.2 we all see the want of their old pilots. but I wont forsake them, or give you any further pain on that subject. I am inclined to think we shall in a little time get right again. the Repealing the Act, the Source of Ill will and every evil work, Encourageing a free Trade and the Arrival of a Number of prizes will regulate better than any Act we can make. last Saturday we had four Brigantines comeing up at once, two of them from Bilboa and two of them prizes, all with valuable Cargoes. and yesterday we had an Account of the Arrival of a prize at the Eastward with salt, Linnens and twenty Tons of Cordage, and also of the Arrival of a Brigantine (sent out by the Board of War) from France with 108 Chests Arms, 100 bbl. powder, a quantity of Lead, flints, steel, files, etc., etc. this is an Important Arrival for us. I am obliged to write in a great hurry this morning, or should perhaps have been a little more Correct, and much longer, as I have much to say and many Enquiries to make. I wish you every Happiness and am, as usual, your sincere Friend. [No signature.] 1 From the Samuel Adams Papers in the New York Public Library. JAMES WARREN TO SAMUEL ADAMS 1 BOSTON, Augt. 7th, 1777 MY DEAR SIR, I had the pleasure of yours of the 22d July last Night by the Post. I have before received several of your favours which I have not yet acknowledged, perticularly by Coll. Whipple, but had the misfortune not to see him being absent from this Town when he went through it. so have lost the Advantages I might have derived from a Conversation with him. the Letters you mention per. Capt. Collins I have not received. you will please to let me know who he is and when he came this way. the return you furnished me with of the Northward Army is nearly Conformable in Numbers to the Ideas I had of them. I have been from the beginning persuaded that there were at that post not less than 5000 Men, and it is to me a Mystery why there were not more there. I think I can reckon up 3500 men in the seven Battalions from this State who must have been there, or there must have been great Negligence in the officers, and it is said that the Hampshire Battalions Contained more than 2000 - A Number sufficient I should suppose to have defended a place an Army has been so long fortifying and reputed so strong against 20,000 Men. Nothing can Justify the Evacuation but a deficiency and weakness in all respects equal to the Representation Genl. St. Clair makes. This Movement has raised a general Clamour in the Country and has every where Excited Indignation and distrust, and in many fearful Apprehensions that do our Cause no good. we Continue to have Alarming Accounts of the progress of the Enemy in that quarter and have pressing requisitions from Genl. Schuyler for reinforcements of the Militia. one-sixth of the County of Worcester and numbers from Berkshire, etc., are gone. we have voted 2000 more and made an Establishment for them to remain to the last of November, but the Militia has been so harrassed by frequent drafts and there is such a want of Confidence in your Commanders that way, that I fear we shall get them with difficulty. we have been in Expectation of a Visit this way and this Town was one day in great Confusion; but they have not yet Arrived. we are last Night Informed that they are landed below you. they seem to have a great Affection for visiting the Congress. I hope they will be properly received there. I am obliged to write in Extreem haste this morning, being now Called to go down the harbour as one of a Committee to view the fortifications. the Company and Boat wait while I scribble this to you. I must therefore omit many things I have to say about the Form of I From the Samuel Adams Papers in the New York Public Library. our Government here, or your Confederation at Congress, etc., and Conclude with Assurances of regard and Friendship and am yours, etc. J. W. My regards to our Friends. Manly, you will hear, is taken. you have lost a fine frigate. HANNAH WINTHROP TO MERCY WARREN It is not a great while since I wrote my dear Friend on my disappointment in not paying her a Visit. Now methinks I hear her wondring how it is with her Cambridge Friends, who are at this time delugd with British and Hessian, what shall I call them? who are Prancing and Patrolling every Corner of the Town, ornamented with their glittering side arms, Weapons of distruction. A short detail of our Situation may perhaps amuse you. You will be able to form a judgment of our unhappy Circumstances. Last thursday, which was a very stormy day, a large number of British Troops came softly thro the Town via Watertown to Prospect hill. on Friday we heard the Hessians were to make a Procession in the same rout, we thot we should have nothing to do with them, but View them as they Passt. To be sure the sight was truly astonishing. I never had the least Idea that the Creation producd such a sordid set of creatures in human Figure-poor, dirty, emaciated men, great numbers of women, who seemd to be the beasts of burthen, having a bushel basket on their back, by which they were bent double, the contents seemd to be Pots and Kettles, various sorts of Furniture, children peeping thro' gridirons and other utensils, some very young Infants who were born on the road, the women bare feet, cloathd in dirty raggs, such effluvia filld the air while they were passing, had they not been smoaking all the time, I should have been apprehensive of being contaminated by them. After a noble looking advancd Guard Gen. Jy B[urgoy]n headed this terrible group on horseback. The other G[enera]l also, cloathd in Blue Cloaks. Hessians, Anspachers, Brunswickers, etc., etc., etc., followed on. The Hessian G[enera]l gave us a Polite Bow as they Passd. Not so the British. their Baggage Waggons drawn by poor half starvd horses. But to bring up the rear, another fine Noble looking Guard of American Brawny Victorious Yeomanry, who assisted in bringing these sons of slavery to terms, some of our Waggons drawn by fat oxen, driven by joyous looking Yankees closd the cavalcade. The Generals and other Officers went to Bradishs, where they Quarter at present. The Privates trudgd thro |